2012 Ford Fiesta
This year drew an ordinary 616 complaints for a Ford Fiesta — the model's median is 258. What they were about is the unusual part: 33% of them mention door, against 11.6% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 616 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 258 |
| Involving a crash | 12 |
| Involving a fire | 5 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 32 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- door — 33% of this year's complaints, against 11.6% across the model's other years (2.8×). Owners wrote it as: door, latch, door latch, passenger door.
- open — 24.5% of this year's complaints, against 8.2% across the model's other years (3×). Owners wrote it as: open, doors, stay, hold.
- close — 15.1% of this year's complaints, against 4.3% across the model's other years (3.5×). Owners wrote it as: close, calls.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
THE RIGHT PASSENGER REAR DOOR WILL NOT LOCK. IF YOU SLAM THE DOOR, IT WILL NOT LATCH SHUT. IT ACTUALLY BOUNCES BACK OPEN. THE DOOR CANNOT BE CLOSED, LEAVING THE INTERIOR LIGHTS ON. THERE IS NO WAY TO SECURE THE DOOR CLOSED WHILE DRIVING. THE VEHICLE CANNOT BE…
WHILE ATTEMPTING TO REVERSE, THE DOOR AJAR WARNING LIGHT ILLUMINATED. A PEDESTRIAN NOTIFIED THAT THE REAR PASSENGER DOOR WAS OPENED AND THE DOOR FAILED TO LATCH. THE CONTACT USED BUNGEE CORDS IN ORDER TO KEEP THE DOOR CLOSED. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT DIAGNOSED OR R…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 15V246000 LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES Fixed free of charge.
- 12V488000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V331000 LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Ford Fiesta was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2012 Ford Fiesta? What happened to yours?
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