I have a 2012 Ford Focus that broke down 8 days after the extended Warranty on the Transmission Control Module (TCM) ran out. The local Ford dealer requested that it be treated as a warranty repair but Ford declined. The garage has asked me to contact Ford direct. From my research the TCM for the 2012 Focus is a long standing and known Ford issue. In Australia the warranty extension was to 7 years and in the US, the warranty extension was to 10 years. In the UK it is 5 years. Apart from facing a bill of £600 plus, it is particularly frustrating in that: 1. The car was serviced by my local Ford garage in August (which would have been within the 5 year warranty) and when I took the car in I did request that they investigate a juddering issue. The service desk took notes of the various things that i had asked to be done but apparently this particular issue was not logged. I therefore have no physical evidence that the juddering which is a classic symptom of a TCM issue occurred during the warranty period (I do have a word doc in which i made notes about what i wanted doing, the properties of which show the date of 4th August, but this is not being taking into account). 2. The local garage did actually phone to tell me that the repair would be done under warranty. They are not disputing that they told me this. However, when it came to processing the paperwork, they then informed me that it wasn't a warranty repair. 3. the car was given a software update for the gearbox in 2016 and 2017 services which I understand was to help with juddering on gear changes. So my questions: a. Do I have a case for requesting from Ford that the repair is considered a Goodwill out of warranty gesture? The car has a full ford service history. b. Do i have any case for making a complaint to the local dealer who wrongly informed me that the repair would be covered? c. Is there any way to prove the legality of the word document that contains my notes from the service. It was created and saved on 4th August, on the day I made the appt for the car to be serviced? Forgot to say that the local garage has been helpful albeit not in actually getting the repair accepted under warranty. They have given me a loan car as the repair is now into its 6th week. Another additional note. If this was a regular consumer item like a tap or a TV then I would go down the 1973 sale of goods act that the goods need to be fit for purpose and that there would be a reasonable expectation that the TCM unit would have a longer lifespan than 5 years, in effect there is an implied warranty but it appears from my research so far that the car manufacturers don't back down when this is put to them.

I own an auto 2012 Ford Focus, which I have just learned has an ongoing problem with the Transmission Control Module (TCM), there have law suits all over the US about it and several recalls. Over here in the UK it appears that the most Ford have done is to extend the warranty on the part to 5 years. In the US the extension was initially to 7yrs/100,000 miles, and more recently the extension has been now extended to 10years/150,000. miles in the US. Yet it remains at 5 years here in the UK. Our car has not been driving well; not shifting gears properly about 2 weeks ago ended up going in to limp mode with the transmission light coming on. (we had it service last year at Ford - they said it was fine and no lights ever came on prior to this occasion) We took it to Ford (in London), they "fixed" it, telling us it was a recall issue which was a software issue. we collected the car and within 5 miles it went in to limp mode again. Ford now say the whole TCM needs replacing. Charge, including labour, will be £635.20. Luckily my partner, who was driving the car when he collected it the first time, got stuck in traffic, otherwise its very likely he would have been on the motorway doing 70miles and hour and the transmission would have failed and the car gone in to limp mode. Ford acknowledge that it is a known problem with the TCM in these models which is why they gave the extension on the warranty to 5 years. But my argument is why do UK customers get 5 year extension and the US customers get 10 years. How can Ford treat their customers differently for the exact same problem? Our car is about 5 months passed the 5 year warranty on the TCM. I also understand that the software upgrade was to notify the driver earlier of problems with the TCM, so if we had had the software upgrade earlier, we might have discovered the problem when we within the 5 year UK warranty period. I've called Ford UK and they just say I have to pay for the repair as I am not within the warranty period. I don't want to accept this and want the same warranty as other costumers in other parts of the world get. I've been sold the same faulty car as every other person out there with this problem, so why different treatment? I feel like a UK customer is less important than a US customer. NOTE: if anyone was looking at buying a Ford Focus or Fiesta - DON'T , do you research first as its a problem that still has not been solved, even with the 2016 models. Anyways, any help welcome. DR

Hi guys, I have purchased a 2008 E92 - 325D sport - from a dealer, the car looks and drove perfectly, one issue that came up while on the motorway, it beeped followed by loss of power the amber gear wheel appeared on the dash and on the communication screen came up with "automatic transmission fault" parked on the site of the road, switched on and switched off still the issues was there, on pulling away the car seems stuck in second gear. I took it back to the dealer where I bought it and its under warranty, I haven't heard anything from the dealer yet. the car has 48k miles on the clock, its in really good nick, full service history. as I've just bough the car, less than a week, i'm I in any postion to reject this car if i'm not satisfied/happy with the possible repair? or what should I do if I drive around and say after 2 months or more this issue occurs again, where do I stand legally as a consumer? and what action can I take, the car was 11,000 pounds and bough and I used my savings. look forwar to hear thoughts and views as always cheers

Hi, Just noticed that Minicredit changed their terms and conditions and renamed the 19.50 GBP transmission fee now a drawdown fee. Makes me wonder why? So I thought it is time to reclaim this so I sent them this: "Dear Madam or Sir, I am writing in relation to loans associated to my account, for which I incurred transmission fees which I do not believe are fairly and reflecting the actual costs of fund transmissions. The loans were taken out from from 17 January 2012 to 06 July 2012 The reason I believe that these transmission fees (19.50 GBP for each transmission) are unfair and not reflecting the actual costs of fund transmissions is that these are very high and unclear. Unless you can provide proof that these transmission fees were reasonable and actually incurred, I will expect a full refund of these transmission fees (136.50 GBP), plus 8% interest on these up to 8 August 2013 (14.94 GBP), in total 151.44 GBP, plus daily interest of 8% after 8 August 2013. I look forward to your prompt response to this email. If I have not had a satisfactory response from you within eight weeks of this letter I will contact the Financial Ombudsman Service to formally investigate my complaint. Kind regards" Can't wait for their reply