2009 Ford Focus
This year drew an ordinary 229 complaints for a Ford Focus — the model's median is 1,568. What they were about is the unusual part: 7.9% of them mention traveling, against 2% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 2 of the Ford Focus, which began in 2008 and ran to 2011. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 229 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 1,568 |
| Involving a crash | 26 |
| Involving a fire | 2 |
| Recalls | 0 |
| EPA combined | 27.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- traveling — 7.9% of this year's complaints, against 2% across the other years of this generation (3.9×). Owners wrote it as: traveling, traveling mph, slowing down, airbags deploy.
- neutral — 6.1% of this year's complaints, against 2% across the other years of this generation (3.1×). Owners wrote it as: neutral, restart car, time happened.
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
WHILE THE VEHICLE WAS TRAVELING 50 TO 60 MPH THE TRANSMISSION INDEPENDENTLY SHIFTED AND THE VEHICLE RESPONDED AS IF IT WAS STALLING. THE CONTACT TOOK THE VEHICLE TO THE DEALER, BUT THEY WERE UNABLE TO DUPLICATE THE FAILURE. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 16,000 AND T…
WHILE TRAVELING VARIOUS SPEEDS, THE VEHICLE SUDDENLY LOST ACCELERATION POWER. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO A PRIVATE MECHANIC WHERE IT WAS FOUND THAT THE THROTTLE HAD SEIZED IN THE CLOSED POSITION. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT REPAIRED. THE [VIN] WAS CONTACTED ABOUT THE FA…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
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 2009 Ford Focus? What happened to yours?
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