2011 Ford Fiesta
Complaints about this year name door far more often than the model's other years — 24% of them, about 3× the usual rate of 7.9%.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 729 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 258 |
| Involving a crash | 32 |
| Involving a fire | 5 |
| Recalls | 3 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 32 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- grinding — 6% of this year's complaints, against 1.8% across the model's other years (3.4×). Owners wrote it as: grinding, grinding noise.
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.
Also unusual this year
- latch — 16% of complaints, 4× usual
- fix — 13% of complaints, 3× usual
- door latch — 11% of complaints, 4× usual
What owners wrote
I CHECKED RECALL STATUS ON FORD OFFICIAL WEBSITE AND THERE'S NOTHING ON FORD FIESTA 2011. IT'S ONLY ON YOUR DATABASE WHICH FAILURES ME TO LIST MY CARS ONLINE. PLEASE DOUBLE CHECK THE SAFETY RECALL. NUMBER DOOR LATCH REPEAT REPAIR (NHTSA #20V331) AN IMAGE (SCRE…
THE REAR PASSENGER DOOR LATCH BROKE. WHEN I LOOKED AT IT, IT WOULD FLAP LOOSELY INSIDE ITS MECHANISM AND WOULD NOT SECURE THE DOOR TO THE BODY OF THE CAR. I HAD TO RATCHET STRAP THE DOORS TOGETHER TO KEEP THE BAD ONE CLOSED. NOW, SIX MONTHS AFTER THE FIRST LAT…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 20V331000 LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES Fixed free of charge.
- 15V246000 LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES Fixed free of charge.
- 12V488000 AIR BAGS 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 2011 Ford Fiesta? What happened to yours?
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