Faults:

We bought the car secondhand from a Ford Dealer and told us it had full maintenance.

A couple of weeks later the engine stalls mostly at traffic lights, and was unable to start the car for 20-40mins? Ford dealer changed a flow sensor or some sort under warranty. Afterwards I checked the airfilter and it was packed with dirt and was all cracked from pulling vacuum. So I replaced the filter straight away and never had problems again.

General Comments:

This car is a marvel to drive.

Sporty feeling and very economical (specially the TDCi).

The comfort is bit poor, especially long drives!

It's cheap to maintain yourself, even dealers are cheapest around, but you need to find a good one!

Faults:

Not much has gone wrong really (I've only driven it for a year though). I had some problems with the front suspension, but that was fixed easily.

General Comments:

This car has a TddI 90 Horsepower diesel engine, and is really struggling when getting away from traffic lights. The engine makes a lot of noise, but doesn't give any performance in return. This has only changed with the TdcI engines.

I got this as a company car, but it would never have bought it if I had to pay for it myself. The engine is just too frustrating.

I have the Ghia version which has some interesting features : radio controlls at the steering wheel, adjustable steering wheel,...

Faults:

So far nothing has gone wrong with the car other than some minor broken plastic parts. These include such things as the ring around the hatch lock, the wheel center covers (on mag wheels), and the gear shift knob decoration plate (a week after a new knob was installed).

Periodic maintenance has been needed, such as spark plugs (virtually gone @ 65KKm), front and rear brakes, etc; but nothing unexpected.

Parts availability (without having to order and wait) here in Belgium is surprisingly bad. The main after-market shop, Auto 5, doesn't even seem to be aware that the Focus exists. They didn't have wipers, brake rotors, oil filters, spark plugs, or air filters for this car. The dealer had brake rotors, but had to order pads. This is surprising to me because there are a LOT of Focuses (Foci?) on the road here.

General Comments:

The power of the 2.0L Zetec engine is quite good, though it doesn't feel quite like the advertised 135HP.

The handling is nice and predictable, with a bit of understeer, and not much torque steer. It feels very comfortable, even at 180KPh on the autobahn.

The shifting of the manual transmission is good, but the clutch has a very short area of action (from engaged to disengaged). This takes some getting used to.

The "split folding" rear seats are a disappointment. It seems like this design was not completely thought out before it went into production. The seat backs are split 60/40, but the seat bottom, which must be lifted to fold down the seats, is not split; so only folding one seat isn't really an option. Also, the headrests must be removed to fold the seats, but their support rods are so long that they can only be removed while the seats are halfway folded forward; otherwise they hit the ceiling.

AC and heat are good, and the car warms up quite quickly.

The front window defrost (wires in the glass) is awesome. This should be standard equipment on every car!

The four wheel disc brakes, with ABS, are excellent for the class of car.

The factory CD sound system (not changer) is pretty good. The only annoyance is that the unit must be turned on before a CD can be inserted or ejected.

Faults:

Nothing.

General Comments:

Very good handling, stable and safe road behaviour.

Such a nice car, but Ford did not think several things through well enough, such as:

The seats do not sit comfortably.

The cap on the fuel tank is fixed, so that when fueling, the fuel spills on the cap.

Car could be better isolated from exterior noise and engine sounds.

The engine is almost powerless below 2000 RPM.

Faults:

Either damp is getting in or the ventilation system doesn't work properly. Has anyone experienced misting up even in slightly cold or wet conditions?

General Comments:

Nice car, probably its roadeholding is its best feature although I rather like its looks. Not all my friends agree.