Having owned two fiestas from new (both run for 10 years) I thought it was time for a nice new focus. Although rust had affected the fiestas over time I figured the galvanized focus would survive better . Well of course ours did not . After spotting rust under the passenger door mirror the local ford bodyshop said it was common enough (still took three months to give us a date to fix it !),but still looks as good as new now after the repair. I note some others on the list have seen this as well.
<br> The only other major problem we have come across was an intermittent noise from the rear which I thought was the drum brakes but turned into a near disaster ! One wheel almost fell off due to premature wear of the wheel bearing (35,000 miles). On checking with Ford they said there were no known problems on these cars . However checking the web revealed several hundred thousand focus recalls in the states and Canada due to this very fault, obviously european cars have not seen this problem in the required numbers yet. So if you have a two or three year old focus give your rear wheels a good in and out pull at the top any free play could be time for a bearing change.
<br> Other than this so far I rate the focus a good handling dramatic looking car (unlike its mundane replacement). The older Tdi diesel which we have others says is noisy but I rate very highly being both powerful and very economic. |
