New 2014 Focus Titanium broke down first day
 

Just bought the car today, but it broke down on my way home.
The display is showing "Transmission overheating Stop safely" and stopped moving. What should I do?

just called dealership and roadside assistance. they will tow the car to the dealership tomorrow to take a look.

Anybody know this can be a serios issue? a brand new car breaks down after just 42 miles.

the car was towed back to the dealership, was "fixed" and test drived for whole day. they promised me that the same issue won't ever happen again to the car, but the exact same issue happened again on my way home!!!

They are going to get tired of chasing after the car and eventually correct the problem. Get a loaner if possible so you get all the way home.
You could always take a tech with you on the drive home.

Just out of curiosity...

1. Did they tell you what they found?
2. Was the diagnosis/repair written clearly on the repair order?
3. Since you only had 42 miles on it when it died, did the "IN /OUT" mileage on the R.O. reflect a "whole day" after repair test drive?

they said it was a computer glitch, on the receipt it is said no error code was stored in memory and they re-program the software. Since there was no mileage on the towing, the receipt in/out mileage was 42/52, the actual mileage on the car when I picked it up last night was 55. It broke down again at 72 miles mark.

Being towed, either by hook or flatbad, it wouldn't clock any mileage, so then by the R.O., they drove it 10 miles after the re-program and somebody drove it another 3 miles after the R.O. was closed out. I take "ALL DAY" as at least 6 hours, so based on the R.O. IN/OUT mileage, they drove your vehicle 6 MPH.

Based on your last failure, they need to hook up computer to your vehicle and drive it at least 50 miles while somebody monitors the computer for the actual failure.

I would also tell the Dealer if they don't diagnose and repair this time, you'll take it to another Dealer and the original Dealer will take a negative hit from Ford.

after the 2nd failure, they decide to replace it. but the brand new replacement car reproduced the exactly the same problem at the exactly the same location several seconds after I took over the car, trying to show to the dealer how the other car happened before.


now the dealer thinks this not about a lemon, but more of a design issue they can't deal with. they can't sell the car to me and will give me the refund later.


I think this transmission issue may have impact on many if not all 2014 focus titanium cars. On a slope with specific angle, at a specific speed, the transmission is very likely (reproduced on the only two brand new cars 3 days in a roll) to become overheating in seconds and the car started shaking and then loses power.

That was exactly why I suggested you take the Ford tech with you on the way home.
There are times when a driver does something unusual or the conditions of the trip are different from the usual drive. Glad you were able to reproduce the condition for them .
You should ask for a fee for test driving their/your vehicle and saving them a heck of a lot more trouble up the road. Curious to know if they will tell you what the problem was.

I don't think they can have find the cause and fix the car that easily. Now I have to go over the hassle of buying a car again.