Model years › Ford Focus

2012 Ford Focus

Complaints about this year name steering far more often than the other years of this generation — 25% of them, about 4× the usual rate of 7%.

First year of a new generation. The Ford Focus was redesigned for 2012. 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.

What the complaints were about

• power steering — 21.9% of this year's complaints, against 6.9% across the other years of this generation (3.2×). Owners wrote it as: power steering, steering assist, difficult, assist fault.
• door — 20.6% of this year's complaints, against 7.6% across the other years of this generation (2.7×). Owners wrote it as: door, latch, open, door latch.

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.

Also unusual this year

• door — 15% of complaints, 11× usual
• latch — 11% of complaints, 14× usual
• power steering — 14% of complaints, 4× usual

What owners wrote

THE VEHICLE EXPERIENCED A LOSS OF POWER STEERING AND THE POWER STEERING WARNING INDICATOR ILLUMINATED. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT DIAGNOSED OR REPAIRED. THE CONTACT RECEIVED NOTIFICATION OF NHTSA CAMPAIGN NUMBER: 16V643000 (LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES); HOWEVER, THE PARTS…

THE DRIVER SIDE DOOR LATCH MALFUNCTIONED, NOT ALLOWING THE DOOR TO SHUT. MY SON WAS DRIVING THE CAR ON 07/14/2016 AND STOPPED AT THE STORE. UPON RETURNING TO THE CAR HE NOTICED THE LIGHTS ON AND DOOR AJAR. WHEN HE GOT IN THE CAR, THE DRIVER SIDE DOOR WOULD NOT…

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.

Recalls for this year

• 18V735000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE
• 19V515000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE
• 16V643000 LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES Fixed free of charge.
• 12E035000 EQUIPMENT
• 12V149000 VISIBILITY Fixed free of charge.
• 13V335000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING Fixed free of charge.
• 20V331000 LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES Fixed free of charge.
• 26V369000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.

Own a 2012 Ford Focus? What happened to yours?

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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.

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