Overview & Reviews

The Ford Focus has been completely redesigned for 2012. An all-electric-drive version of the Focus is also new.

• Nimble handling
• Refined and quiet ride
• Abundant list of upscale and high-tech options.
• Stylish and well-made interior
• Lively engine

• Quirky automatic transmission response.
• Infotainment controls are finicky to learn and use
• Backseat is a little short on legroom

User Reviews:

Showing 201 through 210 of 267.00

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  Best car Ive ever owned - 2012 Ford Focus
  By rs1981 - August 17 - 3:16 am

  We traded in our Camry for a new Focus, because a big sedan isnt practical for living in a city, and we havent regretted the decision one bit. We drive a lot, so the fuel savings are adding up quickly. On top of that, its actually fun to drive. The turning radius is tighter, its easier to parallel-park, the acceleration is much quicker, and you actually feel the road. Plus its adorable. Legroom would be an issue if we werent both short, so tall folks might want to keep that in mind. Also, the automatic transmission is different from what youre probably used to; this is a good thing. Welcome change. Its gonna get you better fuel economy.

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  Tranny Shakes, bad cusomer service - 2012 Ford Focus
  By icantfocus - June 1 - 1:48 am

  After buying the new focus 6 speed automatic hatchback with the extended warentee, I noticed that there is a tranny shudder at low speeds. I took it to the dealer and was told it was a "automatic clutch break in " problem, bring it back at 1000 miles. Brought it back, and was told let wait for 3000 miles. I called customer service and was told I will have to pay for a "transmission evaluation" and there was noting they could do about this. Shame on Ford for allowing this to happen. I thought buying an American made car was the only way to go, But... Im re thinking this, also the salesman insisted the car had cruise, and it did not. ( i feel stupid) Shame on me for not inspecting the car.

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  Back from Honda - 2012 Ford Focus
  By lvstyle - May 14 - 1:22 am

  Now that Ive had my focus for a few weeks I can truly say what a remarkable car the new focus is.Lets start with the transmission. My tranny seemed to be doing some weird things in the beginning but it has smoothed out as it was just setting its shift points. Some find the shifting a bit un-nerving but my car is getting 31.4 miles on average. I have zero issues with the tranny. If I wanted a car that gets lower gas mileage and has muscle I would have bought the mustang.The focus is fun to drive and suprisingly has a lot of pep under the hood. I traded an 06 civic and Im not looking back. I had a lot of minor issues with the civic and the new civics dont have the value that focus has.

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  Fun drive at a fair price - 2012 Ford Focus
  By joejh - March 6 - 8:26 pm

  I love its look, handling, and lux interior. The My Ford Touch, when it works, is very good. The upcoming software update should make it great. I will admit that it lacks horsepower. Im still getting used to losing 90hp from my previous car, but the Focus accelerates okay - just not heart pounding. It makes up for it by having great handling. This car came loaded with oodles of options and features and still came in at the low 20s. Could easily spend several thousands more.

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  Its no BMW, but worth the money - 2012 Ford Focus
  By johnfsteph - November 21 - 11:57 pm

  This new 2012 Ford Focus has a lot of similarities to my 2009 BMW 335i. There is a lot of German/European influence on this new redesigned car. For about $24k you can have all if not more options than a Mercedes/BMW for half the price. If you are looking for a well rounded commute car for not a lot of money, look into the Ford Focus Titanium. You will be very impressed with it. I have the 5-door Focus Titanium in Tuxedo Black (very cool color!!!) and I am very happy with it. The best part is I get close to 38 miles per gallon!!!

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  Buyer Beware - 2012 Ford Focus
  By junk7 - October 2 - 5:56 pm

  This is a very nice car in concept but not in execution. 2500 miles and nothing but problems. The transmission is very troubling; very noisy, shakes, vibrates and hesitates at low speeds. The Mytouch system with navigation works very sporadically. problems - volume will suddenly go up to full blast, system will lock up (nothing works), Navigation system will report card not found and several other issues. Had to replace front seat covers as they creased and stretched ridiculously, the center of the steering wheel popped off 2x. Very frustrating as Ford insist that transmission is normal - very sad if this is normal. MyTouch system is soo poor, all they say an update is coming? Sad

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  Ford has a winner! - 2012 Ford Focus
  By jonkit99 - September 6 - 6:30 am

  Took delivery 3 days ago and so far I am completely satisfied with this vehicle. Previous auto was 2008 Escape and while this model is one of Fords best sellers it was not my bag. While I have need of some cargo space the Focus Hatch has plenty and I did not need an auto as large as the Escape. This Focus has style, it is one sharp looking vehicle. The new manual transmission that you cannot shift manually (yeah I was confused too) is as smooth as silk w/six speed to boot. My old Focus Hatch was no slouch at the green light and this new guy is even better. I left aToyota Matrix in the dust. Not something I normally do but I couldnt resist just once. Smooth & quiet ride. Its a winner!

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  Great Car - 2012 Ford Focus
  By gris1969 - September 6 - 2:15 am

  I went from a Fusion to the Focus to save money and I dont feel like I down sized. Im a tall guy and I always get crap about driving small cars but I put my money into my son and not into the tank or payments. I got the 5-speed manual with regular sync system and I just love it. Not much room behind me but I dont have to ride back there so I dont worry about it. I have lots of room up front.

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  Red Focus - 2012 Ford Focus
  By zak404 - September 4 - 7:18 am

  Just picked up my Race Red Focus three weeks ago.Love the colour,satellite radio and stereo. I bought the sedan over the hatch as it seemed to have less wind-noise and looked sportier to me. Car has been very good to this point,good pickup,great gas millage and still a head turner unlike Focus of previous years. This is my third Focus from wagon to mid-life crisis! Still has some wind-noise and rattles as is befitting the Ford tradition.

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  Everything I thought it would be... and more! - 2012 Ford Focus
  By geriacci - June 17 - 6:10 am

  I thought I would provide an in-depth review of this fine car for any prospective buyers out there. I purchased a Blue Candy Metallic SEL Sedan model with 303A trim last month. After scouring AutoTrader for about a month, I got lucky and this gem turned up in my own city. I scooped it up even before they had a chance to list it on their website. 1,600 miles later, I have nothing but praise for this car. Im glad that automakers seem to be giving more respect to the compact segment. After exhaustive research, my selection was narrowed down to the Chevy Cruse, Mazda3 and Hyundai Elantra when I started seeing internet buzz for the new Focus. Since it was a Focus, I dismissed it offhand as the capable yet unremarkable car it used to be. Then I started to read some reviews and watch some demo videos on YouTube. I became very intrigued with the MyFord Touch system. Im a fairly practical car buyer. My previous car was a 2006 Nissan Sentra, which ran fine and got pretty good gas mileage, but had no personality. This time I wanted a fuel efficient car that would be a little more fun. The Elantra was my #1 choice due to its aggressive styling, above-average size and upscale interior. After the Focus turned my head, I was torn between the two. The Elantra has better gas mileage and a better warranty. But the Focus has more to offer technology wise. Sure, the Elantra Limited trim also has a touch screen with navigation and a premium stereo, but the Focus has a 10 speaker Sony system with a subwoofer. The Elantra only has 6 speakers and no sub. My Sentra had a sub in the trunk and I was reluctant to give that up. Focus also has an advantage with Microsoft Sync (which so far has worked really well). I’m not sure what the extent of the voice command usage is on the Elantra (nobody ever had a Limited in stock in my area, plus I couldn’t find many details online). At the end of the day, I was lured away from the Elantra by the seemingly superior tech in the Focus cabin. When I actually went to test drive the nearest one (about an hour from my town), I was blown away by its appearance, both inside and out. Any pictures you see online really don’t do this car justice. People still can’t believe this car is a Focus (my brother in particular was stunned). The tech does not disappoint, though the touch screen is occasionally slow to respond (usually only when you first start the car). Touch sensitivity is quite good, and voice commands yield the desired results 9 times out of 10. I still get a kick out of requesting albums and songs by voice (so far the funniest one has been Prince’s “Irresistible B***h…” if you didn’t know, the selection is repeated back to you, so it’s often amusing to hear the frumpy computer voice repeat the occasional odd phrase). It’s infinitely better than screwing around with an iPod interface while you’re trying to drive. If you don’t like using voice commands, the touch screen iPod interface is excellent. MP3 sound quality is quite good, but I can still tell the difference when I put in a CD. You can also use a regular USB flash drive for music if you don’t want to pay iPod prices (flash drives also respond to voice commands). The sound system is quite good overall, though the highs are occasionally a tad shrill (I think the multiple front speakers are probably to blame for this, i.e. too much separation of higher frequencies). You can always adjust the EQ to your liking, though (you get a 3 band EQ- bass, midrange, treble; there are no genre settings i.e. Jazz, Country, Dance, etc.). At first, I assumed the EQ settings would need to be similar to what I have always used (+2 or 3 bass, -2 or 3 treble, default midrange and -1 or 2 towards the rear speakers). This didn’t sound very good at all, though. In addition to the bass, I ended up increasing the midrange and treble, which is something I’ve never done in a car stereo before. There is a lot of power in the woofers (355 watts courtesy of an amplifier in the trunk) and you don’t need to crank the volume in order to get great bass. The bass is very tightly controlled, however. Often times a song will start out heavy on the bass and you can feel/hear the speakers pull it back a little bit to avoid a potential speaker blow-out (this is usually only noticeable on songs with very heavy bass). The bass response is still excellent, though… easily the best I’ve personally experienced from a factory sound system… and I’d rather have the system pull the bass back than have a speaker blowout. The CD player reads CD text, which is awesome for those of us who use it on mixes. The iPod interface will display album artwork when it is available. The only annoying thing I’ve encountered with the stereo is that it will sometimes switch inputs when you turn the car back on. For instance, I’ll leave the car listening to a CD. When I get back in, the car is tuned to USB… not sure why. Luckily this only happens if something is plugged in to the USB drive, and it doesn’t happen all the time. The navigation system works extremely well, though searching for a POI (point of interest) or setting a destination does take some getting used to. The visual navigation screen has a couple of different views, including upcoming exit information and turns. You don’t need to worry about missing a turn because not only is your next turn displayed on the driver screen (in the Information display next to mileage, trip info, etc.), but you get voice alerts when your turn is coming up. The voice alert even tells you what your next turn will be before you get on an interstate exit (“Take Exit 254, and in 2/10ths of a mile, turn right onto Highway 6”). The system got me through the confusing Chicago interstates and into Michigan without incident this past weekend (it even displays the speed limit for you!). Sirius Traffic Link gives you gas prices of upcoming stations and traffic alerts for your entire route. You can search for gas stations, restaurants and even stores via the POI setting. This feature was incredibly helpful while driving around in an unfamiliar city. After the 6 months of free Sirius service expires, you’ll have to pay $1.99 per month to keep Traffic Link. I’d say it’s probably worth it, but I won’t know for sure until it’s gone and I see the full extent of what I’m missing. So far the air conditioning has been excellent; I was able to keep it on automatic even during the last few blazing hot weeks. The dual zones work well considering the size of the car. It has a max defrost feature that I’m hoping will work nicely come winter. Hands-free Bluetooth phone service works quite well. I can converse at a normal volume and the calls come in nice and clear (bear in mind, quality of calls will also depend on your carrier and the coverage you get). My HTC Evo Shift automatically pairs with the car when I get in, and voice dialing is supported (“Call Mom and Dad Cell”). I have heard that voice dialing will not work for every phone, though. There is a SYNC-cell phone compatability chart here: http://www.nsapp.fordtechservice.dealerconnection.com/sync/usEN/sync_us_EN_iop_2_00.pdf The display provides battery level and signal strength. You can browse your contacts on the touch screen. Text messaging on the touch screen is not supported on my phone, so I can’t comment about that. My phone also does not support ringtone transfer to the car speakers. I can stream music from the phone, but I can’t select the music from the touch screen, only on the phone itself (though when I browse the phone on the stereo interface, a couple of my ring tones do show up). I don’t have the Parking Assist feature, only the rear sensor (rear camera only comes with Parking Assist). Since I have to park pretty close to the wall, the sensor beeps every time I back out of the garage. The car handles quite well (my brother was very impressed and he is an auto snob when it comes to American cars) and the ride is very smooth on the interstate… no more struggling to maintain cruise control speed when I go up a hill as with my previous car. Cruise control works very well, including the ability to increase or decrease speed without having to reset it. Plus if you have to brake, you can hit the resume button once you are able to cruise again and the previously-set speed resumes. Acceleration is a lot better than my last car. I no longer have to put the pedal to the floor trying to get on the interstate. The transmission shifts smoothly at high speeds but does occasionally act a little confused at low speeds (mostly when first accelerating after breaking). I know some people are really annoyed by this, but it doesn’t bother me. I don’t use the Sport mode so I can’t really comment on it. My brother used it and was impressed, for whatever that’s worth. The car is fairly quiet at high speeds with very low wind noise (though I hear the Cruze supposedly has the quietest cabin in the segment). The front windows are both one-touch up and down (very handy for those pesky tolls). The glovebox and center console are fairly roomy, but there are no other spots to put a cell phone or loose change, unless you use the cup holders. The cup holders are deep enough to accommodate bigger fountain drinks. Plastic bottles and cans don’t feel too secure but so far I have not had one tip over. The holders are deep enough that tipping shouldn’t be a problem. It’s true that back seat leg room is not great, but the seats themselves are comfortable. The fold down center console (only available with the leather package) is a nice touch, though the drink holders are a little small. The auto dimming mirror works extremely well. I haven’t had much of a chance to test the auto-sensing wipers yet. I haven’t been able to get the Homelink button programmed correctly, so I’m still using my clunky garage door remote. There is supposed to be a “Learn” button on my garage door receiver but I haven’t been able to locate it. The seats are quite comfortable. It’s so nice to have a power driver seat again, and the manual lumbar support is sweet (note: both are available only with the leather package). The base of the seat could be a little wider for me personally, but keep in mind that I’m a bigger guy (6 ft, 270 lbs). Front seat leg room is great, though I do have my seat all the way back. I don’t need to have it there in order to drive comfortably, but I prefer to have the maximum amount of leg room. The trunk is pretty roomy for a compact. It’s not as deep as my last car, but it’s wider and can fit more. I LOVE the capless fuel tank… my brother opened it and observed, “Did you know that your fuel cap is missing?” I’m sure I will love it even more come winter (no more fumbling around in low temperatures). Mileage has been excellent so far. While tooling around the city, I get an average of 32-33 mpg. On the interstate, I was getting 40-41 mpg for a good majority of the trip to Michigan (when traveling at 70 mph or slightly below). Once I went past 71, the mpg went down to 38-39. So far my peak mpg has been 45 while going 65 on the interstate for about 15 minutes. In summary, I am very pleased with my purchase and have no regrets (though the push button start on the Titanium model might have been nice…). This car strikes the perfect balance of luxury and practicality. The technology in the cabin is excellent and I am already very spoiled… I don’t think I could ever go back. I have received many compliments on the body design… people can hardly believe it is a Ford, let alone a Focus. I hope you prospective buyers found this review helpful in your decision. One final note- my girlfriend, possibly the most frugal person I know (and who once said she would NEVER buy a brand new car), likes it so much that she ordered a Titanium model for herself! She ordered it on July 18th and it is scheduled to ship the last week of August. So the supposed production delays can’t be that bad if she can get one in about seven weeks.