I drove a Ford Focus as a company car for over a year. It was the worst car I've ever driven. If people gave it a 1 star, it was probably because they couldn't opt to say 0.
You probably want to know what the issues were? Now you've done it, I've gotten started on a rant about the Focus... lookout.
1) Right front tire made a "thumping" noise as it turned. go faster? faster thump. Replaced entire assembly... twice. Still did it.
2) Brakes were spongy and needed to be pressed all the way to the floor in order to slow down. There was no "emergency stop" in the focus. They bled the lines twice, replaced the brake lines once, and changed the brake pads and finally the entire mechanism in the rear.
3) Air conditioner was pathetic. In the winter, just to "dry out" the air it wasn't able to do it. The air wasn't cold and it always sounded like a bicycle with a card in the wheel when the fan was on "click click click click" They removed the air con unit twice, once to "rebuild it" and once to "replace it". The car was 5 weeks old the first time, and 4 months the second time.
4) Car failed to start 1 in 6 times (approximately). Turn the key, "RR rrr rr rrr rr" turn the key off. wait 5 seconds. Turn the key... sometimes this would happen twice, sometimes 3 times....sometimes it would start on the first try. it was fuel injected, so I always turned the key to on, waited for the fuel pump to prime the fuel system, and then tried.
5) Window (driver door) handle broke off when trying to close the window. Yes, the car had A/C but no power windows. go figure. When I took the car back to Ford with the broken handle, they insisted that it wasn't covered under warranty because it was "abused". I tried to explain that I was just closing the window. I asked how they thought I would abuse the window handle.... I suggested that perhaps I should use it to beat them with, as it wasn't any good for window moving. This happened after 8 months of car use.
6) Spare tire was flat on delivery. Took the car to the office (I'm a computer technician and had an air pump at the office) and tried to fill it. wouldn't hold air. Turns out the tire had a defect in the rim which was causing the air to leak out. Ford replaced the rim, but charged the company $15 to "mount" the tire on the new rim. I knew that this wasn't going to be a good relationship (with Ford) when they were charging us 1 day after delivery for repairs to defective parts.
the list goes on. over the year and a half I drove it, there were about 17 issues, 5 of which were serious safety ones. The car is still in use within the company, and still spends far more time at the service department than any of the other cars we have-- i don't have to drive it anymore, they apparently felt sorry for me and decided to punish someone else.
If you have a choice between ANY other car and a Focus... I'd suggest running away from the Focus screaming.
I should mention that we bought 4 of the cars at the same time, and the other 3 are not much better.
I owned a Ford Explorer for a few years too. Lets not even talk about the transmissions that are designed to last only 95k when the warranty expires at 90k. <sigh>
Thank goodness that there are companies that make nice cars... My VW Eos hasn't had one issue, starts when I turn the key, stops when I hit the brake, and looks GOOD! Yay for VW! Yay for Honda too, as my Civic SiR hasn't had one issue, and I've owned it for over 5 years. Regular maintenance and nothing else. Brilliant
Again, sorry for the wall of text. When talking about either the Explorer or Focus, I tend to get emotional. Those were some BAD car years.
