Zweef® wrote:

For the first few years, the NA Focus had some teething problems. Our
Focus SE wagon (estate) built in 2002 is a great car. It is my wife's
daily driver and she adores it. I drove it cross-country, and it
accommodated my 6'3" frame comfortably.

There will always be some people on this forum who will badmouth the NA
Focus, but saying once a bad car, always a bad car is a load of crud.

Mr Gower, Maybe you have never had a problem with your Focus but I find that
very hard to believe.

I question if you have some alliance with Ford. Maybe you are a Ford
salesman or a Troll from Ford?? You seem to be unable to accept any
criticism about this car - all of your postings try to disprove or cast
doubt on the people who post to this newsgroup about problems with the
Focus. When everything fails you brand them as a troll.

One posting talked about the Lemon aid book and what they said about the
Focus, very interesting reading and factual.

First of all if you WERE a Ford Tech you would be aware of the numerous
problems with this car. And the TSB's boy! Here we go!!!!

What prompted the recall to install locking device for the left rear wheel
and rear wheel bearings? Well there were cases in 2000 models of the Focus
in the U.S. of the left wheel coming loose and several instances of the
wheel coming off the car. The reason? poorly designed. The left spindle
wheel nut was right hand thread and when the left wheel turned, it had a
habit of  loosing the spindle nut.The first fix was a locking cover over the
spindle after the nut was tightened, the second was a ceramic locking nut
(which can only be undone and tightened 4 times then has to be replaced).
Ford did a half arse recall on the rear bearing problems, they could not
admit or did not know that salt was used on the roads in Canada, so the
initial recall was for the U.S salt states only. Took them a year before
they remembered that Canada is a country and must use salt because they get
snow in the winter.

Water inside the car -  in this newsgroup alone  there have been postings of
leakage into the passenger side through the front cowl( and there are
several postings now). Problem not fixed after 5 years - poor design of the
cowl - the windshield side plastic clips, break when the cowl is removed (or
just break) if you do not warm the cowl up before removal. The only fix is
replace the cowl, modify it ( with screws) or use RTV silicone to glue it in
place

Fuel Pump - Well talk about uninformed! This is another half arsed recall
from Ford. Ford will only fix the pump once (one time) if it fails.If it
fails again - you are on the hook for about $400. There have been numerous
postings in various websites and to this newsgroup as well of fuel pumps
failing causing the car to STOP dead. Its a really great feeling merging
onto a freeway and just as you make it, the car stops dead.

Noisy brakes - Lots of postings on http://www.focaljet.com/ forums about
squealing rear brakes and front pads that do not last very long. This is a
good website for owners of the Focus. Ford had 3 design changes of the rear
shoes to try to fix the problem of noisy rear brakes. The best bet for this
problem is to replace the rear shoes with an after market ones.

Ford really tried to provide lasting fixes at reasonable prices (or free),
and by all evidence has succeeded. "BS"  That comment makes me believe that
you are with Ford.

The resale value of these cars are not that out of line with most cars in
this market segment? What are you putting in this segment; if you including
Korean cars, and other domestic like the neon, cavalier, no they are not.
The Focus is the same quality and build. It is a disposable car. The Hondas,
Toyotas and Nissans have a much higher residual value and model to model -
do not initially cost as much to buy as the Focus. If you check the Alberta
newspapers there are many listing for the Focus 2001 Se and Zts models for
around $8000. That's really great residual value.Yeh right.

Why Ford did not do it the right the first time is money, the bottom line.
They cut back on quality control, to save money.
Oh and by the way my paint on the hood and roof cracked all over, the body
shop said that way too much paint had been applied to the car.Ford does not
offer the midnight blue colour anymore, because of numerous paint problems
with dark colours.

I do own a Focus and it has turned into a hobby fixing it.

"Eight Ball" <poolman@yahoo.ca> wrote

the

brakes,

Gross exaggeration. No rear wheels ever fell off. The recall saw to that.
The pump problem caused hesitation not stopping, problems with water leaks
were rare in North America, and most cars did not have noisy brakes (mine
have never squealed). And if you look, you will see that the resale values
are not that out of line with most cars in this market segment, certainly in
line with other small domestics. And most important, Ford really tried to
provide lasting fixes at reasonable prices (or free), and by all evidence
has succeeded.

But the question "why did Ford not do it right the first time" is a valid
one. I've seen a number of explanations over the years. Ford North America
invited the local suppliers to participate in product development, hoping
this would improve quality. Bad move. More than one supplier apparently used
this opportunity to boost their profits rather than make a better car.

Another thing is timing. I understand that the North American operations
were forced to rush their cars into production in the late summer of 1999,
when they were still trying to incorporate the lessons of the first year of
European production, which had revealed some problems. They would have
preferred to wait until later in the year.

I disagree as there was a man I knew of that had a daughter injured or died in
the car accident when her wheel fell off ...granted it was an early 2000 model
but it happened...

I'll let you talk to my husband as we drove from PA. to Ohio with a fuel pump
failing and it MOST ASSUREDLY DIED...while driving and you'd notice the car
slowing down and the red light on so you'd have to shift to nuetral and restart
the engine. So don't TELL ME IT DIDN'T !!@! That was a vacation from hell as we
finally got to Columbus and it failed and the Ford dealer replaced it under
warranty. Oh yes...when we got back to PA. and told the dealer about it..."OH
yeah - we ordered you a fuel pump" and let us go on vacation with the car! I
would never buy another car from them after that crap.

My 2000 wagon made all kinds of very high pitched squeals...my neighbors asked
to back into my space so I could pull straight out and not use my brakes! I
don't know what you had but I could never sneak up on anyone with that car and
used to get all kinds of strange looks from people. Never managed to hit anyone
though and never changed my brakes in the over 48,000 miles I had them.
I will agree with you as far as the rest - I bought the car because I had seen
it early on from spy pictures before production and fell in love with it and I
was old enough then to know NEVER to buy a first year car. I had 11 recalls and
a new transmission and a burnt out horn but I still went ahead and bought a
2003 ZX5 after they couldn't figure out why I was blowing starter fuses ($3
each time) every time the engine was started not cold...eventually after I
traded the wagon in the car finally failed and they found out a wire was welded
to the engine...but I got a more dependable car this time. So far no failures
but still a stinky A/C. Thank god for Lysol.
                                 Linda