14th Dec 2013, 20:32
Original reviewer here. The Focus has just ticked over 80,000km and the driveline bearing noise has reappeared, 4 years and 45,000km after the first time. Sadly this time it won't be covered under warranty; I have no idea what the cost will be to replace it yet.
No other issues, although I did cause the engine to glaze up internally causing engine blow-by last year by not driving it hard enough/driving in too high a gear, so I changed the way I drive it and now all the power has returned with gusto, whereas before it was starting to drive quite sluggish; especially when cold. The trick is to keep it at 2000 RPM or higher.
26th Feb 2021, 22:47
Original reviewer here. The Focus now has almost 283,000km and still drives like it did when I bought it new in 2007. Gearbox and engine still perform exactly the same. Still on the original clutch and the injectors have never been touched. Only biggish ticket items in the course of ownership so far have been a new turbo and exhaust manifold gasket at 123,000km, and a new starter motor and all shock absorbers at 200something thousand km. It's worth nothing now, so I'll be keeping it til it dies, while I'm saving up for a RAV4 Hybrid.
27th Feb 2021, 17:27
Thanks for the updates after so long. We have these in the UK as well. A friend of mine has one, not quite as reliable as yours has been, he needed to replace the injectors at 90,000 miles (expensive!), and the dreaded DPF light has just come on. A decent car, but has all the typical expensive faults of modern diesels. He does admit to doing a lot of short journeys though, diesels seem to be suited to drivers who do massive mileages rather than shorter local runs which show up problems.
16th Apr 2011, 20:36
In response to the last comment. I haven't had issues with condensation in the fog lights, but recently I noticed some in both rear lights, but it disappeared and hasn't come back yet.
I haven't had trouble with head lining sagging, but the lining on the back of the rear seats had started coming off.
No problems with headlight lamp life, but it doesn't get a lot of night time driving. Still on the original bulbs; just after I bought it I fitted these too-expensive-for-what-they-were-from-my-bosses-brother-in-law white halogen lamps that blew very early, so I refitted the original ones, which are still in it.
I'm on my original tyres at 54000km and have no issues with unusual wear or balancing at all. The fronts will need to be changed in about a year's time, but the rears look almost new.
Still hate not having a rear light.
Problems I've had since my last post - the battery died in February during all the Brisbane rain right before the floods. That was $230 fitted from Ford *ouch*. Now my rear fog light won't work but the bulb looks OK and my light in the boot either won't come on, comes on it's own after a few seconds, or when I bang it. I don't know where the switch is for it. My fuel mileage seems OK, but if it only does running around town it sure goes up.
In response to the earlier comment about would I rate my Focus higher than the Commodore Ute; it was a VZ model, not a VE, and although it was technically a commercial vehicle, it was leased by the QLD Dept of Main Roads just to be driven like a car, but without having to pay the FBT. Therefore I judge it like I would a car, and to me the Focus is a far more polished car to drive. The Ute got swapped for a diesel Hilux when it got to 50000km.