Used 2012 Ford Focus Consumer Reviews
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Poor reliability and performance
samc, 12/22/2015
2012 Ford Focus Titanium 4dr Sedan (2.0L 4cyl 6AM)
108 of 113 people found this review helpful
2012 Focus spent $22K new, has 37,000 miles and the transmission needs to be rebuilt, Ford is covering the repair. Passenger window motor is gone and needs to be replaced. the Passenger front seat adjustment mechanism is broke. I would not by a Ford their reliability is terrible . Big mistake on my part.
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3rd PCM Failure within 10K miles, under 100K
John, 12/17/2016
2012 Ford Focus SEL 4dr Hatchback (2.0L 4cyl 6AM)
41 of 42 people found this review helpful
Okay let me begin with this: I have written a previous review, but I lost my login, so I am back with a vengeance this time. As the title states, since my original post titled "I'm losing my job and livelihood over this thing!!!" it has had 2 more PCM failures. The first time, I DID lose my job. The boss was clear. "If you can't come to work I'll just have to replace you." Well at least he was cordial about it and gave me a good reference to a similar company. So two weeks after the initial failure, I was back to work. Just somewhere else doing the same thing. There was the 2nd PCM failure about 4 months afterwards. Same conditions: Car won't start. Either the PCM doesn't believe the transmission is in neutral and therefore safe to start the engine, or it cannot get the transmission into neutral. Had it towed to dealership. Only payed towing fee. Ford covered the repair. Now, only 2 months from that failure, the car is in my driveway with its 3rd PCM failure. SAME. CONDITIONS. People, this is multiple failure of a critical part of the car that has failed on me 3 times in less than 10,000 miles. I'm doing everything I can on my end to keep its maintenance up. I drive it reasonably, take good care of it, and it fails on me. Fails... fails... fails... There is no other explanation besides it is a flawed design, and Ford's response and actions are futile. See all of these good reviews on here? I can't explain them. There are millions of unhappy, stranded and possibly unemployed people all because they bought this car with a horrible transmission. I can't blame them or berate them in any way. I mean, it's a nice car, but it has this one MAJOR FLAW that can be a serious inconvenience at best, and life-threatening at worst. Google it. Spend a couple of hours researching every review you can find. Find a way to contact authors of positive reviews and ask them is their transmission still operating properly. For the third time in one year, my car is literally being described with an old Ford-bashing acronym, and I don't think I need to say which one. Please for love of whatever... DO NOT buy one of these things, used or new. Ford's Powershift transmission is prone to random failures despite operating reliably up to the point of said failure. UPDATE: Okay, so let me update everyone on the 3rd PCM failure. First let me start with having to pay out of pocket for a rental. My insurance company would not cover it, but that was my mistake. Ford, however, straight up declined any suggestion of transportation assistance. I had to take an Uber (google it) to a rental car place and spend, say, $480 to rent a car for a week. I made arrangements to have the car towed down to the nearest Ford dealer, which thankfully my insurance covered the cost of the tow. SO... I get a call at work... my mother was at home when the tow truck came to get my car. She informs me that the tow driver 'jumped it off, started it, and drove it onto the tow truck' Read that again. 'JUMPED IT OFF. STARTED IT. AND DROVE IT ONTO THE TOW TRUCK' You've gotta be bleeping kidding me. I called the towing company, spoke to the driver. He confirmed that he jumped off the battery and started the car, and simply drove it onto the truck. First of all... whatever happened to it not starting? And since when did the battery die? So I took off work, drove my $480 rental car down to Ford, and asked to see the car. I got in it, and it started right up. And then I kinda lost control of myself and flung my arms about, cursing the car as if it were playing a sick, expensive game with me right in front of the mechanic. This is not funny. It's good I guess because I have my car back and it seems to be working fine. My speculation is that when the battery went completely dead... overnight... with the car sitting there doing absolutely nothing... that it must have caused some sort of hard system reset or something. I don't know. FINAL UPDATE: Driving home from work tonight it's been falling out of gear, which is indicated by going to idle at highway speed (engine is temporarily disconnected from drive wheels), jerking, slipping, picking the incorrect gear (I mean the VERY incorrect gear, like, 5th at 20mph or 2nd at 50mph). I can't stand it any longer. It will cost me dearly and put me in another financial pit to trade it in and attempt to finance another car, but I have no choice.
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Two thumbs down for ford!
David, 05/19/2016
updated 12/10/2018
2012 Ford Focus SE 4dr Sedan (2.0L 4cyl 5M)
109 of 115 people found this review helpful
Been sent in for transmission issues 4 times since first purchased new in 2012. Everything from grinding slipping and rolling backwards no repairs every worked just told that's how it works , now at 56k miles the transmission quit completely! Radio repairs multiple times now it just flashes " indexing " car should have been recalled. Nobody in their right mind would own or purchase this unit.
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ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE NIGHTMARE
Mad woman, 07/25/2017
2012 Ford Focus S 4dr Sedan (2.0L 4cyl 5M)
20 of 20 people found this review helpful
I bought this car March of 2015 at 57k. I guess I was so excited I ignored a lot of things. This car is absolutely horrible!! Transmission malfunction 3 months later. Ford service fixed for free which was great! Very very poor acceleration, studders, and hesitation when time to take off. I'm sitting in it right now after being at 3 different shops because no one can figure out why it will not start, even the freaking ford service. This car has stop right in the middle of an intersection, I mean just cut off! Why? Still trying to figure it out. This has been a nightmare. My car will only start if I jump it, that means where ever I go, I have to jump start it from A to B. My pride will not allow my to sell it under these conditions. Every single thing you read about in those bad reviews are absolutely 100% right, I kid you not. I have been left stranded sooo many times. Was always afraid to drive in the rain and snow because this car is noooo match for that. What they should do is give everyone who purchased one of these cars, a new car. I will never buy ford again. I always heard bad things an I should have listen. Single parent of two and no car, fired from my job because I couldn't make it to work everyday. Total disappointment!!!!!!!
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2012 Ford Focus- don't buy.
Christie Andryc, 04/06/2016
2012 Ford Focus SEL 4dr Sedan (2.0L 4cyl 6AM)
54 of 57 people found this review helpful
My car has transmission problems. Every single time I start and stop the car shudders and hesitates. The car is unsafe to drive. Also the car's cruise control broke within 3 months of owning the car, it was fixed and then broke again a month later. And hasn't worked in 2 years. This car is junk. I have taken it to three different ford dealerships and they refused to fix the problem. They would tell me there was nothing wrong with the transmission it was the way I drive. Every time I took it in for the cruise control Ford would tell me that they were unable to fix the problem because the cruise was working that day, when it never worked for me. They refused to fix the problems and I finally ran out of a warranty and gave up. I don't have the money to pay to have this car fixed when I bought a brand new car I college to not have to worry about getting work done to a car. This has been the biggest disappointment and I just want them to be recalled. Ford owes it to all the customers that are currently stuck with this car and paying big money for a car that doesn't work. I don't not feel safe allowing my family in the car because it is too dangerous to drive. It stresses me out on a daily basis having to drive this car and never knowing when it's going to stop working. I have been having these problems since I bought the car in July of 2012.
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