2017 Ford Focus
This year drew an ordinary 1,738 complaints for a Ford Focus — the model's median is 441. What they were about is the unusual part: 7.5% of them mention cooling, against 0.6% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 3 of the Ford Focus, which began in 2012. 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 | 1,738 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 441 |
| Involving a crash | 36 |
| Involving a fire | 4 |
| Recalls | 10 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 30 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- cooling — 7.5% of this year's complaints, against 0.6% across the other years of this generation (11.9×). Owners wrote it as: cooling, engine engine, engine cooling, cooling however.
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
notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V905000 (ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING). The local dealer was contacted and refused to repair the vehicle. The contact was informed that, unless a failure occurred with the engine, the recall repair would not be performed.…
while starting the vehicle, the check engine warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was taken to a local dealer where the vehicle was diagnosed, and the contact was informed that the engine was faulty and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18V735000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE
- 19V515000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE
- 18V845000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 17V528000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V698000 LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES Fixed free of charge.
- 23V905000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 26V011000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 26V012000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 10. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
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 2017 Ford Focus? What happened to yours?
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