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.
Traveling on a main artery, very busy road, with 13 year old child in passenger seat. Left-most display screen flashes, "stop safely now!" message at the same moment that all drive power is completely cut off. We were extremely lucky to be able to coast into an unoccupied driveway, otherwise we very well likely would have been the cause of a multi-car collision. And now, am finding on the internet that Ford and the NHTSA have known about this problem for almost a year? I'm having a hard time determining which entity I'm more pissed off at -- the publicly traded for profit auto maker, or the publicly funded government body that exists with one sole purpose: Protecting the motoring public's safety.
I've had numerous problems since the first day I drove it to work. The most serious incident occurred Aug. 7, 2013, when the vehicle suddenly shut down while my wife and I were driving on the 101 freeway in agoura, ca. A similar incident occurred on Oct. 16, while leaving work, and on Oct. 21, while driving to work. On all three occasions the car would suddenly stop, a stop safely now read-out would appear, followed by a mechanics wrench symbol. Seeking to learn if others had this problem I came across the ODI preliminary evaluation document. My wife were lucky to have come out unscathed in the freeway incident and frankly Ford couldn't give [xxx] one and I currently own 4 Ford. Please stick it to them before someone isn't lucky enough to survive a "limp" condition as they describe it. As for me, I'm currently searching for a lemon-law lawyer. Incidentally, the other 4 Ford vehicles, I never had a problem with them. [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
The engine shut down with a 'stop safely now' warning. Since it was the first time it happened, it was not clear what happened, so I came to stop in middle of the road. This has happened a total of 5 times now..with two events within a mile of each other yesterday 10/26. Yesterday the first event was at 40 mph again in the middle of the road (luckily not very busy at the time) and I was able to pull over to side of the road. The other two times, it happened while backing out of the driveway onto the road.
The first event occurred on 7/17/2013, at 2267 miles. I had charged the battery overnight (at our motel), using the 120-volt charging cord. I had pulled the car around to the front of the motel the car was stationary, in "park, " when the "stop safely now" message was displayed. I just powered the car off and powered it back on. That cleared the ssn message. Then, I drove home, as planned, with no recurrences of the error message. Today, 10/24/2013, at 4127 miles, the "stop safely now" message was displayed (for only the second time), while I was driving down a hill, at about 30 mph. The car had been sitting in the parking lot, at work, and the ssn error occurred after driving about 1 mile. There was no place to pull over, without blocking traffic, but, since I was going downhill, I just continued coasting, made my usual right turn at the bottom of the hill, and pulled over, at a spot where there was a very wide, paved shoulder. Since it was too late in the day (5:30 pm) to get the car (with the power still on and the ssn message still displayed) towed to the local Ford dealer (which closes at 6 pm), I powered the car off and, then, powered it back on. The ssn error, again, went away, and I was able to safely drive home, with no additional ssn messages. Because of a construction detour, lately, I have been driving to work and back, on a major highway, that has a speed limit of 65 mph. Numerous stretches of that highway are both uphill and have little or no room to pull over. The last part of my trip home is us a steep hill, with lots of curve and mostly very narrow shoulders.
My vehicle displayed a "stop safely now" warning during my normal morning commute. The warning was preceded by a failure of the radio portion of the sync system. I briefly turned off the vehicle at a usual stop on my route and upon turning it on, the radio volume, power and tuning were all unresponsive. I attempted to reset the vehicle at the next traffic light by powering down and opening the door, but the radio remained on even after the vehicle was off and the door was opened. I attempted this several more times at each successive traffic light and the radio would not shut off. After one such reset, the stop safely now warning was displayed on the dash. I was stopped at a traffic light at the time and was able to reset the vehicle and safely enter a parking lot and wait for a tow - with the radio still on. My local Ford dealer waited three days to diagnose the issue and unsurprisingly determined it was caused by a defective/dead 12 V battery and replaced the battery. Software was also updated. Upon returning home and attempting to charge, my vehicle displayed a high voltage system fault and had to be towed to the dealer again. The dealer said this fault was caused by a loose connection on a terminal block on the electric motor that was used to signal battery capacity to the on-board computer.
- Hillsborough, NJ, USA
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While operating the 2013 Ford Focus ev on the highway, just after braking to enter the left turn lane, the vehicle lost all propulsion capability. The instrument gauge indicated "stop safely now" one or two seconds before this loss of power. Fortunately there was no oncoming traffic and I was able to coast to a safe parking spot. In other circumstances this could have been very dangerous..
I was driving and the car started beeping, and flashed up an warning 'safely stop now'. I immediately pulled the car over to the shoulder, and hit the off button. The engine shut off, but the error did not go away, I could navigate around the computer a bit, and it showed a 'warning' but would not let me see what the warning was. When I opened the car door, none of the accessory power shut off like it should. I got out of the car (removing the key) and locked the car. Still all of the accessory power stayed on. I got back in, and tried to start the car, and it would not start, and flashed the message 'safely stop now' repeatedly. I called roadside assistance, and they sent a tow truck. The accessory power said on for the entire hour I waited, by the time they got there, I got back into the car and it let me start it. It ran all the way to the dealership without any issue (3 miles). So far, the dealership is clueless on what to do.
At the time of this report we have had two occurrences of a "stop safely now" error message while driving at highway speeds on this vehicle. During each failure the vehicle stopped functioning abruptly with no warning before the failure. All steering, control of vehicle and propulsion was lost. On the first failure we had approximately 7 seconds of momentum before coming to a stop and on the second occurrence we had an abrupt stop as if the brakes were slammed on forcibly. As a result I was thrown forward towards the steering wheel. In both situations we were unable to get the vehicle off to a safe spot on the highway. In both cases impact possibilities were extremely likely both during the incident and the minutes post-incident as we attempted to get to a safe location off of the road. Ford has attempted a diagnosis on the first occurrence, but were unable to provide a fix. Ford now has the vehicle again for a final attempt at repair. The vehicle is approaching 30 days out of service in total repair time.
While driving, vehicle chimed then "stop safely now" came on in the display. Vehicle turned off while driving and I was unable to turn back on. About 5 minutes later I was able to get the vehicle to turn back on. On 10/7/13 while negotiating a left turn, the vehicle did this again. I was able to complete the turn with the speed I was making the turn with and pulled over. It took about 7 minutes before I could get the vehicle to turn back on. I took the vehicle to the dealer the same day. Today, 10/8/13 South bay Ford in hawthorne, ca called me and said that Ford is aware of the issue but to just come pick up my vehicle. I feel this is a major safety issue that Ford needs to resolve asap!
While exiting a parking lot in late afternoon, I coasted to a stop at the signal light before exiting onto the street. Car lost power, and I was unable to restart it for about 5 minutes. I tried the trick I'd read about of putting the car in park, opening the door and closing it, then trying to restart to no avail. Eventually restarted and I continued on my route.
While driving to work in the morning, car lost power and displayed "stop safely now" message. I was able to coast to the side of the road. After several tries was able to restart the car successfully and continue on route.
On at least 8 separate occasions, while driving my car all of sudden and out of the blue it displays a "stop safely now" warning on the dashboard and then completely loses all power to the drivetrain as soon as it slows to down to approx. 5mph. Fortunately, I've not been killed yet as a result of this. The car has been to the Ford dealer 2 times since the first occurrence in April to "fix" the problem and is currently there again after it most recently happened on Sept 24, 2013. It's now been at the dealer for nearly two weeks and they are still trying to figure it out.
Driving the vehicle home when warning lights began to flash on the dash saying to check owners manual and to pull over. The gas pedal became unresponsive and I coasted up to a red light at a left turn signal and stopped, put on my hazard lights. Eventually turned vehicle off then on again and was able to drive it home. Second incident was on 9/29/13, and had 2863 miles on it. While driving to dinner the same warning lights appeared on dash, and we lost power. Thankfully not a lot of high speed traffic and I was able to pull over somewhere safe to turn off the car and turn it back on again to get it restarted. When we returned home from the second incident I plugged in the car to charge it so we could take it back to Ford for service, however the car didn't register the plug. Tried plugging it in and unplugging it from the wall then putting everything back in to try and get it to charge. It wasn't until I opened the driver side door then shut it that it finally registered that it was plugged in. During both incidents the vehicle became completely unresponsive, essentially dead in the water, and unless you can put it in park you can't restart it. Have taken the vehicle to Ford on three separate occasions to have them fix this issue, as well as for an issue with the on-board charging system faulting, causing the vehicle to not charge fully.
I have just over 1000 miles on my 2013 Focus ev... took it for its 1st power car wash today @ delta sonic... about 10:00 min driving away from car wash, vehicle abruptly "shut down" requesting an "immediate safe stop" and the "yellow wrench" showed on dash. After about 30:00 min while scheduling a tow from Ford roadside assist, vehicle abruptly "cleared itself" and turned on... drove home w/O problem " wondering if "flood sensor" sensed too much water and disengaged battery pack ?... lights, radio and accessories were still operating. Somewhat concerned on vehicles performance during upcoming "cold wet" months. Your suggestion "
My wife was driving in heavy traffic at approx. 30 mph. With no prior audible or visual instrument panel warning drive power ceased and the car came to a sudden stop with a loud audible warning.she was lucky not to be rear ended..the green instrument panel icon which normally indicates drive power connected was unlit. She recycled parking brake on, transmission in park, foot on footbrake and pressed the power button (this is the normal start procedure) with no result. She opened and closed the driver door and then the car started normally and she drove home. I had experienced the same problem the day before except I was stopped at a stop sign on this occasion. The car was flat bedded to a Ford repair shop and I was told to pick it up the next day.the repair shop reported that multiple memory codes with only one tcm code near the mileage where the event occurred a network test was performed and the system passed. We enjoy driving this car, but are very concerned about using it again especially on the freeway.
After driving about one mile from home, a tone sounded and the "stop safely now" warning was displayed on the left side of the dash. The car did not respond when pressing the accelerator, and I was able to pull off the road onto the shoulder. The car's speed was about 25 mph when the tone first sounded. If this had happened two minutes later, I would have been on the freeway where there are very few places to pull off and would have presented a serious danger. I was able to restart the car after a few minutes, drove back home, and then had it towed to the dealer.
Driving at low speed in a parking lot, the car lost propulsion (only) and displayed 'stop safely now'. this has occurred 3 times since (total of 4) with 3 incidents also being at low, parking lot speeds. I had one incident where this occurred at a steady 40mph. The car looses propulsion only. Steering, braking and all other accessories are unaffected.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Raleigh, NC, USA