Faults:

The car wouldn't start one day coming out of a shopping centre in Galway; had to feed my 1 month old baby in the back seat whilst I waited for the AA man to come.

My Focus is black and the colour is fading really quickly, and there's no sun in Ireland to make it fade!!

General Comments:

Very good car overall.

Not much power compared to my old car. Had to change because I was having children.

The Focus was more expensive than its rivals (Seat Leon, Citroen C4, Peugeot 308), but it's worth it.

Resale value is very, very good!

Faults:

Really, nothing.

Not joking, the only things I've replaced are a couple of light bulbs. The engine is however sweating some oil from around of the base of the dip stick, but not much. Haven't bothered to do anything about it, and the dealer didn't bother to do anything about it either.

General Comments:

Some negatives: Pretty slow with its base 1.6L engine and "old style" 4 speed auto (no DSG, exactly) but that's as expected. Also a lot of tyre noise, unfortunately. I'd give it a 10/10 for running costs, but it's somewhat thirsty considering its engine size.

Positives: 100% reliable and starts even without a hesitation at -27 deg below freezing, and it's fault free. Good heating system, but the A/C is not very efficient if the car has been left out in the sun. And at 6 years, the paint work is almost as good as when it left the factory. No rust whatsoever. Also, the interior keeps up really well, and the car feels very tight and rattle free. Drives very well, and is spacious enough for 2 adults and 2 children, including luggage.

I know it's not exactly a high mileage car, being basically used as a "grocery getter", but still very clean for its age.

Faults:

- A/C not working; fixed prior to buying.

- A/C repair failed; took it back and got it fixed for free.

- Rear door locks stopped working. During a cold winter in Montreal, both back door electronic locks failed, leaving the door locks jammed into the unlock position. Went to the dealer on the bumper to bumper extended warranty, to be told the latches were the problem, and that those aren't covered, and cost 255$ each as a dealer only piece. Left without them.

- All electric door locks stopped working. While the shop was looking to find the problem with the rear doors, they broke something in the wiring, and all the doors stopped working. Went back to dealer and they opened the doors, took both latches out, and left them in a cleaning solution for a few hours, as they were jammed with dirt. Installed them back, and they worked again. They also fixed what they broke. Had to complain to the salesman for them to do all this.

- Front ball joint (normal maintenance).

- Front driver's door handle stopped working. Both front door handles started to be extremely hard to open. On one day, the driver's handle stopped working. Brought it to a shop, which let me bring my own piece, since I had them at a third of part shop price. Turned out the handle was fine, but an extremely cheap plastic piece inside the door broke in half. Again, dealer only piece, total fix cost 350$. That piece is so cheap, you gotta be smooth on your handles, and I'm not rough at all; I took great care of the car.

- Front driver's handle barely opens again. Soon after the fix, the same problem started with my handle, took it to a friend's shop and he managed to fix by shooting some grease, never had issues since.

- Very annoying noise coming from the back wheel. Nobody was able to find the source until it went to my friend's shop. Turned out to be a bushing attached to the rear suspension tab; metal is rubbing and making that squealing noise. The whole thing needs to be replaced as the bushing comes attached to it. A 360$ ish job with labor; have not done it yet, since it's not really dangerous, just annoying, and money is lacking since I'm in college.

- Back lock failed again. After a while, it started to work again on its own.

- Other back lock failed again, still not working.

- Both front door U like connectors that attach themselves to the car anchor to close the door, keep jamming in a closed door position in cold weather, resulting in an open door that cannot be closed.. Real fun. Have to take a screw driver and make that U spin to the open door position, and keep one in the car during -30C days.

General Comments:

Good side:

Handling is good, feels solid.

Suspension is pretty soft, considering Quebec road conditions and holes everywhere.

A/C takes time to kick in, but gets very cold.

Heating is good.

Seat and overall comfort is really good. Cars usually bring me lower back pain very quickly due to injury, and this one doesn't.

Good engine, trouble free so far. The 2.0 gives a good start.

Audio system is pretty good for the price of the car, no problem with it.

Huge trunk for its class.

Decent leg and head room in the front and back, but our baby seat cannot be installed on the suggested rear facing angle.

Seats fold down for extra space.

Heated seats and mirrors, and they're good and fast.

Bad side:

As others have stated, the engine really lacks power for getting onto the highway, hill climbing and passing; lots of noise and no acceleration in those situations.

Interior is really cheap materials and poor build quality.

The dash is a dust magnet.

Brakes are squealing, even after new brakes were installed.

Radio antenna is in a weird position on the roof; will break easily with ice, mine did.

Everything is optional, lots of them are poorly equipped. Mine has heated seats/mirrors but no power windows... What?

No ABS or anti-lock system, no traction system; winter driving even in winter tires will make the tail of this car slip at every stop in a snow storm and on ice. Be prepared to buy very good quality winter tires to compensate for this.

Rear visibility is not the best in class for parking.

Overall:

Decent car for the price, soft ride, comfortable

Lack of safety systems, poor build quality, cheap materials.

Will get you around 20-25 mpg city, 30ish highway. Don't expect much more than 23-25 combined or 11L / 100km; so so for a 4cyl.

So many problems with doors, handles and latches shouldn't be happening on a 4 year old car when I bought it with only 60k km on it. Maybe I'm the only case, if not, maybe it's a design issue. Check the door electric system before buying.