CarComplaints.com Notes: Even though the first model year of a major redesign should typically be avoided, Ford did a good job & the 2008 Ford Focus doesn't appear to have any major defects.
That said, the following model years of this 2nd generation Focus (2009-2011) do appear to be slightly better.
I took a 500 mile trip and when i got home the transmission started shifting hard and wouldn't go into overdrive. so while i was driving i turned the car off and back on and it started working normal. its done it again and i figured out that it does this after i let it idle in park for a minute or so and whenever i kill it and restart it its fine. now it even does it after i drive down the road a couple of miles. it just kicks out of overdrive and then shifts hard. took it to a tranny shop and they hooked the computer up and the only code it was throwing is P0171 which is system to lean bank one. what does the air fuel mixture have to do with my tranny problem? note to anyone wanting to buy a focus, DON'T. its a crap car and ford doesn't know what they're doing.
The Service Team at Galpin is great.... but don't get me wrong!!! The transmission slips, jerks shutters and has not excelleration power or load. I have taken my car to Galpin 5 times with the same or similar issues. It seems like everytime I take the car back, it drives okay for about 1000 miles and start the same thing all over again.
Not to mention, I had the same problem with the 2000 Focus. I need to slap myself for buying the same model and different year again!!!!!!!
This car is a lemon, the gas pedal, when applied, would not respond, then throw itself into gear. I also find that when decelerating then accelerating there is a subtle hesitation in the shift. Ford will not do anything further to fix this, and refuses to acknowledge anything my wife and I say about this issue.
This is the second time this has happened to me. You're driving down the road fine, and then all of a sudden it feels like your car has slipped into neutral. Pressing the gas as hard as I could, I could never get above 20-30 miles per hour. My husband put the gas pedal to the floor (against my better judgment) but eventually it "popped" out and worked okay (after redlining for a few seconds...tsk tsk). However, the gears shifted very hard until we stopped and turned the car off and let it set for a second.
The maintenance light did come on this time, so the mechanic could actually tell us what was wrong. I'm very frustrated with this as we have kept the maintenance up on the car religiously, and really there is no amount of maintenance that will keep a fuel solenoid from going bad. I am getting it fixed over the weekend, so hopefully this will solve the problem!
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
I took a 500 mile trip and when i got home the transmission started shifting hard and wouldn't go into overdrive. so while i was driving i turned the car off and back on and it started working normal. its done it again and i figured out that it does this after i let it idle in park for a minute or so and whenever i kill it and restart it its fine. now it even does it after i drive down the road a couple of miles. it just kicks out of overdrive and then shifts hard. took it to a tranny shop and they hooked the computer up and the only code it was throwing is P0171 which is system to lean bank one. what does the air fuel mixture have to do with my tranny problem? note to anyone wanting to buy a focus, DON'T. its a crap car and ford doesn't know what they're doing.
- Christopher L., Arkoma, OK, US