Good morning All.

I am a newbie on here, and not that good when it comes to cars, so be patient with me 🙂

About a month ago I bought what I thought was a normal automatic Ford Focus 1.6 on a 2012 plate as advertised on the Car Shop website.

After i got the car I went on the internet to buy some car mats for it., when searching different sites, a couple of adverts said it was a semi automatic, which made my blood boil, as I did not want a semi automatic.

Anyway, I found out it was a Powershift 1.6 on a 2012 plate. (it was advertised as an automatic).

After reading up on this model and year, I found out that it had very bad reviews because of the power shift problem for this year i.e. 2012 reg.

Straight away i wanted to get rid of the car, and still want to. (i am so peed off with it).

My wife is driving it at the moment as she only works 5 miles away from our home, and only potters about in it when not at work.

People has advised me that as long as I get a gear box service and the transmission fluid changed every 38`000 miles or ever 3 years, plus the oil filter changed it will be ok, and they said that some people have these problems I have read about because they have not had the gearbox serviced, or the transmission fluid changed etc.

It has just over 40`000 miles on the clock.

Looking for some advise on this please.

Thank you.

Simon

 

 

Edited July 4, 20223 yr by Simon Finch
spelling

Firstly let's clear up this idea of an Automatic. There are many different types of automatic gearboxes made by different manufactures. If the gearbox changes gears by itself and you don't operate a clutch then no matter how the gearbox achieves that, it is fully automatic. As is your  2012 Powershift.

Semi-automatics while common on buses and some HGV's are generally rare on cars. They operate the clutch automatically but the driver still has to change gears.

Servicing any automatic gearbox is good practice, although many manufactures will claim that they are maintenance free for the life of the car. Having the automatic gearbox serviced every 38000 miles should be more than enough.

So other than you have 'read' some other peoples comments on the Powershift gearbox, are you happy with the car ?

You could always part exchange it for something like a 2012 Focus 1.0 Ecoboost and then you would have something to worry about !

Some manufacturers do list their own 'clutched' auto's as semi-auto.  (Yes, VW for one lol!)

You'll struggle to find a conventional slush auto nowadays.  In fairness, DSG is better than the Powershift of that era, but you'd have to pay badge premium for a VAG car.  

So yes, either keep up with the servicing and hope for the best, or choose a different car for peace of mind.  Chances are, Powershift problems would have shown up within the last 10 years if they were going to occur on this one.

49 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Some manufacturers do list their own 'clutched' auto's as semi-auto.  

 

I've often seen VW/Audi dealers describe DSG/S-tronic cars as "auto-clutch".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just now, Eric Bloodaxe said:

I've often seen VW/Audi dealers describe DSG/S-tronic cars as "auto-clutch".

Yep, 'auto-clutch manual' is one that I'm sure confuses a lot of people! 

That's a bit too long to write on the V5 though, so they tend to be listed as S-A instead.