2008 Ford Focus S from North America - Comments

2008 Ford Focus

Yea I get 45 MPG cruising at 65 mph with the AC on drafting 4 car lengths behind a truck. Try it. Reset your MPG gauge once your cruising on the highway and slide behind a truck. You will see what I mean.

Believe it!

One of my friends just bought a new 2009 base Honda Civic automatic. He also paid $1000 extra to have the puny warranty (one of the industry's worst) extended to 100,000 miles. I had tried to talk him into a Focus (I've had one, it was perfect) but he was hung up on resale value. Including the extra warranty (which is free on domestics) he ended up paying over $7000 more for the Civic than he could have bought an identically equipped Focus for.

Well, I did a bit of research: I went to KBB and ran the wholesale prices for identically equipped 3-year-old Civics and Focuses. The Honda WAS worth more. It was worth $1850 more. Since my friend paid SEVEN GRAND more, he has "only" lost $5150!! People who are hung up on resale values should take a course in remedial math!! If you pay $7000 more and only get back $1850, "higher resale" means nothing.

Not only that, there is also something called "opportunity loss". Imagine what he could have done with those 7000 bucks.

I had a blowout in my 2008 Focus that only had about 25,000 miles. When I looked in the trunk, there was no spare tire!!! It came with a pump to air up the tire, which did not help with a blowout. The dealership also said that the tires were not included in the warranty.

No, the car manufacturer does not warranty the tires. The tire manufacturer warranties the tires.

"Well, I did a bit of research: I went to KBB and ran the wholesale prices for identically equipped 3-year-old Civics and Focuses. The Honda WAS worth more. It was worth $1850 more. Since my friend paid SEVEN GRAND more, he has "only" lost $5150!! People who are hung up on resale values should take a course in remedial math!! If you pay $7000 more and only get back $1850, "higher resale" means nothing."

Yeah, if the car business was as black and white as KBB... In reality the Honda would command much more than the Focus at the same interval of age and mileage. Focuses are used heavily for rentals, which tends to drive their value down faster than KBB would have you believe. Try taking your Focus to a dealer with KBB values in hand. You won't even come close to that value with a Focus. You would fair much better with the Honda in the long run.