Fiesta on CR's list of 10 least reliable cars

[BRGT350]

If you count the Fiesta Movement cars, I am on Fiesta #4 and all have been perfectly reliable. Of course, they have all been manuals. The automatic sucks and anyone who buys an automatic should be stuck with problems for picking such a terrible option. It is just a horrible transmission.

 

[LilPartyBox]

My brother-in-law had a regular focus with the shit DCT. While he loved the car, the lurching and slipping of the tranny made him feel unsafe. It got so bad he didn't even want to put his kids in the car. After 4 dealer visits he called it quits and bought the new Corolla. He hates the Corolla and misses the Focus...really tragic that Ford takes a great chassis and ruins it with a tranny so bad that a man ends up in a Corolla, the anti-drivers car.

 

[Khill007]

Bought my 2015 with 9000 miles on it and it now has 18000. The only issue mine has had is the AC crapped and had to be replaced under warranty. Other than the clunking while shifting (gotten used too...probably axle shafts?!?) and the occasional rattle, GREAT CAR and I LOVE IT!!!!!!

 

[Dorkdog]

The reliability rating is all about the garbage Powershift auto transmissions. If they don't drop those transmissions in favor of the torque converter with the next gen of Fiesta, the Fiesta nameplate will not last much longer in the US. Same issue with the Focus Powershift transmissions. Automatic drivers don't understand how you shouldn't drive with those transmissions, but the only people that buy them are the people that aren't going to understand... I have driven a Powershift Focus for about a week as a rental. As a manual driver I can understand how to drive it to make it last longer, but your everyday driver is going to ride the clutch without even knowing it way too often because they are used to a different way of driving with autos. I don't think there's a huge reliability problem so much as people need to relearn how to drive them, and they don't want to.

TrueDelta supports this, for the 2014 anyway...

 

[vegas_]

TrueDelta supports this, for the 2014 anyway...

TrueDelta is an interesting site, I had not heard of that until now.
Yes they do mentioned the Automatic as the key problem area, just like Consumer Reports.
But for overall reliability Truedelta shows good to average data for 2013 & 2014, contradicting Consumer reports much worse than average rating.
(2015 is an unknown, TrueDelta reports limited (but good) data, CR no data)
Earlier years (2011, 2012) both TrueDelta and Consumer Reports agree, much worse than average.

 

[me32]

67k and no issue. I dont always beleive what i read on CR.

 

[vegas_]

It's TrueDelta, not Truedata, I've corrected my original post
Here's the links
True Deltas Fiesta Reliability
Manuals Automatics and ST's are all lumped together.

But Interestingly they separate out Focus ST in 2013
And the ST is Much better that the standard Focus
True Deltas Focus Reliability

 

[jmrtsus]

CR is a joke......they call infotainment software difficulties a reliability issue. When is the last time you called a tow truck because you could not sync your phone? I bet like me most people that subscribe do not renew once they see the info they get. The Nissan CVT is like all CVTs, a problem......no worse than others. That is the reason I will only buy manuals now. All the people in the family that can't drive one have their own cars now......no more auto's for me! My two adult "kids" that do drive a manual are also real drivers and will gladly take Fifi out for a loooooong ride! My daughter's first test drive she texted back one word, "shocked"!

 

[vegas_]

CR is a joke......they call infotainment software difficulties a reliability issue. ...

Well yes they leave it up to the individual reader to decide whats important or not.
Their instructions are "report any problem that you consider serious because of inconvenience or cost."

So, I guess, by the definition of some, if they cant figure out the infotainment system, it's a problem.
If the CVT acts differently that what they are used to, it's a problem
If the DCT acts differently that what they are used to, it's a problem

It's no cost to them, because they take it in under warranty.
And they get really pissed when the service dept says it's not a problem you are just an idiot (in a polite way)
So they remember that and slam Ford in the review as revenge.

 

[joesiris]

The St is the unicorn of the Fiestas. It's been proven the opposite of the other Fiestas in every way. It may be the same platform but everything else is the opposite

True story! I was given a vanilla fiesta as rental while mine was in shop, and while it was a so called "titanium" edition, it was crap, just pure crap, I couldn't wait to get back in my FiST

 

[joesiris]

and here I thought I was the only CR subscriber in the poll to own a FiST. I remember this poll from a while back and I told them how f'in awesome our cars are but I guess they didn't get the memo.

This being my first Ford and considering I've made fun of Ford all my life, I did the same thing and leased it for 3 yrs. just in case... and then modded the shit out of it anyway!

I too made fun of fords...I was always an import guy, in fact I was just beginning to mod my oz rally lancer when, in savanah visiting some friends I saw a st...I immediatly looked it up and was like there is no way that thing is turbo charged with 197 horses, sure enough it was...I watched 59 videos before I test drove one, then got to 68 vids and I was sold. and now I'm a ford man

 

[King Carta]

While helping my girlfriend look for a Buick Encore on CR, I got curious as to what they would have to say about the 16 FiST. I was surprised at first at how poor of a rating that it had, considering one of the reasons I picked up a FiST was every single review I read was incredibly positive. After some research I found that the poor reliability is mostly due to the automatic power shift transmission. So FiST should be good!

 

[Siestarider]

Looking at the big picture,CR does a service by identifying reliable cars based on their mass of data. However, their strong suit is comparison of appliances and consumer goods vs price. Helpful when comparison shopping. But they are not "car guys", they are consumer guys.

The only failure I experienced during 3 warranty years was blend door actuator, which I replaced myself rather than let locals touch it. I have never owned a car driven as hard as I drive this one, if it was easily breakable it would have happened already.

Local dealership disqualified themselves for good when they could not figure out how to set TPMS on aftermarket wheels.

 

[vegas_]

Looking at the big picture,CR does a service by identifying reliable cars based on their mass of data. However, their strong suit is comparison of appliances and consumer goods vs price. Helpful when comparison shopping. But they are not "car guys", they are consumer guys.

The only failure I experienced during 3 warranty years was blend door actuator, which I replaced myself rather than let locals touch it. I have never owned a car driven as hard as I drive this one, if it was easily breakable it would have happened already.

Local dealership disqualified themselves for good when they could not figure out how to set TPMS on aftermarket wheels.

I've been a consumer report's reader for 20+ years.
There data is based on their subscribers only, and leaves a lot up to the judgment of the reader.

They praise the Fiesta, and especially the ST "the super agile ST is truly fun to drive"
The say it has well below average Reliability, but only reliability area they fault is the Transmission. And the ST has a different transmission.

Yes you are at the mercy of your dealership, in larger towns you have several to choose from, but not in small towns.

Consumers Reports makes mistake on other products too. The repeatedly praise the Sleep Number bed, but fail to mention the 200lb weight limit
Since 1/2 of Americans weigh over 200'lbs I would think you would want to point this opt.

 

[vegas_]

I found a new source for scientific reliability data, and it tells a much different story, than consumer union (CU) and JP Power
Consumer Reports and JD power data are based on peoples opinions and memory.
I've owned a Toyota Prius and can state that it was the not terribly reliable, in spite of CUs stellar rating.
So far my FiST has been perfect, but I only have 4000 miles on it.

An auto warranty company out of England publishes reliability data based on their experience paying for repairs.
It seems to me that this data would be more scientific, because human judgment and emotions don't get in the way.

The Fiesta is rated with a score of 24, which is good. the Focus is 56 still good (both cars are rated very bad by CU)
This is comparable to the Toyota Prius and Corolla, rated at 36, 52 (both cars are rated very good by CU)

And example of a very bad car is a A BMW 3 series with a rating of 205, very bad.

http://www.reliabilityindex.com/

 

[joesiris]

I found a new source for scientific reliability data, and it tells a much different story, than consumer union (CU) and JP Power
Consumer Reports and JD power data are based on peoples opinions and memory.
I've owned a Toyota Prius and can state that it was the not terribly reliable, in spite of CUs stellar rating.
So far my FiST has been perfect, but I only have 4000 miles on it.

An auto warranty company out of England publishes reliability data based on their experience paying for repairs.
It seems to me that this data would be more scientific, because human judgment and emotions don't get in the way.

The Fiesta is rated with a score of 24, which is good. the Focus is 56 still good (both cars are rated very bad by CU)
This is comparable to the Toyota Prius and Corolla, rated at 36, 52 (both cars are rated very good by CU)

And example of a very bad car is a A BMW 3 series with a rating of 205, very bad.

http://www.reliabilityindex.com/

that is a very interesting and enlightening website...and that is based on the vanilla fiesta too, which isn't as good as the st, I wish they (lots of theys) wouldn't lump both cars together all the time, id be interested in seeing the numbers form that website on the st, but thanks for the share

 

[vegas_]

that is a very interesting and enlightening website...and that is based on the vanilla fiesta too, which isn't as good as the st, I wish they (lots of theys) wouldn't lump both cars together all the time, id be interested in seeing the numbers form that website on the st, but thanks for the share

Yes I think this type of data is much more meaning full than consumer survey data from CU or JD power.
This is all about the actual cost to fix things after the manufactures warranty has expired.
Since extended warranty's have a deducible ~$50, frivolous visits to the repair shop do not distort the data.
An example of this is visits to the Ford dealer because you think theres something wrong with your automatic transmission because you don't understand how a dual clutch transmission works.
These visits will show up in consumer satisfaction surveys because people are upset because the dealer told them nothing was wrong with the car.
But they would not show up in warranty data since no cost was incurred by the warranty company.

I wish I could find this data for a US based warranty outfit. Fiestas sold in England are made in Germany, but ours are made in Mexico,
so there may be a difference in quality?

p.s. Look up the Audi Q7, it has an extremely poor rating based on repair costs, but yet CU rates it at the opposite end of the spectrum, very good. Both US and UK version are made in Germany.

 

[Bruce19]

CR seems to look at a model across the board and not by specific variations. So, when the automatic trannys in the Focus have problems, according to CR all Focus cars have a bad rating for transmissions. But, as we know, The Focus ST comes only with manual and that issue is not relevant to the ST. I owned a Focus ST for 3 yrs. and 50 K miles. It was bullet-proof.

 

[Joker328]

It's helpful in a sense, but it muddies the waters a bit as well by lumping in the cost to repair something. A cheaper car is almost always going to be cheaper to repair when something breaks than something more expensive. Mercedes is listed several times among their "10 worst" but that is probably more about the cost of replacing parts on a Merc than it is about their reliability in general.

That said, it's still a good argument for buying a cheap performance car like the FiST. You get to mod it and hoon it to your heart's content, and if something breaks, it's going to be a lot cheaper to fix it than it would be on an M3.

 

[vegas_]

CR seems to look at a model across the board and not by specific variations. So, when the automatic trannys in the Focus have problems, according to CR all Focus cars have a bad rating for transmissions. But, as we know, The Focus ST comes only with manual and that issue is not relevant to the ST. I owned a Focus ST for 3 yrs. and 50 K miles. It was bullet-proof.

CU seems to have "insufficient data" for the Fiesta, for some years, odd for a production car. Maybe Fiesta owners no longer subscribe.
So splitting the data would dilute it further.