Are problems rare? Would you recommend FFE to a friend??

[JTCalif]

Ours (received in Aug. 2012) has been essentially trouble-free and it works even better than I hoped. I do more than my fair share of driving when carpooling with friends, for cost and environmental reasons (less $/mile and lower pollution than their gasoline cars). I really like the idea and the performance of these battery-powered cars, and encourage others to consider them ... but I hesitate to recommend this Ford one because of what I read here, at least until persuaded that the main problems have been solved.
Do YOU recommend it?

There have been plenty of reports on these forums of serious problems in Focus Electrics.
Are those examples of “only bad news gets reported”, and most FFE’s work well?
HOW do you decide?

Going mainly from the data that jmueller065 gathered in his “Stop Safely Now Stats” scorecard, there have been about 37 cars reported to have suffered the “SSN” failure.
Based on the monthly plug-in sales scorecard shown on insideevs.com,
685 FFE’s were sold in 2012, and 900 more in first ½ of 2013, + maybe 160 more in July (extrapolating) for a total of 1745.
That is an SSN in about 2 % of cars ... and we have to assume that others have not shown up here. (Only 134 posts on the “introductions” thread, and some of those were just considering. Other people may not have found this forum ... but perhaps a large % of the unhappy ones have??)

 

[user 3729]

This is a good topic. I'm anxious to hear what others have to say. I'm still waiting on the EV sidelines. I'll probably get whatever Tesla comes up with for Gen 3, but I'd like an EV today ... the Focus is the only one on the market that makes sense, but the SSN problem is very concerning.

 

[kmaluo]

I'm a little weary recommending the vehicle to a friend with all the SSN reports here. However, most people who experience the problem seek out this forum so it's a little hard to say how prominent the issue really is.

The 3rd model Tesla vehicle is the Model X SUV coming next year. It's basically the same powertrain as the S and Roadster, so it's gonna still be almost as pricey as the S. Elon Musk wants the 4th model to hopefully drop down into the $40k range or lower. That might be my next EV when my FFE lease expires.

 

[user 3729]

I believe the X will be priced higher than the S. I personally can't wait to reserve a BlueStar/Gen 3 Tesla, and whatever I get next will be with the intent to bridge that gap.

 

[lallaram]

There have been plenty of reports on these forums of serious problems in Focus Electrics.
Are those examples of “only bad news gets reported”, and most FFE’s work well?
HOW do you decide?