Just traded my 2003 Ford Focus SVT that I had since August 2007. It had 23,800 miles when I bought it. I then put 84,200 miles on it over the next 5 years. While it never left me stranded and I was able to eeek out 30 mpg on the highway, it was definately a Love/Hate relationship. [|)]

What I liked: It drove really nice, especially when it was stock. I probably should have left it that way (see below). Good gas mileage and decent performance (for what it is). It was paid for so no car payment.

What I disliked: I hate to say it but for the most part the aftermarket sucks for this car. Heck even the OEM sucked for this car (ie: no replacement clutches from Ford, $2500 replacement stock cat etc). That and it didn't respond to mods as much as I would have liked. Looking back, I kinda wished I hadn't spent any money on modifications (other than a Tom's tune). The car became a bit of a money pit in the end, just trying to keep it running (my fault for not keeping the stock parts). Not really a dislike, but more of a luck thing (or should I say more like bad luck.. lol). I bought 18x7 O.Z. Ulteggera wheels. I should have kept the stock wheels and tires! I ended up breaking 3-4 of them on these crappy roads. Replaced 1-2 of them and then they stopped making them... just like that, no more. Repaired the other two but then Discount tire wouldn't mount a tire on them. I picked up alot of nails in the tires too. heh. I also had issues with my Eibach Pro full suspension. The front shocks went bad fairly quickly and I also could never get the front aligned properly so tires never lasted very long. A camber kit made it better but it was still 2 degrees off. I should have kept the SVT suspension.... and my stock cat. My aftermarket highflow cat kept breaking. I had to have that welded up several times. Finally I had someone fabricate a bracket in the stock location and that put an end to that. Until the stock bracket mounting broke... lol

Right when I was about to sell it, someone ran into the back of me at 35 mph while I was stopped with my turn signal on... to take a left turn. They must have been texting or something. Then they took off. I only had liability... I never got an estimate to fix it. Then last winter some idiot broke my drivers side window and stole my Alpine stereo. My iPod was attached to it... Bye bye music. Glass got in the window lift mechanism. $600 for glass and lift.

Anyways... I've never kept a car for the long haul and the SVT never really let me down. I was sorta sad to leave it at the Mazda dealer, but that was short lived. I now have a 2011 Mazdaspeed 3 with tech package (navigation, Sirrus sat radio, blue tooth, Bose sound system, HID adaptive headlights, push button start, iPod integration). I plan on keeping this car mostly stock, but already have stage 1 Cobb Accessport and Cobb shifter bushing. Just the programming alone was worth 20hp to the wheels (not bad for under $600). I will get wheels (leaning torwards 18x8 MB Battle or TSW Nurinburgh and H&R springs (but definately keeping the stock wheels and springs).

I learned alot from this site. Not sure if I will be back any time soon. Good luck with your Focus's!

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee155/pelotonracer2/004-5.jpg

Goodbye whoever you are. Better luck with this car.

Thanks, I hope so too! :)

you wont miss the focus too much. The car you got to replace it looks enough like it, only with nicer looking tail lights [:)]

i'd say thats a good upgrade, considering i'm planning on getting an 07-09 speed3 after my focus lol

No reason to leave... I sold my focus and moved on to my f-150 and still hang out here more than any of the ferd fteenthousand forums. good luck with it, it's a sharp car.

Good Luck with the new whiip! like above said theres a few people here that no longer own focuses and their still members here

If there's any other compact car to go with, the only other one I respected was the Mazda 3 series (very good performance car without the "stigma" that Civics and Corollas get). Now if you went with a Honda Civic, that'd be a different story :P.

Enjoy the new car!

Congrats on your MazdaSpeed3, pelotonracer2. I've been keeping my eye on the Mazda3 also and may consider it for my next purchase. I really can't think of any other car that comes well equipped—standard independent rear suspension, 16" wheels, and rear disc brakes on the base models. The interior is laid out nicely too. Gotta give Mazda props for getting its priorities straight and making a fun car for people who love to drive.

I also fell into the same trap with my old Focus and spent thousands modding my car. Probably not as much as you, but definitely enough to feel some regret. I could've easily had a brand new GTI sitting in my driveway by now if I was a little wiser with my money. Anyway lesson learned, and that's all that matters!

Also there's nothing wrong with sticking around on these forums. You're not the only ex-Focus owner. I am too. And there are many others like us who still like to visit and post once in a while. Uhhh lyonsroar is also a MazdaSpeed3 owner and he's never even owned a Focus, lol.

Just like when i bought my mazda, you will be back. The mazda forums arent as... fun as FF is.

That, and there are so many guys with ms3s on here, theres no shortage of information about them.


Fun car man, enjoy it.

Uhhh lyonsroar is also a MazdaSpeed3 owner and he's never even owned a Focus, lol.

In!

Good choice OP. The Bose speakers are supposed to be bad though so I've heard.

You'll be back. The Mazda boards aren't great.

as everyone else stated, stick around! FF is one of the best forums around. ive been a couple others for my old cars and no one on those were as friendly as the guys and girls on FF!

I second what everyone is saying. VW boards aren't that great either. Too many people obsessed with slamming their cars and making their rides look like ass. Although Vortex can be fun for a few laughs. So yeah, I'll probably be trollin' around these parts even if I don't get another Ford... ;-D

Just traded my 2003 Ford Focus SVT that I had since August 2007. It had 23,800 miles when I bought it. I then put 84,200 miles on it over the next 5 years. While it never left me stranded and I was able to eeek out 30 mpg on the highway, it was definately a Love/Hate relationship. [|)]

What I liked: It drove really nice, especially when it was stock. I probably should have left it that way (see below). Good gas mileage and decent performance (for what it is). It was paid for so no car payment.

What I disliked: I hate to say it but for the most part the aftermarket sucks for this car. Heck even the OEM sucked for this car (ie: no replacement clutches from Ford, $2500 replacement stock cat etc). That and it didn't respond to mods as much as I would have liked. Looking back, I kinda wished I hadn't spent any money on modifications (other than a Tom's tune). The car became a bit of a money pit in the end, just trying to keep it running (my fault for not keeping the stock parts). Not really a dislike, but more of a luck thing (or should I say more like bad luck.. lol). I bought 18x7 O.Z. Ulteggera wheels. I should have kept the stock wheels and tires! I ended up breaking 3-4 of them on these crappy roads. Replaced 1-2 of them and then they stopped making them... just like that, no more. Repaired the other two but then Discount tire wouldn't mount a tire on them. I picked up alot of nails in the tires too. heh. I also had issues with my Eibach Pro full suspension. The front shocks went bad fairly quickly and I also could never get the front aligned properly so tires never lasted very long. A camber kit made it better but it was still 2 degrees off. I should have kept the SVT suspension.... and my stock cat. My aftermarket highflow cat kept breaking. I had to have that welded up several times. Finally I had someone fabricate a bracket in the stock location and that put an end to that. Until the stock bracket mounting broke... lol

Right when I was about to sell it, someone ran into the back of me at 35 mph while I was stopped with my turn signal on... to take a left turn. They must have been texting or something. Then they took off. I only had liability... I never got an estimate to fix it. Then last winter some idiot broke my drivers side window and stole my Alpine stereo. My iPod was attached to it... Bye bye music. Glass got in the window lift mechanism. $600 for glass and lift.

Anyways... I've never kept a car for the long haul and the SVT never really let me down. I was sorta sad to leave it at the Mazda dealer, but that was short lived. I now have a 2011 Mazdaspeed 3 with tech package (navigation, Sirrus sat radio, blue tooth, Bose sound system, HID adaptive headlights, push button start, iPod integration). I plan on keeping this car mostly stock, but already have stage 1 Cobb Accessport and Cobb shifter bushing. Just the programming alone was worth 20hp to the wheels (not bad for under $600). I will get wheels (leaning torwards 18x8 MB Battle or TSW Nurinburgh and H&R springs (but definately keeping the stock wheels and springs).

I learned alot from this site. Not sure if I will be back any time soon. Good luck with your Focus's!

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee155/pelotonracer2/004-5.jpg

Wow. When I had a V6 Mustang and posted on some of the various Mustang forums I was generally the guy who was saying "Mods are going to cost you a boatload of money and for the most part the performance gains are minimal." It is very difficult to add go fast parts to modern day cars and actually see any real results unless you go all out and start bolting on superchargers or turbochargers or just yanking the engine entirely and throwing a hipo crate motor off in there. In other words, you better have a big fat bank account and we all know that the vast majority of guys on these online forums don't have that kind of cash. So to me your post is a refreshing bit of reality in that here is a guy who went through all of that and can tell you first hand that for the most part you're better off just leaving your car stock. I know that car guys are going to tinker with their car though. That's just the way it is. Cars aren't like they were when our fathers and grandfathers were coming up. (duh) Modern cars with ECM's are much more difficult to modify and if you're serious about making performance gains you need more than a tuner and a cold air intake. For those of you guys that are thinking about modding your car you should listen to what this man went through and how is view on it has changed. There's always a down side.

Enjoy owning the poster child for torque steer, and FWD suspension re-design.

I like the Mazda, and would have to choose that before choosing an STI or something along those lines. Best wishes, and no- we don't run people off because they have a car that isn't a Focus. MMMoose is a perfect example. If I had the money, I'd be sporting TDI right now anyway.

If you are going to take that car to the track- one mod you might consider is a dry sump kit. Sure it's expensive, but that insures that none of the bearings will ever be starved.

cant fault you for boost.

and your car will always look happy haha

Congrats on the new ride, you'll enjoy it!

As others have said, no real reason to leave. I haven't had a Focus in close to 4 years yet I still hang around to see what my Focus friends from back in the day are up to. Still a lot of good people here.

Congrats on the new ride, you'll enjoy it!

As others have said, no real reason to leave. I haven't had a Focus in close to 4 years yet I still hang around to see what my Focus friends from back in the day are up to. Still a lot of good people here.

APR tuned Candy White GTI, I'm really hating you right now... [neener]

Wanted to get DriverGear exhaust and springs but with 60k miles already on my car I've decided to save up towards my next ride instead. Not gonna make the same mistake I made with my '02 ZX3!

APR tuned Candy White GTI, I'm really hating you right now... [neener]

Wanted to get DriverGear exhaust and springs but with 60k miles already on my car I've decided to save up towards my next ride instead. Not gonna make the same mistake I made with my '02 ZX3!


No need to hate just yet. I'm not scraping the ground, my fenders aren't [:)][:)][:)][:)][:)]ed up and I don't have 20 odd stickers cluttering up my hatch window. Not nearly "cool" enough to hate [neener]

VW was closing out the exhaust - $399, a steal for it's quality. Need a DP to go to Stage 2, debating on the eBay route or go with something of a more known quality.

So far, loving the car as I thought I would. Was initially hesitant about getting the DSG but I'm sold on it now.

VW was closing out the exhaust - $399, a steal for it's quality. Need a DP to go to Stage 2, debating on the eBay route or go with something of a more known quality.

So far, loving the car as I thought I would. Was initially hesitant about getting the DSG but I'm sold on it now.

Yeah I saw the discount on the exhaust (for base Rabbit too) and I thought about it for the longest time before I decided just to save up instead. I was also looking at prices for used MkV .:R32s and holy hell do they hold their resale value well. Real shame 'cause that's pretty much my dream car right there. Anyway I better cut it short so I'm not threadjacking here, but congrats on the GTI. Would've went with a DSG too.

[headbang]

The Mazdaspeed 3s are easy to mod and you get BIG reliable gains if done right. For instance, just the Cobb AP programming nets an honest 20-22hp to the front wheels and about 25 pft torque (93 octane base tune). Not bad for $595... Add smooth turbo inlet tubes, SRI, 2nd cat delete and fuel pump internals and you are well over 325hp/330pft @ the wheels, all for less than $1000. Yes that's right, over 50hp @ the wheels for a grand. heh

That's about where I will stop besides different wheels and a subtle drop. I will keep *ALL* my stock parts. lol

I drove to California and back and averaged right at 30 mpg. I already have 5200 miles on it.

The VW GTI w/DSG was on my short list. The main reasons I went with the Speed 3 instead: #1: The Speed 3 has more room (it's a bigger car), #2: I could get alot more for my money (ie: navigation, Bose sound system, push button/smart key, Sirrus sat radio, automatic self adjusting HID headlights, rain sensing wipers, iPod integration etc, etc for less than a base GTI. #3 I like the Nagari styling (many people don't). The 2nd gen Speed 3s look really nice once you get aftermarket wheels and a 1.25" drop. Lastly, I live in the DFW area and over the last 6 months I've only seen two gen 2s. I see a few 2010/2011 GTIs almost every day. Also, to get the same power levels you have to go stage 2+ with APR for what I can get on the stage 1 Cobb Access Port. I heard there were some annoying tuning issues with the 2010+ VW 2.0 turbos. Otherwise, I prefer the driving dynamics, build quality and feel of the GTI better. Both cars are excellent in my opinion but couldn't be more different.

I wonder if all these long time Focus owners switching to the Mazda 3 had something to do with how well Ford changed the newest gen focus