2017 Ford Fiesta
This year drew an ordinary 73 complaints for a Ford Fiesta — the model's median is 502. What they were about is the unusual part: 32.9% of them mention valve, against 9.9% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 73 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 502 |
| Involving a crash | 7 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 0 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 30.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- valve — 32.9% of this year's complaints, against 9.9% across the model's other years (3.3×). Owners wrote it as: valve, purge, purge valve, canister.
- start — 19.2% of this year's complaints, against 7.6% across the model's other years (2.5×).
- referred contact — 11% of this year's complaints, against 1.8% across the model's other years (6.1×). Owners wrote it as: referred contact, side tire.
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 CAR EVAP PURGE VALVE STAYS OPEN. THE CAR IDLES AND DIES EVERYTIME I PUT GAS IN. THE PURGE VALVE WAS REPLACED LESS THAN A YEAR OF PURCHASING THE CAR AND IT'S GONE BAD AGAIN. THE CHECK ENGINE LIGHT AND ENGINE MALFUNCTION WARNING CAME ON THEN TWO DAYS LATER T…
there was a warning indicator of PO456 and P1450. The contact stated there was an abnormal winding sound detected. Additionally, while driving the vehicle hesitated. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer to be diagnosed and fixed but in 4 months again the…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
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 2017 Ford Fiesta? What happened to yours?
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