2008 Ford Focus
This year drew an ordinary 250 complaints for a Ford Focus — the model's median is 1,568. What they were about is the unusual part: 6.4% of them mention head, against 0.9% across the other years of this generation.
First year of a new generation. The Ford Focus was redesigned for 2008. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 250 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 1,568 |
| Involving a crash | 21 |
| Recalls | 2 |
| EPA combined | 28 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- head — 6.4% of this year's complaints, against 0.9% across the other years of this generation (7.2×). Owners wrote it as: head, came out.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
THE SPARK PLUGS KEEP BLOWING OUT OF THE ENGINE HEAD. SO FAR, 3 OUT OF 4 HAVE COME OUT. SOME MORE THAN ONCE AFTER REPAIRING WITH A HELICOIL.
MY VEHICLE WAS IN A HEAD ON COLLISION IN WHICH THE AIR BAGS FAILED TO DEPLOY ON THE DRIVER SIDE AND PASSENGER SIDE, WHICH IN TURN CAUSED SIGNIFICANT INJURY TO BOTH PARTIES OCCUPYING THE VEHICLE AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 08E050000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING
- 07V541000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Ford Focus was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2008 Ford Focus? What happened to yours?
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