1998 Ford Focus Trend review from Belgium

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.

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.