NHTSA Complaint #11465998 — 2015 FORD FIESTA

When accelerating, there is a shuddering sensation as you can feel the clutches slipping. The shifting is also sluggish at times. When in "sport mode" an error state can occur where the transmission fails to shift gears altogether and a warning comes up on the dashboard to service the transmission immediately. While that error is up, the shuddering becomes much worse and the engine will try to lurch forward at random times when it chooses the wrong gear. This lurching will fight the brakes too, decreasing stopping distance if the driver isn't extra diligent. This error state is cleared by stopping and starting the car again. There are no other visible dashboard warnings associated with this issue in daily driving. I took it to a local service center to be diagnosed and they determined it was either a worn clutch or a faulty TCM in need of a replacement. I took it to the Ford dealership in the area, and they narrowed it down to the clutch and not the TCM. Ford issued an extended warranty for this issue on other 2015 Ford Fiestas, but mine fell just outside the required build date despite having identical symptoms as what the warranty was for on the other cars. The car is only 7 years old with 92k miles on it, so if it was part of the aforementioned extended warranty (7 years or 100k miles) it would qualify, but not for much longer. This seems to be a known issue that Ford never fixed despite the car being outside the extended warranty cutoff.