2016 Ford Fiesta
This year drew an ordinary 178 complaints for a Ford Fiesta — the model's median is 502. What they were about is the unusual part: 9% of them mention referred, against 2.2% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 178 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 502 |
| Involving a crash | 10 |
| Involving a fire | 1 |
| Recalls | 0 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 30 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- referred — 9% of this year's complaints, against 2.2% across the model's other years (4×). Owners wrote it as: referred, referred contact, speed transmission.
- illuminated contact — 7.9% of this year's complaints, against 1.8% across the model's other years (4.4×). Owners wrote it as: illuminated contact, needing.
- undisclosed — 6.2% of this year's complaints, against 1.8% across the model's other years (3.4×).
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
while driving at an undisclosed speed, the transmission unexpectedly downshifted. There was no warning light illuminated. The dealer was contacted; however, the vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and referred…
while driving at an undisclosed speed, he heard an abnormal sound emanating from underneath the vehicle. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, who diagnosed a failure with the transmission, requiring a replacemen…
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 2016 Ford Fiesta? What happened to yours?
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