Fiesta on CR's list of 10 least reliable cars

[neeqness]

German cars get a lot of acclaim for their exclusivity and engineering. They cost more to repair as expected but their high maintenance costs are also due to a higher number of repairs and lower reliability.

This fact alone is what helped open up the luxury market for Lexus and Infiniti and caused them to be so successful. I know several people who owned BMWs but decided to go for Infiniti instead because they were more reliable. Even rich people rather spend more time driving their cars than sitting in the service department...even if that service includes a rental.

I agree that the issue with the Fiesta is the automatic transmission. I, for one, am in the "manual transmission only" camp anyway if only because automatic transmissions bore me to no end.

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[vegas_]

CU survey is sent to subscribers only, not the general public, and they are asked to report problems
that are "significant in terms of inconvenience or cost" this is pretty vague, and every person interprets it differently.
And probably accounts for the disparity between their ratings and warranty cost based data,
For example a $500 repair might not be considered "significant" to an owner of a luxury car, but would be to the owner of a Fiesta
Furthermore luxury car dealers frequently offer free loaner cars, greatly lessening the "inconvenience" to them
But ford dealers rarely offer that, making the repair inconvenient

I want to know how often my car is going to break down, and how much it costs.
Inconvenience is a very subjective matter and should not enter into the data.
The only "inconvenience" I want to know about is if the car breaks down on the road and has to be towed.

CU would be better off asking these question:

How many days did your car spend at the shop?
How many visits required a tow?
What was the total you spent on maintenance and repairs?

This would greatly reduce the variation due to different people interpreting "significant" in different ways
And give them scientific data to work with
They would also be wise to attempt to survey the general public, not just their subscribers

 

[maestromaestro]

I have 40K miles on mine - 2015. Granted, it is very far from OEM at this point, but despite track and daily driven miles, it has held up well. I had a, ahem, incident during brake bedding "procedure" that required replacing a number of front suspension parts (tie rods, knuckle, strut, and a few other items) - and the total parts bill came to less than $300. If that happened to my E39 M5, I'd be looking at a factor of 15 or more. I mean, even the crate engine is under 2 grand.

 

[Intuit]

CR has always been reputation-biased. They only report what people think they already know.

Ten spots and all but one of them are represented by GM, Ford and Chrysler.

The only difference between this and their 1982 issues is the fact that they added Tesla... a new domestic manufacturer.

Still stuck in the 1980s, Consumer Reports will never change. Sony can never put out a bad anything, and neither can any "non-domestic" vehicle manufacturer.

 

[vegas_]

CR has always been reputation-biased. They only report what people think they already know.
Ten spots and all but one of them are represented by GM, Ford and Chrysler.
The only difference between this and their 1982 issues is the fact that they added Tesla... a new domestic manufacturer.
Still stuck in the 1980s, Consumer Reports will never change. Sony can never put out a bad anything, and neither can any "non-domestic" vehicle manufacturer.

Yes you can see this in their own data if you look carefully.
There are 17 areas they report on from engine to in car electronics
If you look at the data for the 2016 Ford Focus, of those 17 areas 12 are listed as Much Better than average,
1 is listed as better than average,3 are average, and only one is rated worse than average (not much worse)
But from that they give the car and overall rating of MUCH worse than average.

A similar quirk is in the Mustang data, Chevy Volt and other American cars.

How can all the data show Much Better than average, but yet the summary be Much Worse than average.

 

[jtpassat]

as most people already said, their reliability ratings are based on the regular fiesta and the auto to boot. Since the ST has a different engine and transmission, CR's reliability report had zero influence in purchasing this car. If they said the electronics was crap, then maybe I would raise an eyebrow.

 

[vegas_]

as most people already said, their reliability ratings are based on the regular fiesta and the auto to boot. Since the ST has a different engine and transmission, CR's reliability report had zero influence in purchasing this car. If they said the electronics was crap, then maybe I would raise an eyebrow.

Furthermore those 'problems' about the transmission are not real, just a perception.
The data from reliability index, shows exactly ZERO problems ( costs) related to the transmission.