I have a new 2013 Ford Fiesta with less than 2000 miles on it. While I am at a stop sign, I step on the gas, and the car does not go immediately. It feels like my foot slips off the gas pedal, although I know that is not the case because my foot is still on the pedal! I have to ease off the gas pedal just a bit until the car will go into first gear and get some momentum. It only happens every once in a while, not every time I am at a stop sign.
I checked with the dealer and of course he said it is the way I’m driving it. He said I don’t need to step on the gas like it is a sports car. I’m not driving it like Mario Andretti. I’m just trying to get around town with a bit of efficiency. If you are familiar with Chicago city driving, you know the drivers behind you don’t have time to wait for my little Ford Fiesta to eventually kick into gear.
I don’t have any issues with it going from 3rd to 4th or 2nd to 3rd gear.
Any suggestions what could be wrong with it?
…Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, it is an automatic. NOT a stick shift. But, it drives more like a stick shift.
Typical dealer bs. Find some Fiesta forums, this is a known problem. Ford sells it as a sporty compact, you should be able to drive it that way.
Does it have the start-stop feature? It’s popular over in Europe where the car automatically shuts the engine off when you’re stopped at a light then turns it back on when you push the gas pedal. This is done to help save any little extra MPGs it can
Problem is related to the dual clutch automatic.
Thank you for the tips. I did find plenty of similar complaints in european forums that describe the same issue. The american cars don’t come with a shut-off at a stop light, I don’t think. A friend of mine also took it for a ride and considered the problem is possibly associated with traction control.
“The american cars don’t come with a shut-off at a stop light, I don’t think.”
You don’t know whether your engine is shutting down at a stop light?
Simply looking at the tachometer will tell you whether or not the engine is running.
I had heard the US was getting that feature, so I wasn’t sure if it had come out yet or not. I don’t know much about it, except that it’s supposed to save fuel
bscar2
…the car automatically shuts the engine off when you’re stopped at a light then turns it back on when you push the gas pedal.
Gad, what a perfectly dreadful idea. I’d have to immediately defeat that little feature in any car I owned.
Here’s Ford’s description of this transmission:
“It’s about performance, it’s about fun. The available class-exclusive* dual dry-clutch PowerShift six-speed automatic delivers performance and fuel efficiency2 similar to that of a manual transmission, plus the shift quality and ease of operation provided by an automatic transmission. Engine torque is delivered to the drive wheels 100 percent of the time for an extra-connected feel. Hill start assist provides improved drivability on steep inclines. The neutral idle mode helps eliminate drag and contributes to fuel efficiency.** As for maintenance – none is required. Fill-for-life transmission fluid requires no dipstick and is designed to last up to 150,000 miles.”
It’s not a ‘normal’ automatic, it is a computer-controlled dual clutch automated manual transmission. And note the ‘neutral idle mode’, that’s what’s probably causing the OP’s issue.
It doesn’t have engine stop/start.
What the OP is complaining about does seem to be a valid complaint. I’d suggest to the OP to test drive some other identical new cars from the dealer’s lot and see if they do the same thing. If they show the same symptom, then there isn’t much you can do about it. You had opportunity to test this out before you purchased the car. You bought it, you own it. But if the other new cars don’t do this, it is unique to just your car, then you have evidence of your complaint right from the dealer’s lot, and the dealer will have to fix it.
One time I had a VW Rabbit that developed a problem where the fuel pump would turn on and remain on when the key was turned to “on” but the car hadn’t yet been starter. The fuel pump shouldn’t only turn on when the engine is cranking, except perhaps briefly, for a few seconds when the key is turned to “on”. I took it to the VW dealer and asked them to fix it, but the shop manager said “all VW Rabbits do this, as soon as the key is turned to on the fuel pump runs whether engine is started or not”. I knew better, so I asked him to come out to the car lot with me and we’ll try a few of the new cars. Each one, we put the key in, turne it to “on”, no sound from the fuel pump. Again. Again. He tried to say “well, the fuel pump has been improved, now it is silent.” I insisted he put a stethoscope on the pump on the new car. Still he can’t hear anything. Finally he agreed I was right and to fix the problem. Sometimes you just have to be persistant. If you have proof, they pretty much have to fix it under warranty if it only occurs on your car and not on other new cars.
“Sometimes you just have to be persistant. If you have proof, they pretty much have to fix it under warranty if it only occurs on your car and not on other new cars.”
…and sometimes you have to turn their own words against them in order to get them to actually do something about your complaint!
In my case, my new Chevy Citation had a very annoying rattle coming from the door lock button (actually, it was a slide mechanism on the door panel), and it was obvious that the thing was loose. When I had the car in for its first oil change, I asked that this rattle be taken care of.
Sure enough, there was no change when I picked the car up. So, I repeated my request at the second oil change. Still no action.
At the third oil change, I complained louder and longer about this rattle, and I demanded to speak with the service manager. The SM told me, “That’s the way it’s designed to work. If it was tightened, the lock mechanism would bind-up, so there’s nothing that we can do about it.”
My reply to him was, “Well, I certainly want everything on my car to work as it was designed to, so I have a slightly different complaint. The door lock button on the passenger door doesn’t rattle, so please be sure that you loosen it up to match the rattle of the one on the driver’s door. I don’t want to wind up with a binding mechanism on that other door.”
He gave me a pained look, but–guess what? By turning his words against him, and by defeating him with logic, I finally got him to do the adjustment that I had sought in the first place.
Good story VDC! lol … persistence with a little puzzler-style reverse-logic pays off.
Oh Oh, VDC, your story reminds me of a story. I hope this isn’t too boring. Here goes. One time I ended up in a situation w/a boss who I found very difficult to work with. He kept telling me to do nonsensical things, procedures that were very unlikely to work. I was getting nowhere. I was thinking I was soon going to be fired, b/c I wasn’t accomplishing anything. But after about 6 months of this – my momma didn’t raise no slow learner! lol — I realized that no matter what I would recommend to this boss, he’d tell me to do the opposite. As you might expect, once I discovered this, I used your reverse-logic method. If I wanted to do x to address some problem, I’d say to him “maybe we should do the opposite of x”. Then he’d tell me, “no, do x.” Problem solved. I started immediately to accomplish my goals, and never had any further difficulty with him.
A year or so later though, he was fired.