Ford Focus 1.8 LX 5dr

great practical car but very unreliable have owned it for 2 months love the performance and practicality but had a crankshaft sensor break which left me at the side of the road and then the day i fixed that the gearbox and differntial blew and once again leaving me at the side of the road and costing me around 500 pound to fix which is why soon i will choose the st version insted

I bought my 02 Ford Focus in Oct when temperatures were cooler. Problems started in June 03-car would not restart after driving 25miles. If you let the car sit for one hour or prop hood up so car cools down it will start again. Ford dealership blames, poor quality gas, air in the fuel tank. They extended my warrenty through summer 04 because the could not fix problem. Now Mar/April 04 Problem is starting again, thus leaving me stranded normally with my small child. Dealership advice "Leave your car running while you run in to pick your son up from daycare" or "use your spare keys to lock car and leave running while you run a quick errand" Dealership advised me to seek lemon law and that they are only obligated to repair vehicle not replace it. They said I have to fight this out with Ford. In April they said I had "winter blend" gas in my car and when its a hot day, I need "summer blend" gas. Now when was the last time you filled up and asked if you were getting winter or summer gas??? I have previously owned 4 other Ford vehicles, never a problem. I would NOT recommend a Focus or doing business with EASTGATE Ford in Beavercreek OH, they are doing NOTHING to assist me with this Lemon they sold me. I am currently working with the dispute settlement board about this car.

Bought my Ford Focus 1.8 LX 5dr secondhand in 2003, mine is actually a 1998 model, which makes it one of the earlier ones. Nonetheless, the levels of equipment are astounding, with sunroof, air-con, electric front windows and excellent radio cassette worthy of mention, but I'm particularly impressed by the quickclear windscreen, having spent too many mornings leaving 10 minutes late for work having to manually clear a frozen windscreen. Having owned the car for over 6 months now, and with a total of 51,000 miles on the clock I'm amazed at how smooth the engine is - never one of Ford's strong points in the past. Sometimes the rev counter is the only way you can tell the engine is actually running when idling at lights with the radio on a modest volume.

The only thing that let this car down when purchased were the steel wheels with battered plastic trims. As I'm a fairly spirited driver, I learned a long time ago that this tends to result in expensive wheel trims parting company with the car on bends, so I got hold of a set of Focus Zetec alloys on ebay. Sorted. (The current Focus LX comes with alloys as standard)

I had considered a VW Golf and OK, the Golf may have a more upmarket image. But image was going to cost £1000 more secondhand when similarly spec'd Focus/Golf have roughly the same value when new - each to their own I guess? When I compared the things that matter I found that the Focus beat the Golf hands down.

I bought my car used, at 40,000 for $7,000. On the way home from the dealership it died at 55 miles an hour in fast moving traffic and we were almost taken out by a tractor trailer truck. The dealer FINALLy fixed it. The Trunk doesn't close right, the ignition is broken, - it doesn't turn right, I have to jiggle and play with it forever, the heater buttom kicks off, and the air button kicks on for no reason, the stereo goes on and off for no apparent reason, the mirror is falling off the passenger side, thre was some kind of recall on the rear end, WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO RECALL THE IGNITION SO I CAN GET MY KEY IN, I'm up to 55,000 and the motor is running well so far, i like driving the car, but come on, how much should you have to deal with, I'm putting up with it for now, but I'll trade in for a toyota asap, and will never buy a ford again, too bad, its cute, driving it is fun, its roomy, but there is only so much you can deal with, I have to stop and SLAM the trunk to make it close, the airbag light is always on, I don't know why, and I CANT GET THE IGNITION TO TURN< PLEASE RECALL THIS ASAP

The best car in it's class.