Ford Cars and Trucks

The 2019 Fiesta was promising but I went with a manual 5 speed, which proved to be a bad set up because at 65 mph in 5th gear, the RPMs would hover at 3100. Unacceptable... so I traded it in for the 2021 Ford Ecosport. Let's see... torque converter 6 speed automatic transmission powered by a 1.0 - 3-cylinder engine. I'm thinking that this will be a good thing, right? Wrong.

Here is what I've discovered in the 10000 plus miles I've put on it since purchasing it. Average mpg - 28.5 highway. Transmission doesn't like cold temperatures at all. It takes forever for it to shift through the gears when going down the road on a cold day after a 5 minute engine warm up. In one instance I was stuck in 3rd gear for about 2 miles hovering at 4500 rpm before it shifted. Once the transmission warmed up, it was fine. This however never happened with my 2007 Ford focus (pre lemon transmission era). My wife's Toyota Camry averages 43 mpg highway. We know because we check it often.

So how does a mini SUV like the 2021 Ecosport, get beat out by a 2007 Ford Focus and a 2012 Toyota Camry in the MPG department? The answer is simple, Ford stopped caring about quality and performance at some point and built a bunch of hyped up cars that couldn't live up to that hype. My experience with Ford has made me more cautious at any dealership. I spend more time researching vehicles now. I will say that the Ecosport in my driveway will be the last Ford I every sink a dime into. I will never again buy their vehicles because quality is not job 1 at Ford anymore.

In my future, Toyota will be the car that I invest in. No wonder Ford resorted to just making Trucks, SUVs and Mustangs, and did away with all of their other cars. When I was a teenager, I wouldn't have given Ford a thought because I figured that Toyota cars and trucks were going to dominate, and it turns out that I was right. I gave Ford a chance 8 times and they let me down. In the 21st century, Ford went backwards and started to produce bad products. Oh, they look nice and all but they turn out to be disappointments. When I was in the Army, my barrack buddy had a 1985 Toyota Corolla... and he was getting 41 MPG on a car with over 200,000 miles on it and it was at that time already 11 years old. So MPG must be something Ford decided to ignore when producing vehicles in the 21st century. If I worked for Ford, I would leave and go work with a company like Toyota.

Ford Motor Company, I hope you read this review because I'm being as brutally honest about this as I can possibly be, without saying anything derogatory. With gas prices at an all time high... the last thing I need is a Magical Mystery Gas Guzzler. One more thing, I'm having a bumper sticker made that says just that, and I'm putting it where everyone can see it because people need to know that Ford is not the company that they could have been. I have to say goodbye to the dealership that I have dealt with for 20 years because all they sell are Mustangs, Trucks and SUVs and leftovers of cars that are being discontinued.

Five years later, the car has 67,000 miles on it and it started shifting pretty hard and the shuddering was more pronounced. We took it in and I told them I suspected the TCM was bad (which was still under warranty). They told me I was wrong and it was the clutch (which of course, isn't under warranty). I said that didn't sound right because the clutch was rated for 100,000 miles... So either the TCM was bad, the TCM caused the transmission to shift improperly, which caused the clutch to wear out prematurely, or it was a defective clutch.

We went back and forth and they ENSURED me that it was the clutch. $1,600 and a new clutch later, they call me back and tell me "Actually, I guess it IS the TCM." When I asked about a refund for the clutch, they told me to pound sand. The car has now been in the shop waiting on a warranty repair for the TCM for over four months. We call weekly for an update and there is still no expected completion date. They said it could be as long as a year. We just want to get it repaired and sell the piece of crap so we don't ever have to deal with this headache again.

It has been so very disappointing that Ford Motor Company did not respond to my appeal on 10/29/2021 to answer our concern when I communicated with the online representative on the Ford Website. The associate I communicated with would not answer my questions or address the issue so I asked for her to forward this concern to her supervisor or manager, which she agreed to. I also called the general Manager at Damerow Ford in Beaverton Oregon and explained the situation. I had ordered the truck through them from the factory. The result was also zero help and guidance also.

My auto insurance carrier did not want to address this issue saying that since the personal injury was minor it did not merit them getting involved investigating the possible defect in Ford's product. We sustained back and neck injury and are still experiencing pain from the wreck 2 months ago. Also the truck is at a dealer now awaiting repairs and rebuilding. I would like to recommend that to save lives, injury and damage to property that Adaptive cruise control from Ford Motor Company be used with extreme caution until the manufacturer stops ignoring this concern and does their job to protect their customer.

After several trips to two different dealerships it was determined that the wire harness would need to be replaced and in order to do that apparently much of the vehicle needs to be disassembled. A very significant effort and expense to repair. I felt surely Ford would stand behind me and rectified what was clearly a defective mechanism. After several months of back and forth and Ford stringing me along ultimately they would not provide ANY assistance. Worse multiple requests for them to provide that decision in writing were simply ignored. I have never been so appalled at a major corporation's lack of professionalism in handling a customer service issue. My experience with them has left me realizing that FORD is a two-bit company not interested in customer service or standing behind their product. FORD NEVER AGAIN.