At the risk of coming across as overly-negative, these Powershift autos do not have such
a good reputation...... However, I do hope that the
OP and others experiencing problems can get
them sorted out soon!
From the Dog and Lemon Car Guide, Current Focus Review:
http://www.dogandlemon.com/
"Ford’s 6-speed Powershift automatics have been the subject of much
criticism. The Ford Powershift transmission uses what’s called a dualclutch
system to give extremely quick gear changes and better fuel
economy. Drivers can also select gears using tiny plus or minus buttons
on the side of the gear selection lever, but this is clumsily annoying.
Ford’s rivals put paddle shifters behind the steering wheel.
We have a dim opinion of dual clutch transmission systems, because
they tend to give lots of expensive problems and because they often
don’t work all that well in the real world.
Being a racing system, the Powershift is pretty good if you’re travelling,
say, through a series of winding roads at high speed. It’s at city rush
hour speeds that the Powershift’s glaring defects really start to show. At
low speeds the transmission often can’t work out which gear it should
be in. Thus the transmission hesitates, jerks and sometimes won’t
accelerate properly. In very cold weather the transmission sometimes
takes a long time to get going. Ford has modified the programming
on these transmissions to try and get around these problems, but these
problems have not gone away.
Ford has repeatedly tried to claim that this is a great transmission,
but that owners simply have to get used to a different type of gear
changing. We think that this is a crock: the Powershift simply doesn’t
work properly. The owners are right and Ford is wrong.
And, as is so often the case with fancypants car technology, it’s not very
reliable: we have heard of a number of cases of Powershift transmissions
totally failing at very low mileages. God help any poor sod who owns
a car fitted with a Powershift transmission once it leaves warranty."