Used 2016 Ford Focus Electric Consumer Reviews
Used Focus for sale
See Edmunds pricing data
Has Your Car's Value Changed?
Used car values are constantly changing. Edmunds lets you track your vehicle's value over time so you can decide when to sell or trade in.
Downgrading to avoid.
Bobbie, 08/20/2017
updated 11/04/2019
2016 Ford Focus Electric 4dr Hatchback (electric DD)
6 of 8 people found this review helpful
11/2/2019- update 20 months and over 26000 miles later, I am downgrading this car to avoid. Dead 12V battery, multiple electronic problems, and intermittent transmission surge when braking from highway speed (55 MPH). All repairs were covered under the warranty. Lost a few weeks of vehicle usage when the car was in the shop for repair. Range anxiety is definitely real with this vehicle in cold weather driving or high speed (65-70 MPH) driving. Overly sensitive brake when nudging the car forward for parking. Acceleration is only adequate. Large turning radius. Car makes funny sounds when it is being charged (after the car has been driven). Dealer fixed it once but it is back. I still love the exterior and interior design. Additionally, I love the stereo, the navigation, bright headlights, seat comfort, ride comfort, and the controls. Due to the electronic issues. no DC charging, and the so-so driving range, I am looking elsewhere when the lease expires next year. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Six months and 6500 miles later, I am ready to provide my comments regarding the 2016 Ford Focus Electric. Pros: 1) Excellent exterior and interior design. Specifically, the car looks awesome at night inside and outside. I love the option to select your choice of interior accent lighting (I chose blue) and I love how the headlight and the mirror parking lights shine at night. 2) The Sony stereo is very good. Sounds good. I really appreciate having the CD player because I use it. 3) I love the blue circle light at the charge port that indicates your charge level. It is beautiful. 4) The free six-month Sirus radio is great. 5) The free navigation is not too bad; however, it sometimes does not have the latest map information. 6) The overall instrument accessibility from the driver standpoint is very good. 7) The car is fairly comfortable to ride in. There are plenty of room for the passengers. 8) The panoramic rear view mirrors are very useful. Whoever came up with this idea is brilliant. 9) The backup camera is so helpful. The guide lines are very accurate. As a result, parking in a tight stop is so easy. I love it! Cons: 1) The workmanship could be better. The built in Detroit sticker should be removed. The fit and finish could be better. Things do not line up and I even had to push the rear license LED light back into the car because it was not installed correctly. I also had to push the fabric near the windshield back into the frame. For a $29,000 car, the workers need to do a better job. 2) The range indicator is not reliable. For example, it would show 92-mile range at full charge but two minutes of driving at 35 MPH later, it would show 74-mile range . During winter, the driving range indicator is even worse. This is my second EV and I was starting to have range anxiety when the temperature dipped below 32F with the 2016 Ford Electric. I only used the heated seat feature when I absolutely had to. I didn't even dare to turn on the heater. 3) The Ford app for the car is slow to react and it it poorly designed (at least for an iPhone). The local rankings is such a joke. They included cars sitting in the dealers' parking lots in the ranking. If Ford is serious about the EV business (as mentioned by its CEO Mark Field earlier this year), they need to hire better app coders. Worst of all, they forgot to include the tire pressure information in the app (GM provides the tire PSI information for EVs in its app). 4) The car accelerates slower than other EVs. Merging into the highway has to be carefully monitored. 5) The car's efficiency could be better. I usually only get 3 - 3.5 mile/Kw. Having said that, stop and go traffic does bump it up to 4 mile/kw. 6) The trunk space is seriously lacking due to the placement of the huge battery Putting the rear seats back helps.. 7) The turning radius is large. I don't have the exact radius number but it is bigger than the turning radius from the Spark EV and Bolt. I always need to be careful when I tried to make an U-turn. 8) The car would occasionally jerk hard when I got off the highway going 55 MPH to a complete stop. This has happened six times. I might report this to NHTSA if it happens again. It felt like an ICE car having transmission issues when it happened. 9) The 2016 Focus Electric does not have the Fast DC charging port. Level 2 charging is your best bet. The 2017 Ford Electric with its bigger battery and longer range is a better bet. Nevertheless, this is a perfect car for commuters who are stuck in traffic (such as 405/5 in LA area, I-5 in San Diego, or 101/680/880 in Bay area). The generous Ford lease deal is what got me. This is not a perfect car but the affordable Ford lease deal at $140 a month (everything included) with no money out of pocket is just too good to be true. I definitely would not pay the full sticker price for this car. I would recommend leasing it if you can get a good deal.
- Performance
- Comfort
- Value
Dirt cheap electric car
jjpcat, 01/11/2017
updated 01/21/2020
2016 Ford Focus Electric 4dr Hatchback (electric DD)
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Can't believe Ford was making this offer. The total 3-year-lease cost is just $4000 after government rebates. I returned the car to Ford at the end of the lease, instead of buying it. Pros: 1. Dirt cheap. It's so cheap that I can forgive most of the issues below. 2. Front seats are comfortable. 3. Good ride quality & handling balance. One of the best in this class. 4. Interior material quality is among the best in this class. Cons: 1. Rattle everywhere. And this happened even before the odometer hit 5k miles. I have owned a few cars above 100k miles and none of them rattled nearly as much. 2. Don't floor the pedal. The car won't move at all when you do that. This is a serious safety bug. 3. The roof drops very low around the A pillar. It severely impedes the outward view. Another safety issue. 4. Front armrest is pretty much useless due to its location. 5. Huge turn radius for its size. 6. GPS is mostly useless, as it's missing at least 95% of the POIs. It can't even locate Google, Cisco, or NVidia HQ. 7. Real time traffic is useless. It just displays the historical average.
- Safety
- Technology
- Performance
- Interior
- Comfort
- Reliability
- Value