Faults:

The handbrake gator came lose. Reported this to the dealer and had a new one fitted.

General Comments:

I bought the ST170 for it's performance and handling. The Focus chassis is renowned for its stability at high speeds and the ST170 is no different.

I previously had two Fiesta Zetec S models, but the ST170 leaves them standing when it comes to refinement and power.

Part leather seats, extra dials on the dash and steel pedals add to the sporty feel inside, but I love the way it looks like any other Focus on the outside except for a few subtle hints such as 17-inch alloys, smart fog lights and the ST badge.

MPG is OK. I do a lot of motorway mileage so I'm getting about 32 miles per gallon which is only a bit lower than what I was getting in my 1.6 Fiesta.

The only thing that disappoints me is the fact that the car is geared far too tall. It only seems to utilise its full power (172 bhp) once you start getting into 3rd and start shifting through the gears towards 6th. But I still leave Golf GTIs in my wake and I can at last watch those silly little Saxo VTRs disappear in my review mirror, much to their annoyment!

Faults:

My car started to leak oil around 1700 miles. And both of my fog lights went out.

General Comments:

The reason I rated the dealership so badly is because they told me my car would be done in 2 days. Instead, it took them a week and a half. As for the comfort, plenty of room and head space, but the seats themselves feel like rocks. I start to get lower back pains every time I enter the vehicle. Besides those problems, its not really a bad car. Very gas miserly and well placed gauges.

Faults:

Right off of the lot I had a bad feeling about this car. Only two days later my first problem kicked in. You know how your supposed to at least what until you have 1000 miles kicked in before revvin' it up, well I did. After 100 miles of slow driving, my car begins to vibrate drastically. I mean from normal driving. The next problem were the windows squealing. First the driver side than the passenger side a week later. Now I've only had this car for a month and already dislike it a lot.

General Comments:

This car does not even have the same fuel economy as posted. I pick up very slowly to break in my car and to view the best possible gas mileage and still come up very short. City being 20mpg and the highway coming up way less than marked at 25mpg. Those differences come out to about a 10mpg difference. I highly do not recommend this car to anyone. I choose the Power Premium package with moon-roof. I would've gladly given up the extra 3 horsepower to get the same price and by far better reliability of the HONDA CIVIC. Heave my warning and stick with HONDA. I give this car an overall rating of 4/10. As soon as I finish paying off my debt, I'm selling this one to some sucker who hasn't read this and buy a Honda Civic EX!!!!!

P.S. For those that actually want to know where redline is, its at 6750 because its not shown. To have made sure thats right, I talked to my dealer. The older ones redline at 6250. And SVT at 7200.