CarComplaints.com Notes: The 2016 Ford Focus & its "Powershift" transmission has a defect trend where the car shudders when accelerating, especially when starting uphill.
Most owners have reported their Ford Focus remains driveable while the vehicle is still at low mileage, but the shuddering is annoying & unpleasant & may reduce the resale value of the vehicle.
However, owners of higher-mileage vehicles from earlier 3rd generation Focus model years report transmission failure & a host of other major & expensive transmission-related problems. Potential buyers beware.
10.0
really awful
Crashes / Fires:
8 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
3 / 0
Average Mileage:
43,947 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
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.
Car started trying to shut off randomly and accelerated and decelerated, then car wouldn't start was told the clutch was stuck sounds like a recall I saw online.
A known defect with the clutch is causing the transmission to slip when switching gears. Ford knows about this defect and yet did not issue a recall/extended warranty for all of the transmissions affected, only some. It's a $1500-$2000 repair and it's ridiculous that we should have to pay for their faulty machinery.
Vehicle shudders when accelerating from a stop. On several occasions my vehicle has stalled while accelerating onto the freeway, putting me at risk of being rear ended. I took my Ford Focus in to a Ford dealership and was informed that my clutch had failed, but that it also had previously been replaced just 2.5 years prior. My car is a 2016 with under 70,000 miles. I was informed of a lawsuit involving the transmission in the Ford Focus for the year of my vehicle, but was then advised that my transmission is not eligible for the settlement and replacement. I have kept up on regular oil changes and vehicle maintenance. The clutch should not fail twice within 3 years.
The contact owns a 2016 Ford Focus. The contact stated that while driving approximately 45 mph, the transmission started slipping. The contact pulled into a nearby parking lot and the transmission failed to shift into reverse or any other gear. The vehicle was towed to four seasons Ford (601 duncan hill rd, hendersonville, nc 28792; (828) 693-4281) to be diagnosed. The contact was informed that the clutch failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired. The contact stated the transmission module had previously been replaced, as well. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and confirmed that the vehicle was not covered under recall. The approximate failure mileage was 67,000.
Car would not start, battery tested fine. The car gave a msg of transmission fault. This has happened twice. After the first time I took it to the dealer. They ran test not finding anything wrong. Less than 24 hours later it happened again at night lights and gages flicker same msg. But something seemed to arch under the hood
I bought a 2016 Ford Focus in October of 2017 it just stopped running about a month ago I took it to a mechanic and he said the transmission was "done" I am severly confused I have kept up on all oil changes for 3 years I started experiencing some engine misses I have done the research and I know that the transmission on this make and model has been defective I still owe on this car, II cant get anyone from Ford to communicate with me to fix this issue the car is only 3 years old with 90,000 miles I bought the car with 60,000 miles I am seeking help to fix a manufacturer problem
The clutch has been replaced twice in the car for shuddering and shifting hard, now it is doing it a third time and we have been told its just out of the 1 year warranty of the 2nd clutch assembly installed and we don't qualify for the class action lawsuit. The car is not safe to drive and shudders so bad when accelerating that it shakes the whole car. I do not feel safe driving the car and Ford customer service told me there is nothing they can do. We can replace the clutch again for $1500 our cost...why would we pay when its been replaced twice since we purchased the car in 2017. When accelerating at a stoplight the car stutters and tries to shut down going into neutral...this caused someone to almost hit our daughter. This happened while accelerating from a stop light on a busy roadway. I am now fearful of it happening again.
The contact owns a 2016 Ford Focus. The contact called on behalf of a friend. The contact stated that the vehicle was taken to classic Ford Lincoln of columbia (177 greystone blvd, columbia, SC 29210) for an oil change and the contact was informed by the technician that the dual clutch transmission was faulty and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The contact was informed that the VIN was not covered under warranty or by a customer satisfaction program. The contact was also made aware of an ongoing investigation into the failure. The contact was provided a case number and referred to NHTSA. The failure mileage was approximately 72,000.
The contact owned a 2016 Ford Focus. The contact stated that while driving 50 mph, the front of the driver side of the vehicle impacted the right rear of another vehicle with the front left and stated that the whole front sheared off, caused the vehicle to go into a spin. The vehicle impacted a street sign. And six unit mailbox station which causes the street sing to come thru the rear window of the vehicle broken the glass. The contact stated that the air bags failed to deploy. The contact sustained severe bruises from the seat belt, arm neck, back injuries and had to seek medical attention. The front passenger also sustained neck and back injuries and would seek medical attention. The other driver did not sustained injuries, the contact mention that the driver declined medical treatment at the time of the accident. A police report was filed. The contact mention that the vehicle was in the shop for transmission and power train failures several times due to the vehicle failed to accelerated and was repaired of unknown recalls for those failures. The vehicle was towed to geico insurance salvage yard. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The vehicle was destroyed. The failure mileage was approximately 52,288.
The contact owns a 2016 Ford Focus. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the transmission failed to correctly shift between first and second gears, causing the rpms to increase. Additionally, while driving, the vehicle failed to immediately respond while depressing the accelerator pedal. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer preston Ford located at 1300 E state St, sharon, pa 16146, to be diagnosed. The contact was informed that the clutch was faulty and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not yet repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The contacted indicated that the vehicle was previously serviced for the same failure and the clutch was replaced however, the failure recurred. The failure mileage was 19,000.
I was driving my vehicle on a city street and the car stalled on the road and I had to coast onto a safe spot.the car would not turn back on for over an hour then it stalled once more and would not turn on. The dealership said they fixed the problem but it continues to stall while driving. We can not find the problem.
Transmission slips and stalls when increasing speeds or doesnt shift at all. I was on the highway and had to pull off do to it stalled out 4 times note this is an automatic transmission and it slips and stalls or doesnt shift at all. When this started it was at 14000 miles and now its at 16568 miles and its now stalling.
The vehicle was under half a tank pf fuel and begam to sputter and jolt amd dies. It started but cranked long and hard. This happens whenever the fuel is at half or below. I searched my VIN it says the fuel rscall isn't a issue bit its doing exactly that.
Manufacturer recall #18S32 NHTSA recall #18V735 I was driving home from work. I was probably about a mile and half away from my work. I was approaching a red light and began to slow down and prepare to stop. All of a sudden, the display shows "not in drive" when it obviously was or I wouldn't be moving... next thing, lights/electronics were flickering and car just turned off in drive. What was really scary and almost costed me my life was my hazards were not displaying to surrounding drivers there were a few times when I got yelled or honked at but 1 or 2 times I almost got ran over.... after my friend came to help me push it out of road, he got it in park, restarted and got car starting again.... we took the car to our family mechanic and he took a look at it. He was going to charge me a lot for the part needed to get fixed. Which brought me to go see if I can find a part for cheaper or a mechanic for cheaper. That's when I discovered about this VIN and car recall.
Car was hesitant to go and skipping and makes awful noise on the passenger side front when on highway road noise. Dealer replaced clutch and seals and did a transmission service. Nothing was done about the awful road noise
Was driving down the interstate at roughly 80 miles per hour when the check engine light came on. Engine lost power and would not accelerate. Engine started making a loud noise. Car will still start but is not drivable and engine has no oil pressure and mechanic said it downshifted to 4th gear at 83 mph. Car has been serviced regularly and has given no indication of engine problems. Was quoted $4500 at first Ford dealership to repair car with a used motor with equal mileage. 2nd Ford dealership quoted $3700 with rebuilt motor. Has been looked over by 2 mechanics including Ford and other than reading diagnostics nobody can provide a reason the oil pressure dropped or why the car downshifted into 4th gear uping the RPM's causing engine problems. They said there is no other problems with the car at this point other than the engine. Very no smart to replace an engine without knowing the what caused the initial one to fail.
Vehicle sputters on take off from stop or a slow down back to take off. Has had transmission clutch replaced as well as spark plugs, fuel injectors cleaned, battery, alternator. Ford says it's how their transmissions work but it has almost caused me to have many wrecks. Now that I am past their 'warranty' period they won't even look at it without charging me even with the same issues since I purchased the car.
Vehicle experiences a heavy shudder when accelerating. It will also jump forward when changing gears. Never received updates, recall or safety notices from Ford. Called dealership on several occasions and was told it's how the car drives. Time goes on and the problem gets worse. I bring it into Ford dealership and they tell me my clutch is changing at 500rpm as opposed to 250 RPM. My mileage was 60,200 when I arrived. They told me they will not cover this cost even though the problem started well before the warranty. Estimated repair is $2,400 on a car I owe $9,000 on. This is a nightmare.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Fayetteville, NC, USA