Yahoo Autos Always Pay Attention to New Tech Before Buying a Car
People often ask me, "What cars are 'bad' right now?" as if lemons come in batches. Usually, I say that defective cars don't usually happen like that. I hear from owners of all makes and models. Except–once every few years-there is a spate of calls regarding a particular car that obviously has a problem across the board. Starting in 2011, I started getting calls about the Ford Fiesta; in 2012, I also got calls about the Focus. The callers all had complaints about the transmission.
In 2011, Ford started using a new gearbox the company called a Power Shift automatic transmission. It has a dual clutch and they describe it as a manual transmission that shifts like an automatic. The problem is they often didn't work properly. From what I heard repeatedly, the cars would start shifting poorly anywhere from immediately after purchase to ten or twenty thousand miles later. The shifts might cause the car to slam into gears or it might feel like it was slipping before the transmission would catch and shift harshly.
The callers reported their dealer interactions like this: The first time they would bring the car in, the dealer would tell them the Transmission Control Module needed to be reprogrammed. The second time, the TCM would be replaced. The third time would often result in the replacement of something internal to the transmission. And the fourth time? They'd be told the car was running as designed. None of the earlier repairs worked and the cars would continue to shift funny.
Interestingly, I do not own one of these cars but I have driven one. I rented one and immediately thought something was wrong with it. It slammed into gears and sometimes hesitated as if it was slipping. The tach would race without a corresponding increase in speed. My passenger asked if I was doing this "on purpose." I had to explain that it certainly wasn't.
As you can imagine, the owners of these cars were not happy and many of them sued under the Lemon Law. I was wondering what would happen as I filed case after case. Usually a manufacturer finds a fix for something this widespread but nothing happened. The problem followed into 2012 and 2013. I kept getting phone calls from unhappy Ford owners and lessees.
Class actions were filed against Ford. Ford began issuing Technical Service Bulletins. There are more than a dozen just for the trans in the 2011 Fiesta.
Ford finally came around. They have now sent letters to many owners of the affected cars, giving them an extension on the warranty for the transmission. Now, that 5 year/60K warranty may be pushed out to 7 years/100K. And Ford claims to have isolated the problem to something that they can actually fix now. Which is ironic considering Ford had claimed all along that the transmissions were operating properly.
The takeaway here for those of us who do not own these cars? When you buy a new car, pay attention to its attributes, especially if it has some "new" technology. The Power Shift was different from transmissions Ford had used previously. It might be expected to behave differently but that is not license for it to malfunction.
Cars equipped with newfangled tech will have some new kinks to work out–just look at the problems Tesla is dealing with now-but it doesn't let the manufacturer off the hook entirely. When your new car acts up, take it in for warranty repair and complain. Make sure it is written up properly and save your repair order. If they try and tell you the defect is "normal" then take it to another dealer. If necessary, do your own research to find out how "normal" the problem is. If you can do so safely, film the defect. I have seen videos shot on cellphones of the Power Shift doing its thing.
And if the problem remains un-repaired after enough repair attempts to qualify as a lemon–3 or 4 in most states–consider consulting an attorney about the Lemon Law. If the car cannot be fixed, you don't have to live with it. And you shouldn't have to.
Steve Lehto is a writer and attorney from Michigan. He specializes in Lemon Law and frequently writes about cars and the law. His most recent books include Preston Tucker and His Battle to Build the Car of Tomorrow, and Dodge Daytona and Plymouth Superbird: Design, Development, Production and Competition. He also has a podcast where he talks about these things.
