Faults:

The central locking is continually playing up.

Every time you press number four on the radio, it turns itself off.

The idol speed adjusts itself, regularly it will sit at 2000rpm at traffic lights & other times it will struggle to make 600rpm.

General Comments:

The car is very comfortable and the radio easy to use (until it turns off).

The handling I was amazed to find is awful, wet roundabouts are especially bad, but it has no grip at any time.

Performance is almost reasonable for a 1400cc, but cannot be described as fast. However to get it moving it requires a lot of effort which makes fuel economy about high 20s mpg. Ouch!!

The car's saving grace is that it is free as it's my company car & I'm glad to say it's temporary until a more permanent vehicle arrives.

Faults:

Body work has been of poor quality.

It is going in to the dealers for the second time to have rust treated.

After 50,000 miles various rattles are starting to appear.

Interior trim is coming loose.

Clutch pedal "creeks" a bit.

General Comments:

The car is great to drive and performs well on all counts when driven.

Poor build quality has resulted in rust on the tailgate, although Ford have a procedure for remedying, this is also flawed.

The respray lasted less that one year before the rust came back.

It's the chrome strip that damages the paint and lets the water in - beware of the Ghia for this reason.

Faults:

Nothing yet thankfully!

I had a minor accident involving black ice and a kerb. The car went sideways into the kerb and bent my Hub and suspension, costing £677 to get fixed, my local Peoples garage is pathetic.

The only other niggle is that my Air-conditioning is smelling, I tried some treatment spray, but the smell is there just not as strong.

General Comments:

I had owned a Focus before (a 1.6 Zetec reviewed in 2002 section) and wanted more power so just got the 1.8 which you can feel the difference.

The Focus handles really well as most of the owners have written about. I am just about to get some lowering springs and new Alloys so hopefully it should handle even better with wider tyres.

I am still enjoying the power and have found that Peugeot 206s and Citroen Saxos like to try and race you. Other Focus drivers I have talked to have noticed that as well.

I can beat VTRs on everything except cornering which they seem to do well at.

I can also stay with most other cars and I have found that another car needs to have more the 140bhp to keep away.

The Focus still looks good after 5 years of production, especially in 3 door.

Mine is Panther Black which is a hassle keeping clean, but is the best colour in my opinion.

I won't be keeping the car standard for long as I have Alloys and Springs on the way. More mods to follow in time for summer. I can't wait!