AtWhatMileage
Glass · 7 owner reports

Other visibility problem on the 2012 Ford Transit Connect

1 crash 1 of the 7 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.

Only 6 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.

Reports of this failure 7
With an odometer reading 6
Reports per 1,000 built 0.9 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 50%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 1
Typical repair $150–$1,400
What it means when it happens Moderate
Rank among this year's problems 1st

When other visibility problem gets reported

There are 7 reports of other visibility problem on the 2012 Ford Transit Connect, 6 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 75,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 6 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
— — 33,000 miles — —

Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.

What a percentile can and cannot tell you here

These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.

What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.

Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.

What happens, and what it costs

Of these reports, 1 a crash is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.

Putting it right typically runs $150–$1,400 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.

The same failure on other years

The same failure is reported on 7 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2018, at a median of 20 miles, and latest on the 2011 at 55,000 miles.

By volume the 2016 carries the most reports, with 16; the 2012 has 7. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.

If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

On a longer trip in my new ford transit connect, I noticed reflections of the outward-facing dashboard and grill on the lower half of the windshield. Sometimes it was there,sometimes not. I checked the owners manual which mentioned "tempory shimmering" while the windshield warmed up. I did not realize until after a crash how much these reflections interfered with the driver's road visibility. The reflections come about when light shines on the windshield from the front or sides, but not from the back. Now that I know what's going on, I see how dangerous such windshields are, and the cars should be recalled and non-reflective windshields installed. *tr

4,100 miles NHTSA complaint 954637 filed 2012-12-20

Put on rear defrost back door passenger window exploded from inside the vehicle we were traveling on freeway at about 55 MPH heard a loud noise no glass inside vehicle so it exploded from the inside of truck. Very dangerous with glass shattered big hole in glass after initial noise pop. *tr

60,000 miles NHTSA complaint 1037505 filed 2014-02-09

Tl* the contact owns a 2012 ford transit connect. The contact stated that the dashboard deteriorated, warped and the framework was visible. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for repairs over three times but the failure was recurring. The contact later noticed the presence of a leak. The contact further inspected the vehicle and noticed that the seams near the windshield had become loose, causing water to leak into the vehicle through the dashboard and windshield. The dealer used an epoxy seal to repair the vehicle however, the repair caused damage to the windshield which became cracked. Additionally, an unknown gray substance was leaking into the vehicle near the windshield and dashboard area. The dealer then referred the contact to an independent dealer, who replaced the windshield. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 148.

148 miles NHTSA complaint 1145277 filed 2015-01-07

Also reported on the 2012 Ford Transit Connect

Wiper or washer failure

5 reports median 200k

Other engine problem

5 reports median 37k

Seat belt or retractor failure

3 reports median 25k

Other wheel or tire problem

3 reports median 3k

Other driver assistance problem

2 reports median 57k

How far this goes

This page is kept out of search results because 7 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.

Complaints are voluntary, so 7 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.

Questions this page answers

At what mileage does other visibility problem happen on the 2012 Ford Transit Connect?

Across 6 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 35,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other visibility problem on the 2012 Ford Transit Connect?

7 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.9 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.

What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars

Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed