Fix Or Repair Daily. And the focus is the worst of the bunch. If you are going to buy a Ford and don't have 100K to spend, buy a Mustang. If you are wanting economy and hybrid technology, buy a Honda CR-Z. And if you want one of the best cars made under 50K, buy a Mercedes C class or a BMW 3 series.

Draugnar everyone I know that has a BMW is endlessly taking it to the repair shop. I'm just looking for a basic car, not something impressive or cool or technological. Now if you could point to some *evidence* that the focus is unreliable I'd take your point. But you cannot tell me BMW is reliable!

My complaint with the focus is the ergonomics of it... But admittedly, I haven't had to drive one in a few years and maybe they have fixed the problems it had when I had one as a rental car.

As far as BMW (or my preferred car, Mercedes), they have some pretty serious warranties with BMW having the new Ultimate Service included on every new BMW. All you pay for during the warranty is gas and tires. BMW and Mercedes want you happy so, while major things may cost outside of warranty, they make certain that for the warranty period *everything* is covered and that you are pleased with any work even after the warranty is up.

Yeah that's why I'm asking around, the Focus design was significantly overhauled in 2012 (for 2013 model year I guess) and gets really good reviews. I don't have any anecdotal evidence pro or con though. I don't actually *need* a car at all, so a Merc would be kind of hard to justify, though I agree they're cool.

I owned a Focus for five years, it died a horrible death exactly 3 months after it was paid off (a five year loan). Granted, I love road trips so I put a shit ton of miles on my cars, but that was a little too soon for the engine block to straight up bust open.

Draug, don't kid yourself, you're just prancing around acting like a rich white guy again.

@tendmote ... it really depends on what you're doing with the car. I know the 2014 model has a big trunk, meaning it's great for luggage or groceries or whatever, but that obviously takes away from the rear seat space. If you are planning on fitting four or even five into the car, you might think about something bigger.

The reliability of the 2013 Ford Focus and the 2013 BMW 3-Series have a very similar reliability (according to JD Power) and if you want a basic car without a really luxurious feel but that handles the daily commute, it's probably a good option.

The rental I had to take (my Hyundai Accent was in the shop at the time) had manual windows and the window crank about broke your wrist on the arm rest built into the door and cranked the opposite way of most manual windows. The whole interior just had issues (and yet they called it "ergonomics"), but it was a first generation (first year they built it IIRC).

@SacredDigits how many miles did you put on it?

It was about 160k or so, IIRC. I know it didn't hit 200k.

That was an old design Focus, obviously. A friend of mine has one of the newer ones and likes it well enough.

That's like 3 or 4 times as many miles as I've driven in the last 24 years.

Wow, you must not drive much, tendmote. I put about 15k or so per year on a car so that would be 10 years worth of driving for me. And honestly, if you got that much mileage in that little time on a Ford, you did good SD. My old Explorer, lasted till about 80k then the front differential on the four wheel drive went to shit and the rapir was more than the KBB on the POS. The only two fords I've driven that I considered decent cars were my 85 Cougar XR-7 and the 70 F-100 I learned to drive a stick on in my teens.

I've had several Fords I've done well with. I bought a POS Escort for $200 to deliver pizza in during college, that car was indestructible. I've also had a 1978 Mercury Zephyr and a 1994 Mercury Sable that were both also pretty nice for what I paid for them. Oddly, it was the only Ford I bought NEW that I had issue with.