Dealer says my Focus' shudder is normal

I have a '16 Ford Focus that I’m having trouble with the automatic transmission. It shakes & shutters when accelerating from a stop or when trying to acclerate after slowing down. I have taken it to my dealership 2x now and they told me that it should have some shutter. I don’t think that as much as its doing it that this is normal & not a problem. They told me to drive it 10000 miles & bring it back if still not happy. I appreciate any advice that you can give me. Is this safe to drive still or if they keep giving me the run around should I trade it in on another car? Thanks!!!

Yeah, it’s normal, because Ford built them with bad parts and so a lot of them display the symptoms. But then, breaking a leg is fairly normal in the grand scheme of things and that doesn’t mean you hop around with the broken leg dangling. You get it fixed!

Fortunately, the courts agree with that idea:

So while the dealer is correct that it’s normal, they’re committing a lie-of-omission by not then explaining that they’re supposed to fix it for free.

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could be 1 yrs time for 10k miles. maybe it will get better

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Yes, it is normal for that car as a built in option :slight_smile:
If you go on the Focus fanatics forum, you will see everybody is complaining. I was out with a friend yesterday, visiting from out of town and he had a rental Focus, same problem. They all do it.

I bought a manual Focus in 2014 for the same known issue. Now in my case the clutch bearing was making noise when cold. I took it in and they told me to drive another 10000 miles and it should go away. We all know bad bearings don’t get better with more wear and tear but seems like 10000 miles is their favorite shot.

On a similar note, since your car has a dual clutch automatic, you should watch a few youtube videos on its characteristics and to do’s/not to do’s.

“Maybe he’ll be out of warranty by the time 10k miles rolls around and then we can trick him into thinking he doesn’t get warranty coverage. Or at least we’ll have parts in to fix it by then since we have a 300 car backlog seeing as they’re all built to the same craptastic standard.”

Google Ford TSB 16-0109. You may need the A/T clutch replaced.

To compare what’s normal amount of shudder and what’s not of course, ask to take a test drive in one of their similar cars on their lot. Some shudder is expected, just what comes with that A/T design.