Does there EXIST a rusty Focus out there??? WITHOUT body damage??? I mean...my point to this thread is that I'm just really impressed that a car company has FINALLY made a car that really has almost no rust problems. *knock on wood!*

What do you guys think?

I've never seen any......

Ive never seen one in person, and they LOVE to salt the road where I live so... yeah. Pretty good so far!

I do remember seeing a grey zx3 on here that had very little bubbling at the rear corner of the wheelwell, right next to the back bumper :(

The 2000s had a problem with the chrome bar above the license plate. That is the only time I've seen any rust on a Focus.

Wow - hadn't thought of that. Encouraging (especially up where you live).

But, then again, even the oldest ones ain't that old yet...

The suspenion parts can get some, mostly on the bolts, and sometimes on the multilinks.

my hatch gas shocks are rusting alittle....but thats to be expected because they are exposed to the elements. But on my body, no.

Actually now that I think of it, my '01 had some starting in the rear shock towers. I guess water got in between the shock and the metal? Also the rear hatch trim had some rust around the bolts, only visable from the inside.

I need to figure out where to rustproof on my new one!

Contour's don't seem to rust either and they are a bit older. Must be a similar design.

Contour's don't seem to rust either and they are a bit older. Must be a similar design.

That's an interesting point - I've yet to see a rusty Contour or Focus. From my perusing on ebay UK - the mondeo's (the contour's european brother) appear to hold up well too.

Considering that I see plenty of rotted out Grand Prix's, Grand Am's, Taurii, Neons, and Dodge Stratus's here in Pittsburgh, that's an interesting observation. And these cars all fit into the same age bracket as the Contour. (8-15 years) I had a Contour prior to my first focus - and since it was designed by the same group - the two cars are very very similar (well interior wise anyways). The other cars that I've seen that never rust unless they've had body work or body damage - are Volvo 740/760's. I've yet to see one that has any trace of rust on the body (with the exception of body damage and cars that you could tell were repaired at some point).

Give it another two-three years, and I think we'll start to see some foci with rust. One theory on the Contour is that the older contours that are still on the road belonged to people who loved them, and as such were taken care of in such a way to avoid rust.

I often see rusting Mercedes Benzes that are less than ten years old. That is simply disgraceful.

I don't know if you guys have ever payed attention to the underside of the car but Ford did a hell of a job with the undercoating, The only area where I have rust is by the rear bumper where the bumper rubbed the paint off the door frame.

i still need to do that. i dont think my car was rust proofed from the factory. that said its been going on 4 years of snow and salt with no rust. i clean the underside once a month, so.....

That's an interesting point - I've yet to see a rusty Contour or Focus. From my perusing on ebay UK - the mondeo's (the contour's european brother) appear to hold up well too.

Considering that I see plenty of rotted out Grand Prix's, Grand Am's, Taurii, Neons, and Dodge Stratus's here in Pittsburgh, that's an interesting observation. And these cars all fit into the same age bracket as the Contour. (8-15 years) I had a Contour prior to my first focus - and since it was designed by the same group - the two cars are very very similar (well interior wise anyways). The other cars that I've seen that never rust unless they've had body work or body damage - are Volvo 740/760's. I've yet to see one that has any trace of rust on the body (with the exception of body damage and cars that you could tell were repaired at some point).

Give it another two-three years, and I think we'll start to see some foci with rust. One theory on the Contour is that the older contours that are still on the road belonged to people who loved them, and as such were taken care of in such a way to avoid rust.

I often see rusting Mercedes Benzes that are less than ten years old. That is simply disgraceful.

I think the theory about people loving their Contours is simply not true...I have a friend with a Contour that is even missing a front grill due to an accident, and it has not a spot of rust on it.

I think that Ford finally did a good thing with rust-proofing their cars and I think that everybody else hasn't caught up to that important, nice aspect.

There you go, there is one awesome thing we can be proud of [:D] [thumb] [hihi] !!!

Hmmmmm......I have never seen a rusty foci. I just didn't pay attention!

I have seen more rust on an 80's Escort, than I will ever see on today Focuses. They pretty much nailed on the rust thing.

ive seen a few rusty foci up here its mainly behind the front tires where rock chips hit that peice and its starts rusting up the door, and i saw a hatchback where the bottom of the hatch starts to rust, kinda sad these people prolly never wash their cars tho

overall ford did a good job with the rust protection on the focus, most of em up here are in good shpae as long as the salt is knocked of every few weeks, otherwise it easts it good, put we get a shit ton of ice and sand on the roads in the winter

Now for the Canadian perspective...

I've seen quite a lot of rusty '00s and '01s. As someone else said, they rust behind the front wheel well and along the rail beneath the doors. Also, hatchbacks are prone to serious rust. Mine was repaired twice under warranty for surface rust, and now I've started to see a bubble right below the window in the centre. It's inevitable. I've also seen rusty hoods. The front gets chipped while driving allowing entry for water and salt. I've seen some Focus so bad that I wouldn't drive them or buy them. Mine isn't too bad ... yet.

BTW, I wash my car once a week except in winter where I need to wait for days above 32 F to avoid freezing my doors shut. Sometimes in Montreal that wait can be 1-2 months.

Ha...yeah, I know what you mean about waiting ^^^ same thing here, probably the same thing in MI to Klondike. I don't really care about freezing the doors shut 'cause...well I just open them a bunch of times after I wash it to make sure they aren't frozen shut haha, and if they do get that way I just crank on them till they open. But anyway...

It's sad to hear there are some out there. But I am just impressed I haven't seen any yet, and like you said shepski, yes, it's encouraging to hear that coming from where I live!

I have rust in two places on my Focus, some paint is bubbling on the bottom of the passenger-side door and there's a spot on my driver's side fender where its been rusting ever since I was in a fender-bender and the bodyshop did a piss-poor job repairing it and refused to fix it when I brought it back a few months later. I think the rust on the door is from the door having hit something, scraping the paint away and allowing water & salt in. Oh well, doesn't really matter as I'm going to replace the fenders with Euro ones and have the entire car repainted this spring...

You just gotta know where to look as far as the rust goes... hehehe

Appearance wise, no. I haven't seen a rusty focus like I have every other car out there. Like the bottoms of the doors or hoods, quarter panels, etc...

Now, I have worked on a couple that the underside of the car would make even the most sane man crazy. I've seen lower core supports literally ready to fall apart. I believe the rust was what was holding them together.

I've seen front and rear subframes riddled with rust, most of it surface rust, but there were a few spots where it started to work through. Usually starting on the edges of the metal or on a weld in a corner.

Lower rear control arms, seen 'em rust through and break. Same with springs on the front.

All in all though the body of the cars usually look far superior to everythig else out on the road of similar age. I am impressed with Fords paint jobs, then do seem to hold up MUCH better then just about any GM paintjob I have seen.

I've seen a few 2000's and 2001's up here with some light rust.. I thought I'd see more than that. Kinda surprised so far :)

I do :( I have a large rust bubble on my hatch just about the molding, rust bubbles on the underside of my hood, rust all over my undercarriage, and some spots where jack/jack stands have taken the paint off. I am going to attempt to fix a lot of these spots myself...I hope