Taking our lumps from Consumer Reports ...

[Some Guy From NY]

The rest of the marks may be positive, but issues with the TRANSMISSION are huge! It is a major part of the vehicle, it is "the feel" of the vehicle. So If it got a black dot solely based on MFT, I would agree that is ridiculous. Since the transmission is junk though, I feel CR was right with their review. Once again, even if Ford is covering repairs, this should not even be occuring on someones brand new car. I am fed up myself with my steering problems...I do not have the time to constantly be going back to the dealer and I am sure most people feel the same way. When buying a new car a person expects for it to be (major)problem free for years. I personally do not care about the resale value as long as it works correctly for me. In my case, it does not. Now I am stuck with a car with issues and no resale value. great.

[Rogerschro]

If I were to make a judgement call on the Focus, based on my experience, I'd say it is a fantastic car. I have Two of them and only one has given any trouble, the DCT, that was corrected with the update. Neither has MFT so I can't comment on that. But I can say there are oddities that they exhibit with the dual clutch system. Nothing that really distracts from the pleasure of ownership though. So my take would be very good value and reliability. Others on here will tell a different story from great to mostly great to not so great to terrible. Each is a valid opinion FROM THEIR PERSPECTIVE. CR must take each of these into consideration when evaluating the car and from their own impressions for the short time they test them. I can see how, when given a short test drive and combining that with what has been written about it that they would be oversensitive to the behavior of this DCT. A normal trany would be easy to ignore and not figure into the overall performance of the car or its rating. But with the DCT it does. The MFT also will get a mention both due to problems and complications with how it functions from the testers who don't know all the quirks of the system. So I think a certain bias is at work here as much as real issues with the two systems. Hypersensitivities to info on the two systems. Focus gets dinged for two items that are technically options but are in most of the Focuses sold. (at least the DCT is). Remove these options and evaluate the car as base model and I think it would do extremely well. Having so much new technology offered in a moderately priced car has caused it to suffer a bit in its evaluation. As it matures, it will be seen as a benchmark for future cars in its class.

[PratoN]

I agree with both CR and Car and Driver. The car is a dream to drive. But I've had my fair share of MFT and DCT issues and from the looks of it, my clutch will have to be replaced out-of-pocket if it doesn't fall apart on its own accord before the 125k mile mark. MFT has been great with 3.2.2 and I imagine 3.5.1 is even better.

Those 2 things aside, the car is great and I don't intend to sell it - even with the weird noises coming from my transmission. It's really a love-hate relationship.

[dan50]

Originally Posted by Some Guy From NY

You are greatly underestimating the problems of the DCT. There is a reason almost unanimously EVERY car review gives the DCT a bad review. These are car mags that review hundreds of cars a year. There are other DCT's out there which do not act like ours. Not to mention the problems with the seals failing and the parts being backordered (because most likely thousands if not tens of thousands will have to be replaced). Yes, Ford is covering the repair, but this should not be happening in the first place. Even after the repairs people are experiencing a grinding sound. Not good. My family has owned many Ford's in the past, I myself owning 2 other Ford's (2002 explorer, 2006 escape) with no issues besides regular maintenance.

This Focus seems to have major problems transmission wise right out of the gate. Not a good start. As they say, first impressions are the most important.

I have not had a problem with my transmission yet at ~9,100 miles, but my steering is a POS after getting the new steering rack because of TSB 12-2-17. This too should not have happened.

Hey, I'm just using what CR's research says: "Worse than average", not the dreaded "Much worse than average". Maybe it'll get worse with time, but for now this is good news.

[VOLDAR]

Originally Posted by halfmoonclip

Let me try to address several of the responses:
-Cars as 'investments'; my notion has always been to buy wisely, take care of a car, and hope for a decent tradein 5 years later...obviously, you're going to lose money on it, but the object is to minimize the loss

If you call investment a deal where you lose by default (you only have some control over how much is the loss)... well, we have different views about what an investment is and it is just fine with me. No more comments here.

Originally Posted by halfmoonclip

-Vehicles as 'appliances'; if you hold your car and your refrigerator in equal esteem (well, the fridge does keep my keg cold), you must not take much pleasure in driving, or else you really like your appliances. ...

The fridge or the TV ... and the car, all are appliances in my view. (Like your computer also). I never said I don't like it or that I have no pleasure driving my Focus. You do have a narrow view about things if you associate "appliance" with "boredom". That’s also fine with me, but please, don't assume you know anything about me when I said nothing to make you feel that your assumption’s valid.

[Michael Jackson]

Consumer Reports is a god damn joke anyway.

Honestly, does anyone look to that trash for advice when purchasing a car? Really?

Not trying to defend my purchase, but it's pretty widespread knowledge that CR is garbage. Besides, who cares? Enjoy your purchase, in my opinion, its all a part of the car buying experience. You're going to lose money no matter what.

Sent from my Galaxy Note 2

[halfmoonclip]

Originally Posted by PratoN

Those 2 things aside, the car is great and I don't intend to sell it - even with the weird noises coming from my transmission. It's really a love-hate relationship.

Perzactly. I really like the Focus for it's ride/handling, decent performance and gas mileage.
But the tranny issues simply wear me out.
Moon

[halfmoonclip]

voldar, if your car is an 'appliance' to you, your call. No need to beat me up about it, but you'd be as well served with a Yugo. Because driving is one of life's little pleasures, I like having something decent to drive. And I like driving the Focus when it isn't pissing me off. Having an extensive resume of sweet-handling cars (here in Westsylvania, a straight road is an anomaly, as is a smooth one), the Focus really does have the ride/handling balance about right.

Jackson, hate to spring this on you, but a lot of people look only at CR when car shopping. I only use it as one source; in this case, a source that agrees with a number of other sources, including this forum.
Moon

[e30og]

not to gloat but got a manual and its smoooooooth as honey. As problematic and rough as the DCT is, double the opposite and you have how much of a sweetheart the 5-spd is. F 6th gear if that development money went to improving the 5, its almost flawless. CR can suck my tool for not giving separate ratings for the manual.

Sync lady is a whore sometimes but newest MFT update and its been spot on. For the first time and very skeptically I tried finding different navi destinations via voice commands. With 2 minutes of coaching by Sync slut, it picked up the right names on the first try for each. It brings a lot to the look of the interior, huge!, has tons of capability, but is a little slow on feedback. A little patience and its not even an issue. And dont forget, its all software updates. your not stuck with the same glitchy interface, they release updates and its gotten muuuuuch better from the horror stories on here.

I bought a '12 with Sync but avoided MFT and the DCT as a result of initial CR and C/D reviews with frustrating buggy interface and chattering clutches, (before CR even gave official reliability ratings). Ford is incompetent for releasing this transmission as such, however you are just as responsible if you didnt do your homework. New MFT updates and NVH revisions for the '13, and reviews indicated improvement. Just traded up to a '13 with MFT and what do you know? not half bad, just as they said. No surprises, exellent car.

Consumer Reports never mentioned this car handles like an old school BMW yet rides and feels like a Lexus.

[PratoN]

Originally Posted by e30og

Ford is incompetent for releasing this transmission as such, however you are just as responsible if you didnt do your homework.

Rude. I bought my car in July of 2011, so there was no (reliability) homework to do. I suppose for me you should be saying "shame on you for buying a first year / new model car". On those grounds, I might agree.

Plus, as other users have said - some of us bought the vehicle that a lady has to use occasionally. In hindsight, teaching her stick would probably be the easier route.