I've spend Saturday looking at second hand cars, and I've found a Ford Focus ( AUTO ) Ambiente with 39K. model 2014, manufacturing May 2015
I have now read that Ford clutches during that period had huge problems.
I sent the scanned and signed contract on Sunday via email, and only now read about this issue.
The Deposit has been taken out of the account, but the car is not paid yet.
I am torn between giving it a go, considering that Ford has extended warranty on clutches to 7 years ( another 2 1/2 year warranty )
or Rescinding the contract
About to Buy Ford Focus That Might Have Clutch Issues
cameldownunder on 19/08/2019 - 15:23
Last edited 19/08/2019 - 16:42 by 1 other user
Last edited 19/08/2019 - 16:42 by 1 other user
Poll Options
- 1Buy it, and hope all is fine
- 33Cancel contract immediately
Comments
The auto wouldnt have a clutch. It would have a torque converter.
Wouldnt it be the other way around. Stay with the auto & run away from manual?
Its a dual clutch auto transmission.
Dual clutch auto vehicle. Similar problem plagued the golfs. The manual variant of the focus of this generation didn't have the problem as it didn't have the dual clutch auto transmission.
Dry dual clutch auto. Power shift is an absolute bucket of crap. Horrible to drive even when they aren't failing.
Buying and then researching is a silly way to do it
I did read a lot about the focus, and in all the reviews nothing was noted about the clutch.
Only when i wanted to know what a dual-clutch is, and narrowed the search including clutch, the horror reports came up
dual clutch automatic. All the cool kids were smoking that stuff.
VW Group DSG (Audi S-Tronic)
Hyundai EcoShift
Mercedes Speedshift
Porsche PDK
Ford PowershiftThere are probably others
Avoid! Seen an owner go through the process of replacing the clutch/transmission on multiple occasions during ownership. They didn't incur the cost, but this was a major pain.
Yep, I've seen 2 customers go through the refund process from Ford. 1 ended up getting a Corolla.
I would probably give it a go. At this point, you'll probably waste hours/weeks arguing with the dealer about refunding the deposit.
From what I can see on google, Ford should be more receptive to warranty claims now, after an ACCC fine, so it will probably take a similar amount of time to get the problem resolved.
I did a ( short ) test drive and did not notice anything. Also hoping that because the build date is towards the end of the series,
that maybe a newer clutch has been used.
I have checked the VIN against Ford database, and see that a warranty extension has been added.
I hate the process of going to shop the cars so much that I am going through with it. I sincerely thank all for the voting.
It will be used mainly as second car, so visits to the garage for repairs are only mildly painful.
I'll err on the side of saying cancel. I might give it a try for the right price etc. It is low km so I might take a gamble for $5k but otherwise there are plenty of other options out there.
How much was your deposit? Check the cancellation fee as well in your contract. Sometimes the fee is more than the deposit, but I haven't heard of any dealer chasing for the difference upon termination of a contract.
If the deposit isnt too much and the dealer refuses to give it back, just let it go. The last thing you'd want to do is piss off the dealer and make them chase you for the difference between the deposit amount and the actual cancellation fee specified in the contract.
For next time, research first, THEN deposit! :p
Doesn't seem that bad - if you have another 2.5 years of warranty against it you can always replace. Seems like a lot of effort to argue and you may lose your deposit otherwise.
Ah. Good memories of creating a massive gridlock after the transmission failed and was stuck in reverse while reversing out parking bay.
Couldn't push it either cause it won't change out of R.
Good times.
I went through it with a Fiesta. It was not enjoyable and after having the clutch replaced twice I finally managed to offload it.
if it's the dual clutch auto then run away and don't touch it unless it's crazy cheap - like $500
Even at $500 it's not worth the hassle of dealing with a PowerShit transmission. I'd take a dozen dry clutch VW transmissions first.
If its manual, there's no problem. If its auto, run away.