Used Cars – Ford – Models ranked by reliability
Used Cars – Ford – Models ranked by reliability
By Lawrence Minnie
Buying a used car is a process that can be fraught with unknowns. South Africans are well known for being brand-biased, and if you love your brand of choice, it’s safe to say that you will most likely stay with it. But what happens when it’s time to upgrade from your trusty old hatchback? Do you know which models from your favorite brand are good or bad?
We spent some time scouring through a host of consumer reporting sites, and have dug up data for a list of models from a perennial local favorite, Ford.
We have ranked the models from least to most reliable, based on reports from car buyers, industry insiders, and consumer watchdogs such as JD Power. The list is current at the time of writing, and could change if anything like our first entry should arise from other models.
It should come as no surprise that the Kuga is the least reliable car on the list. After a disastrous year of Kugas catching fire, and a recall backlog stretching for months, the Kuga is still eyed with suspicion by consumers. The main fault here was a specific engine (the 1.6 EcoBoost), but it shed a poor light on the rest of the range. It should be mentioned that the new Kuga is clawing back a few spots on the sales charts, and hopefully the whole “Fiery Kuga” debacle will become a bad memory.
The standard Focus is actually a pretty good car but the name is brought down by the RS and ST badged versions. The RS suffered from an issue with engine failure (suspected to originate with bad head gaskets), and it is pretty well known that any ST badged Focus will have been hammered during its lifetime, and should best be avoided if it’s a high miler. Consumables such as brakes and clutches are very expensive to replace if the vehicle was abused, which it most likely would have been.
South African consumers would seem to have a love/hate relationship with the Mustang, with many praising it and others loathing it. Mechanically the Mustang seems to be doing okay but a very expensive purchase price and dubious fitment issues see the Mustang drop in popularity.
The Fiesta is a firm favorite amongst young professionals, but is plagued by very expensive service costs. Some consumers have reported premature wear on certain parts and very high parts prices and labour costs.
The EcoSport is also another firm favorite amongst consumers, and earns its place in the middle of the list. It too suffers from the same issues that plague the Fiesta but it is more often than not the more popular choice by just being an SUV. It is a pretty reliable vehicle but the service costs and some negative reviews drop it down the list.
The Transit van has been a default choice amongst small businesses in the UK for decades. Many of these Transits have been plying the roads for almost as long, making them incredibly reliable. South Africans have only recently caught on to the Transit, as an alternative to vans such as the Mercedes Benz Vito and Iveco Daily, so only time will tell if that reliability has transferred to African soil.
The Tourneo takes a page from its Transit sibling, and proves to be just as reliable. Many companies and hotels now make use of Tourneos as fleet vehicles for passenger transport, and cover hundreds of kilometers every day. If well maintained, the Tourneo should deliver years of worry-free travel, and maybe it will move up the list once it has proven itself locally as well.
Although the Toyota Fortuner outshines and outperforms the Everest in sales, the Everest is still a very reliable option from the Ford stable. With a rough and rugged drive train and a host of parts shared with the Ranger, the Everest is a good choice if you just need more space - something our number 2 entry doesn’t offer.
The Ford Ranger has consistently traded places with the Toyota Hilux as the bakkie of choice for years now. There was a short time in the early 2010’s when the drivetrain components were called into question, but that time and those complaints have long since departed. We have only been able to find positive feedback from Ranger owners.
The Ford Figo only narrowly pipped the Ranger to first place, mostly by being so very cost effective. The Figo may not be the fanciest entry on this list, but it sells in vast quantities, and we were unable to find any significant complaint from consumers or dealers that shed any negative light on the small hatchback. With affordable replacement parts and solid build quality, the Figo is Ford’s most reliable car.
If you were wondering about a certain sedan, we were unable to find a suitable data sample to represent the Fusion. Unfortunately, even though we absolutely loved the Fusion when it landed, the public did not. Poor sales numbers saw Ford drop the Fusion from their local range, and there are now very few of them available out there, as evidenced by current figures on AutoTrader: 19 for sale out of more than 6000 Fords vehicles available in South Africa.