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CarComplaints.com Notes: The 2016 Ford Focus & its "Powershift" transmission has a defect trend where the car shudders when accelerating, especially when starting uphill.

Most owners have reported their Ford Focus remains driveable while the vehicle is still at low mileage, but the shuddering is annoying & unpleasant & may reduce the resale value of the vehicle.

However, owners of higher-mileage vehicles from earlier 3rd generation Focus model years report transmission failure & a host of other major & expensive transmission-related problems. Potential buyers beware.

6.1

fairly significant
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
12,706 miles

About These NHTSA Complaints:

This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.

So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.

2016 Ford Focus accessories - interior problems

accessories - interior problem

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2016 Ford Focus Owner Comments

problem #4

Jan 102020

Focus 4-cyl

  • 26,825 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

Ford Focus purchased new for our daughter in 2016. We all noticed a stutter or jerking motion upon acceleration and odd feeling when it shifted gears.. this has been going on for years. This cars is essentially all my daughters. I advised her as well as calling myself to the dealership we purchased it from because she wanted to take it in for an oil change or tire rotation. She advised them of the issue many times, no every time she took it up there. She was always told it was "normal" and nothing was wrong with it. So we trusted them that for some odd reason this is normal. Jan 2020. She was driving and the car began to shudder very badly the check engine light came on and it began to stop in the road like she was breaking. She described it as the car was just breaking on its own type feeling in the middle of a busy road. She brought it slowly to the dealership right away as it was not drivable.apparently it is an transmission issue. A well known one! I will provide the service record in this for you to see what was replaced the numbers and codes etc. It was at the shop Jan 10-13th. Well they did replace some parts it was still doing the jerking stutter when accelerating after the repairs. Again she assumed that was normal because we have been told that many times and we thought maybe the actual problem she had was fixed. It was not. The transmission issue will never be fixed from what I am learning today in regards to this 2016 Focus in the news. I am reaching out for someone to listen to all of us. It is not a coincidence that so many of us can not seem to get our vehicles fixed at least if they can not fix them take them back! I never knew this was such a huge ongoing problem with essentially defective vehicles.. Ford needs to be held responsible. We will take the car in again next week for them to tell us its "normal". seat also has stopped adjusting.

- Clarksville, TN, USA

problem #3

Jun 102019

Focus

  • miles
Sever shuddering when shifting, especially from 1st to 2nd gear; pre-shifting at low RPM's and slipping gears; stalling and near-stalling when attempting to accelerate or when on an incline; back seats come unlocked and fly forward when you brake hard- contrarily the front seats fly back when accelerating. Ford demands payment for estimate/diagnostic even though they are well aware of the problems with this line of vehicle. Extended warranty was offered, at a significant charge- should be free!!!. these problems have been ongoing since I initially purchased the vehicle.

- Shaker Hts, OH, USA

problem #2

Apr 182018

Focus

  • 17,000 miles
Driver's seat track to seat attachment point becomes loose after 6K miles, causing seat to move during lateral loads. Dealer replaced seat track and issue replicated in 6K miles. Dealer fix was to use worm clamps to repair. They state that they went to an internet forum for a fix. After complaints, dealer replaced with another new seat track. State manufacturer has no tsb or design change yet

- Livonia, MI, USA

problem #1

Feb 062018

Focus

  • 7,000 miles
Drivers seat will slide side to side during turns. Only slides about.5" but slides none the less. Slides left to ride. After multiple trips to the dealer finally getting a new seat frame installed. They were very hesitant, but then found out its on back-order. But this could lead to injury during an accident. As it may have you off center of the airbag if deployed. After doing some research found, out this problem isnt fixed with new seat track it will reappear after several more thousand miles of driving. Started to notice around 7000 miles, and has gotton progressively worse.

- Canton, MI, USA

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