2003 Ford Focus SE review from North America

At 32,000 I had to replace the ignition cylinder b/c the tumbler would not go into place and the key couldn't turn. The tow-truck guy told me this is a common problem in this model.

At 35,500 miles I had to replace all the tires do to "wear." Dealer said this was normal after the 17,500 miles I'd put on it in 3 years, but I don't drive the car enough to have needed tires so soon... Now I'm hearing premature tire wear is common in this model.

At 36,000 miles the car starts to shake, pull hard to the right starting around 50 mph, takes bumps hard, and back-end sways. Dealer says the left rear knuckle assembly and wheel bearing need to be replaced, that it was "bent" and I must've hit something with it. This is just not true. 2000 Focus had a similar problem. I think a bolt came loose, weakening the assembly and allowing it to bend through normal use. I also think this may have caused the need to replace the tires so soon after I bought the car.

Wipers are also not very effective, but I didn't think much of it until I saw other people posting complaints about it on this site.

For the price, this is an okay little car. It handled well until the rear suspension started having problems and I do enjoy driving it. It's pretty zippy all things considered. However, I'm unhappy with the problems it's had so quickly. These are the kind of things you expect to deal with no sooner than 80,000 miles. I'm not going to buy a Ford again.