I posted this on Reddit before, but I decided I should consult a more professional audience.
Title says it all. I have thoroughly inspected the car from inside, outside, engine, VIN number, OBDII, absolutely no issues. The car drives perfectly fine. I bought it at 80k miles. So, did I make a bad deal? To me I just bought a car with good fuel economy at a decent price. I live in the US btw. Also it has the 1.6L standard engine. I have been told that this car has serious transmission issues and I have watched this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsYZLcDvndo by Scotty that goes into the issue. From what I gather, yes there are issues, but if you just replace the clutches and reprogram the computer it's fine? Yes I know I should have researched the car prior to buying it, but using my primitive heuristics I thought Ford doesn't make bad cars.
if you just replace the clutches and reprogram the computer it's fine?
Maybe temporarily but that transmission has an inherently defective design that cannot be fixed. If you have not already done so look up the Ford PowerShift class action lawsuit for details.
For that model only those with a manual transmission can be OK.
I thought Ford doesn't make bad cars.
That was more or less true ages ago. (I used to have a 1966 Fairlane that wouldn't quit no matter what abuse a young college idiot could throw its way.) However these days Ford is the recall king and poster boy for poor quality.
if you just replace the clutches and reprogram the computer it's fine?
No. The clutches are the problem. Replacing them won't fix it . The flaw is in the design -- dry clutches which overheat.
The defect was deemed "dangerous", and it's unfixable, which is why Ford had to buy the cars back.
I thought Ford doesn't make bad cars.
Not only do they make bad cars, but they are scumbags about it....
"... investigations conducted after the Focus and Fiesta models were succeeded, has revealed that Ford engineers and executives were aware of the problems before and after the release of it, with developmental engineers even stating in company e-mails that there was "no driveable calibration" of the transmission, and with pre-production test engineers having to pull over out of traffic due to the transmission shifting into neutral ... Ford has repeatedly denied systemic problems even to their own dealerships, instead directing them to replace the transmission over and over even though it was never truly fixed."
In Australia the court fined Ford $10M " for unconscionable conduct relating to the transmission problems and poor handling of customer complaints"
Ford is still under fraud investigation by the US Department of Justice for this problem ( https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2019/12/05/ford-focus-fiesta-dps-6-transmission-problems/2617601001/)
