NHTSA Complaint #11519644 — 2012 FORD FOCUS

On April 29, 2023 our 2012 Ford Focus SE with a 5 speed manual transmission indicated a dashboard warning stating the power steering assist was inoperable. Steering was still able to be done manually, but with much greater input required, especially at low speeds. Being a manual transmission, this is especially problematic as steering regularly has to be performed one handed. Fortunately this incident did not occur while driving, but reviewing many other similar complaints on the NHSTA website, as well as seaching '2012 Ford Focus steering issues' online, it is evident that this loss of assist CAN and HAS occurred to others when the vehicle was in motion. This poses a serious safety risk to not only the driver, but others on the road as well. This is an issue known to Ford Motor Company as they issued a recall (15S18) for similar problems on other Ford vehicles, but not the Focus. I am requesting the NHTSA investigate this situation and take action to compel Ford to fix the Focus as well under a recall to prevent similar situations from causing potential injury or death. I encourage one of your investigators to try driving one of these vehicles without the power assist to see just how dangerous it is, especially in low speed maneuvers. This car is primarily used by my son for his commuting to and from college. He is the one that first saw the warning. I am very thankful this did not happen while he was in motion. I will be contacting my dealer on Monday May 1, 2023 to start the diagnosis/repair process.