Two problems related to transmission not engage have been reported for the 2012 Ford Fiesta. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2012 Ford Fiesta based on all problems reported for the 2012 Fiesta.
The transmission in this car does not engage properly at times causing it to not accelerate as expected. This sometimes feels like there isn't enough power available to accelerate and other times it shudders and shakes until it shifts from first gear to second. We submitted the car for the transmission computer reprogramming TSB when it became available. It seemed to improve its operation. Our son drives this car to commute to college and it worries us terribly. I know two other people that own cars with the same transmission and ours is not as bad, but still unpredictable and dangerous when driving in dense traffic. The vehicle has approximately 105,000 carefully maintained miles. At 100,500 miles the transmission got worse. Ford was called and they refused to consider repairing it under the extended warranty offered on this transmission (7 years/100,000 miles) because it was just outside of the permitted mileage. From what we have read, it doesn't sound like the �repair� is worth doing since the problems quickly return. We can't sell the car in this condition without taking a major loss. It's a bad situation.
Transmission does not engage or disengage when it's supposed to. Slow to start from a complete stop; hard to accelerate for passing; late to stop because downshifting is late.