2004 Ford Focus ZTW review from North America
"I would not recommend buying a focus!"
What things have gone wrong with the car?
License plate light housing completely rusted out. At only 25,000 km's this really suprised me!! Only a $12 part, but how many times am I going to have to replace these?
General comments?
I just drove 4,000 km's round trip to go back home for Christmas. I drove across Canada during some bad snow storms... that came up from the U.S. :) Anyway, on icey roads I found that the rear of the vehicle wants to sway back and forth. I found that I expended a great deal of energy fighting what the car wanted to do. I have driven many vehicles in all types of weather, but this is the first time I have felt scared and unsafe!!
When on ice the back end of the wagon seemed to want to swing to the side. Once I hit dry pavement, the car would "kick" back into to a straight line. This was very unnerving!! Had the Ford dealership in a town we passed through been open... I would have dumped that car for something else... perhaps the Escape Hybrid.
It has been an okay car otherwise, although I find it to be very under powered! Other vehicles in the same class seem to have better "get up and go". I found it to reasonably comfortable on the long trip though.
I wish I had made a different purchase!!
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| Engine Runs great, but the rear end is junk |
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| Best Bang for Buck - Sporty and still practical |
| Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? | Don't Know |
| Model year | 2004 |
| Year of manufacture | 2004 |
| First year of ownership | 2004 |
| Most recent year of ownership | 2005 |
| Engine and transmission | ZTEC Automatic |
| Performance marks | 3 / 10 |
| Reliability marks | 7 / 10 |
| Comfort marks | 5 / 10 |
| Dealer Service marks | 9 / 10 |
| Running Costs (higher is cheaper) | 7 / 10 |
| Overall marks (average of all marks) | |
| Distance when acquired | 0 kilometres |
| Most recent distance | 25000 kilometres |
| Previous car | Ford F150 |
| Date of Entry | 2nd January, 2005 |