2006 Ford Focus
This year drew an ordinary 204 complaints for a Ford Focus — the model's median is 1,568. What they were about is the unusual part: 23.5% of them mention key, against 5.1% across the model's other years.
Generation 1 of the Ford Focus, which began in 2005 and ran to 2007. 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 | 204 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 1,568 |
| Involving a crash | 22 |
| Involving a fire | 3 |
| Recalls | 2 |
| EPA combined | 25 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- key — 23.5% of this year's complaints, against 5.1% across the model's other years (4.6×). Owners wrote it as: key, removed, key ignition, remove.
- bag — 10.3% of this year's complaints, against 0.7% across the model's other years (14.8×). Owners wrote it as: bag, air bag, bag warning, deployment.
- mileages — 6.4% of this year's complaints, against 0.1% across the model's other years (31.9×). Owners wrote it as: mileages, failure mileages, current mileages.
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
HE WAS UNABLE TO REMOVE THE KEY FROM THE IGNITION. IN ADDITION, THE GEAR SHIFT INDICATOR WOULD ENGAGE WITHOUT DEPRESSING THE BRAKE. AS OF FEBRUARY 14, 2008, THE DEALER HAD NOT INSPECTED THE VEHICLE. THE CURRENT AND FAILURE MILEAGES WERE 430,000.
WHILE DRIVING APPROXIMATELY 65 MPH, THE DRIVER'S SIDE CURTAIN AIR BAG DEPLOYED WITHOUT WARNING. THE CONTACT WAS NOT INJURED. THE VEHICLE WAS LATER TAKEN TO AN INDEPENDENT MECHANIC WHERE THEY ADVISED THE CONTACT THAT THERE WAS A DEFECT WITH THE AIR BAGS AND THA…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 08E050000 EXTERIOR LIGHTING
- 06E056000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE 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 2006 Ford Focus? What happened to yours?
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