7.0
pretty bad- Crashes / Fires:
- 0 / 0
- Injuries / Deaths:
- 0 / 0
- Average Mileage:
- 8,372 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
The NHTSA is the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints can be spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem. See the Back button — blue bar at the very top of the page — to explore more.
While driving the vehicle, a loud chime sounded, with a red triangle saying, "stop safely now" as well as a yellow "see manual" indication. This was very dangerous because it was sudden and while driving. The car lost all power and I had to attempt to pull of the street so I wouldn't cause an accident. I shifted to park and turned the car off and back on and it resolved the issue. However, 2 days later the same problem occurred but this time I was unable to restart the vehicle and needed to tow the car to the dealership.
- Lincoln Park , MI, USA
While traveling down the freeway, decelerating to change lanes the stop safely now message appeared and the car lost power. This is a re-occurrence and the dealer is working to resolve it.
- San Jose, CA, USA
Was driving at 25 mph in a residential zone, with 48 miles on the battery when an alert dinged and the message on the screen said "pull over to safety now." I immediately pulled out of traffic into a parking space as the power steering stopped working, then steering then completely locked, couldn't turn the wheel. The car would no longer go forward / had lost power. And the power breaks didn't seem to be functioning. Thankfully I had already come to a complete stop. The next morning we had it towed to an authorized Ford service center that said there was a recall for this issue. They applied the software fix and test drove the car only to have the problem reoccur. Therefore they said the fix for the recall didn't actually fix the problem and that they would have to order a replacement for the transmission control module, as that was the part Ford said was faulty / failed.
- Richmond , CA, USA
The car wouldn't start (electric car). A instrument panel message said see owners manual along with red exclamation mark showed. Had to be towed to dealer. Was diagnosed at first with a bad high voltage battery. They ordered one ($25,000 battery). One week into waiting, Ford (factory) said its not the battery and ordered a ground cable from the high voltage to the electric drive motor. It took 27 business days to get the vehicle repaired. Another visit, in Sept. 2012 the cars interior heater failed. They took 7 business day to order and replace the electric coolant heater pump.
- Wayzata, MN, USA
While driving I lost the ability to accelerate the vehicle as I approached an incline in the road and a "stop safely now" and "see manual" warning light appeared on the dash. I activated the hazard lights and pulled over into the bike lane. I shut off the car, opened the door and was able to restart the car after several failed attempts. Approximately 5 minutes later, I successfully restarted the car and drove back home, only the car lost the ability to accelerate again as I came through a major intersection. This time the warning signs were not activated until I had coasted to a stop. Then the same "stop safely now" and "see manual" warning light appeared on the dash. I placed the car in park and walked a mile home. The powertrain control module reprogram was completed by Ford in September of 2013. This is the 7th occurrence since the PCM has been reprogrammed by Ford. My safety has been repeatedly compromised and I no longer have confidence in this car nor Ford as they are unable to fix the problem and are unwilling to take responsibility. Please refer to my previous complaint filed prior to the PCM reprogramming and official recall notice.
- San Marcos, CA, USA
While driving in stop and go traffic on the freeway, the vehicle stalls unexpectedly, followed by a message to 'stop safely now'. after several minutes of attempting to restart, the vehicle restarts and is able to driven again normally. This has occurred to me three times so far, without warning and does not seem to be any common pattern that is causing the stalls.
- Oakland, CA, USA
While braking for a stop sign, there was a thud, the stop safely now light came on, and the car stopped immediately. It would not re-start. I pushed it to the side and called for a tow. It is now at the Ford dealer. This is the third incident of this kind and the second time I have taken it to the dealer and reported the incident to NHTSA.
- Palm Springs, CA, USA
The first event occurred on 7/17/2013, at 2267 miles. I had charged the battery overnight (at our motel), using the 120-volt charging cord. I had pulled the car around to the front of the motel the car was stationary, in "park, " when the "stop safely now" message was displayed. I just powered the car off and powered it back on. That cleared the ssn message. Then, I drove home, as planned, with no recurrences of the error message. Today, 10/24/2013, at 4127 miles, the "stop safely now" message was displayed (for only the second time), while I was driving down a hill, at about 30 mph. The car had been sitting in the parking lot, at work, and the ssn error occurred after driving about 1 mile. There was no place to pull over, without blocking traffic, but, since I was going downhill, I just continued coasting, made my usual right turn at the bottom of the hill, and pulled over, at a spot where there was a very wide, paved shoulder. Since it was too late in the day (5:30 pm) to get the car (with the power still on and the ssn message still displayed) towed to the local Ford dealer (which closes at 6 pm), I powered the car off and, then, powered it back on. The ssn error, again, went away, and I was able to safely drive home, with no additional ssn messages. Because of a construction detour, lately, I have been driving to work and back, on a major highway, that has a speed limit of 65 mph. Numerous stretches of that highway are both uphill and have little or no room to pull over. The last part of my trip home is us a steep hill, with lots of curve and mostly very narrow shoulders.
- Corning, NY, USA
My vehicle displayed a "stop safely now" warning during my normal morning commute. The warning was preceded by a failure of the radio portion of the sync system. I briefly turned off the vehicle at a usual stop on my route and upon turning it on, the radio volume, power and tuning were all unresponsive. I attempted to reset the vehicle at the next traffic light by powering down and opening the door, but the radio remained on even after the vehicle was off and the door was opened. I attempted this several more times at each successive traffic light and the radio would not shut off. After one such reset, the stop safely now warning was displayed on the dash. I was stopped at a traffic light at the time and was able to reset the vehicle and safely enter a parking lot and wait for a tow - with the radio still on. My local Ford dealer waited three days to diagnose the issue and unsurprisingly determined it was caused by a defective/dead 12 V battery and replaced the battery. Software was also updated. Upon returning home and attempting to charge, my vehicle displayed a high voltage system fault and had to be towed to the dealer again. The dealer said this fault was caused by a loose connection on a terminal block on the electric motor that was used to signal battery capacity to the on-board computer.
- Hillsborough, NJ, USA
Car shut down/stopped while driving; warning light says "stop safely now" but there is no choice -- the car shuts down and only option is to coast to side of road.
- Spicewood, TX, USA
I have received a "stop safely now" warning twice in the past week while drive my Ford Focus electric. When this has happened I've lost all acceleration, and one of the times I lost the ability to steer and break. Both times that this has happened the car battery was near fully charged. --------------------------------- 1st occurrence was on Oct 7th 2013 while slowing down to approach a stop sign, I heard beeping and received the "stop safely now" warning on the screen and immediately the car lost power (the dashboard still had power). I lost the ability to steer, break and accelerate. Thankfully I was already coming to a stop (for the stop sign) and was under 5mph. The car rolled to a stop, I was unable to turn the car back on until I opened the driver's door (this caused the dashboard to power off), after this I was able to power the car back on and continue driving. ------------------------------------- 2nd occurrence was on Oct 16th 2013 while driving 65mph on the freeway, I heard beeping and received the "stop safely now" warning on the screen and immediately the car lost power (the dashboard still had power), this time I was still able to steer and break but had no acceleration. Thankfully there was a freeway exit close by, and the car had enough momentum that I was able to roll down the exit ramp and to the shoulder of the feeder road. The car would not restart, I had to open the driver side door for the car to power down all the way. I was than able to power the car back on and keep driving. ------------------------------------- I have taken the car to the Ford service dept (on Oct 17th); at this time they are telling me that they have not found an issue.
- Katy, TX, USA
Stop safely now- car asked me to stop safely now while driving and I pulled over. At that point, it did not restart. Has happened 4 other times with my wife and 4 kids in the car while traveling at speed. Very unsafe and have reported to Ford. Has been in shop for over 30 days and they are executing a buy-back, but with all these other cars on the road, it can be extremely dangerous as you lose all control with an electric car. Needs to be investigated and Ford needs to fix the problem by finding a root cause.
- Newbury Park, CA, USA
On at least 8 separate occasions, while driving my car all of sudden and out of the blue it displays a "stop safely now" warning on the dashboard and then completely loses all power to the drivetrain as soon as it slows to down to approx. 5mph. Fortunately, I've not been killed yet as a result of this. The car has been to the Ford dealer 2 times since the first occurrence in April to "fix" the problem and is currently there again after it most recently happened on Sept 24, 2013. It's now been at the dealer for nearly two weeks and they are still trying to figure it out.
- Lafayette, CA, USA
I have just over 1000 miles on my 2013 Focus ev... took it for its 1st power car wash today @ delta sonic... about 10:00 min driving away from car wash, vehicle abruptly "shut down" requesting an "immediate safe stop" and the "yellow wrench" showed on dash. After about 30:00 min while scheduling a tow from Ford roadside assist, vehicle abruptly "cleared itself" and turned on... drove home w/O problem " wondering if "flood sensor" sensed too much water and disengaged battery pack ?... lights, radio and accessories were still operating. Somewhat concerned on vehicles performance during upcoming "cold wet" months. Your suggestion "
- Rochester, NY, USA
- Arlington , Tx, TX, USA