M Gets a New Ride

M bought her car two days after we met, a 2015 Ford Focus in Ruby Red. She told me about it in a message, saying that she liked my red car so much she had to go out and buy one of her own. This is what got us talking to each other in the first place, so Ruby will always have a special place in our memories. However, while she really liked it overall the transmission was something that she never did like.

The 2015 Focus came with an option for what they call a Dual Clutch Transmission (DCT) which as far as I have read on the 'net (where they can't ever put anything that is not true) is essentially two computer controlled standard (IE, not planetary gearsets?) transmissions with actual dry clutches instead of torque converters that work in parallel. One has the even number gears and the other has the odd number gears and they switch off as the car accelerates. It works like an automatic, but it isn't really an automatic because it doesn't have a torque converter (which absorbs a lot of driveline vibration in addition to it's clutch-like duties).

The up side is improved fuel economy due to the actual clutches instead of the torque converter slushbox and faster shifts, but the down side is increased driveline vibration because there is no torque converter. M didn't like it because once upon a time she had a Jeep with a bad torque converter and it felt just like the DCT, so she was always worried that the torque converter was going to fail in the car and leave her stranded. Apparently the salesman didn't know enough about the DCT to explain the difference between it and the automatic and the service people only told her "it's supposed to do that" without explaining why. Judging by the many complaints and the quiet discontinuation of the transmission in future models she wasn't the only one, but alas for poor Ruby it was just a little too little a little too late.

Bottom line, she wasn't ever completely satisfied with the car, and the electronic power assist unit going out within a couple of hundred miles after the warranty expired just sealed poor Ruby's doom. When the she took it in to have them look at the transmission yet again (they had already replaced at least one clutch and the electronic brain under warranty) and they quoted her a 2K price tag to replace the clutches yet again she had had enough, especially since they wouldn't warranty the work (which IMO they should have because they had already replaced them once).

So last Saturday she took Ruby back to the dealer and drove home in this:

So far she's liking it but we'll see how much of that good feeling remains after she makes the first payment on it. It is a 2018 Escape SEL, fully loaded. Seat warmers (which, after driving the Mustang she decided she just had to have), dual zone climate control (which is something I am very fond of), 2.0 Ecoboost which satisfies the drag racer in her, and best of all it has a true automatic which means no more driveline shudder, which was the whole point to begin with.

What I like about it is she got the extended warranty and the extended service plan, so I won't have to be wrenching on it any time soon (unlike the Subaru which went through a right rear brake caliper last weekend). With the extended warranty if she does have issues with it she won't end up paying extra for it like she did with the EPAS and would have had to do with the clutches (although part of me thinks the clutches weren't all that bad and the service department was just looking for something to change so they could tell her they found and fixed the problem).

Hopefully it won't have any issues at least until the last payment is made.