Ford Motor Company
Rip-off! Customers to pay for poor quality in Ford Focus

I bought my 2000 Ford Focus in December of 1999. I was 21 and this was my first car. I chose the Focus because of all of the wonderful reviews it had received. I should have known better when I went to open the glove compartment and the handle broke off in my hand before I had even driven it off the lot!

In the first year that I owned my car is was in the shop for probably 5 months in order to repair all of the recalls the car initially had. The whole time I was paying $300 to drive a less than desireable rental.
At 20,000 miles my transmission died. Lucky for me the car was still under my extended warranty so it was repaired at no cost. Now, I'm no car genious but it seems to me that transmissions should last just a tad longer than 20,000 miles!

In late 2002 my front breaks went. My friendly local Ford dealership, Cortese Ford in Rochester, NY quoted me $400 to repair them. I had my father do them for the cost of parts, about $150.

In 2003 the fuse for my automatic doors blew. I didn't think too much of it until I went to replace it only to realize that it is located BEHIND the fuse box. Which by the way is impossible to get to. Cortese quoted me $36 to replace the fuse. Pretty silly if you ask me since the fuse itself comes in a multi pack of about twenty for a little under two bucks. Needless to say the fuse was never replaced.

Right after the fuse blew both front doors started to stick. There were mornings it took me twenty minutes to get either one of my doors open. About four months ago the lock actuator on my drivers side door broke leaving the door in a permantly locked position. I had to climb in through my passenger side door. Did I mention I was eight months pregnant when the lock acutator broke? I finally got this fixed last week.

I decided to go to a different dealership, Vision Ford, whom I had heard good things about from friends who had also dealt with Cortese Ford. They had a heck of a time trying to get my door open. After several hours they were able to pry the trim apart far enough to get the door unlocked so that they could get the door open and remove the panel. I now have ripped trim, a bubble in the fabric on the panel and a window that clicks when you roll it about 2/3 of the way down.

At this point my car also had two broken springs in the front and a hole in the PCV hose. The springs were repaired at no cost because (to quote my rep) "there is a campaign out on them." I took this to mean that a ton of other people had the same problems with there Focus' so Ford decided that maybe they should handle things for once. The PCV hose was repaired but the car still runs funny, but at least I don't have to put the car in park and rev the engine at every red light to avoid having it stall. At this visit I was also told that my bearings had to much play and that it would cost me between $400 and $500 to repair them.

About two years ago I had a minor collision that popped the mirror out of my driver's side mirror. I had the entire thing replaced for $150. I was told they couldn't just pop the mirror back on because it had power adjustment. Earlier this year a coworker called from her cell to let me know that my mirror was hanging from the wire. When I went out to investigate the mirror was indeed hanging from the wire with no sign of any impact.
I complained to Ford early on and was told there was nothing they could do since all that had gone wrong at that point had been covered either by recalls or by my warranty. They said they would fax my information to Cortese and that I should speak with the manager there. I went in and his answer to my problems was that I should buy a new Ford Focus. This didn't seem like much of a solution to me. At this point I gave up and figured that I would just have to deal with it.

My rear brakes now need ot be replaced and I'm pretty fed up. I hear that's another $800. I still owe a little over $3000 on my car which is approximately the Blue Book value of my car. If I decide to trade in the car that four years ago I thought would be reliable enough to last at least ten years I would be starting from scratch and would have to put the rest of my life on hold just to feel safe driving my car especially with my three month old son in the back seat.

Andrea
North Chili, New York
U.S.A.

Company: Ford Motor Company
Country: USA
State: Minnesota
City: Dearborn
Address: 16800 Executive Plaze Drive

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