2004 Ford Focus ZTW from North America - Comments

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?

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!!

I think that the automatic is you problem with power. It is a slushbox. The manual feels a lot more secure, and powerful.

I have a 2001 Ford Focus SE Standard. It is absolutely horrible in the snow.

I have a manual 04 ZTW with traction control. No problems in the snow or ice. Just keep the gas pedal matted all the time. The Traction control controls revs and anti-lock brakes prevent wheel spin.

I own a 2004 Focus ZTW as well and I am certain the reason your car handles so badly in the snow is because of your tires. Is your car equipped with the Pirelli P6 tires? My car handled terribly in the snow with these tires, but when I installed a pair of Michelin winter tires, the car became very capable in the snow. You might want to try this?

We fell for the advertising hype about front drive cars driving better in snow and ice. NOT SO. We've owned a Ford Escort, a Dodge Daytona, a Pontiac Grand Am and a Ford Focus.

The only one that was remotely competent in snow was the Dodge Daytona, but my classic rear-drive '72 Duster V-8 would literally run rings around all of them in snow. When it snowed it was the only one of our cars I felt remotely secure in.