This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
On several occasions, when exiting freeway or fast lane consumer states that vehicle would not shift properly and hesitate for several seconds, the transmission fluid pan was removed, at that time the consumer noticed pieces of material in the oil pan after the service the vehicle continues to hesitate.
I purchased this Ford Focus in March 2001. In May 2001 I went back to phil long Ford because the car was not performing properly. Periodically I would be driving along and the car would act as though the transmission was slipping. The customer service rep at phil long that I spoke with at this time went with me for a test drive in this car and everything was fine. He said nothing could be done unless they could experience what was happening with the car. I told him the car was slipping, skipping, and twice while driving along the car lost power. He told me what I had said did not make sense and unless they could experience this malfunction they could only guess it was one of the computers in the car adjusting for a road condition. This service rep dismissed me as being a stupid woman. Today, December 31, 2001, I went to my car at 7:00am this moring to go to work and when I touched the gas pedal it went right to the floor and would not come back up. I managed driving at 2mph to phil long Ford where I sat for 2 1/2 hours before they told me the problem with the car is a broken cable. I am so furious with phil long Ford I filed a complaint via E-mail with Ford Motor Co. As I thought more about this situation throughout the day I realized how fortunate I was that the cable broke while I was sitting in the parking lot where I live. Suppose this had (and it probably has to others) occurred while I was driving along. Suppose this had happened one of the two times this car lost power as I was driving along a very busy road? I would have been involved in a serious accident. I think Ford should take responsibility for my losing at least one vacation day for work possibly two or more days because phil long can not give me any guarantee when this car will be fixed because of the holiday. This is inexcusable on Ford and phil long Ford part.
I own a 2001 Ford Focus automatic transmission. I was parked on a flat surface, when someone backed up into my car, they only moved 3 feet didn't do any damage to teh bumpber, but from that slight hit it sent my car free wheeling in park 175 feet, across a road, and slamming into 3 trees totalling out the rear of the car. Luckily no one was hurt nor in the car at the time fo this accident. When I got into my car I expected to see the geer shifter broken but it wasn't it still worked. My car was the way I left it just 175 feet down teh road. This is not right! two of teh main safety feature failed on this car. Ford sent out an investigartor who looked over the car, pushed on the car with their hands, but never took the transmission aprt to see if there was any damage. Now Ford said there is nothing wrong with my car and it is perfectly safe. I am very unhappy, I am stuch with a car I don't want any more, dont trust, and now becuase of the damage unable to trade in. I have only owned this car since Oct of 2000. I feel that this is a major defect in the car and Ford is just trying to cover it up.
- Eglin, FL, USA
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Car was parked, transmission was in "park" keys out of car. A car backed into my parked car hitting the front bumper. My car was only 3 feet from the rear of the car that hit me and the backing car backed up slowly and only causing a small scrach on the bumper. After the 2 cars bumped, my car began to roll and continued to roll down a slow grade and picked up speed. The driver of the other car atempted to stop my car but was not able to get in sence the doors were locked. He also atempted to get the front tires to turn and could not. My car then struck a stand of trees distorying the rear end. My car rolled over 120 feet from the spot it was parked in. When I got into my car, I checked the shifter to see if it had been moved out of "park" it was still in "park" and I shook it to make sure it was. I then started the car with out any problem and moved it back to were it was parked. The car drove and acted fine, I even had 2 other people rock the car to see if we could get it to jump out of gear and it would not. I then called a Ford deal where I was told "thats not a problem, if your car gets hit it can jump out of park". being a police officer my self for over 18 years and in that time with all the accdents I have see I have yet to see one where a car with a automatic transmission was hit and cause it to come out of "park" even when it was hit at over 50 miles an hour. My car was hit at less than 1 mile an hour and it jumps out of gear? but I really can't say it jumped out of gear sence it was still in park the hole time it was rolling down hill and was found in "park" after it came to a stop. This is a major safety problem and I thank god my car was not parked where it could of rolled out into a major intersection and cause the death of one of mine or someone elses family member.
Dripping from pass. Side heat vent during A/C use or rain, severe rattling from transmission during acceleration or at idle with clutch out, when clutch is pressed the noise goes away, front end out of alignment, pulls to the right.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Las Vegas, NV, USA