2007 Ford Focus
This year drew an ordinary 391 complaints for a Ford Focus — the model's median is 1,568. What they were about is the unusual part: 21.2% of them mention bag, against 4.9% across the model's other years.
Last year of its generation. This Ford Focus ran from 2005 to 2007, so it had the whole run for its faults to be found and fixed. Last years are usually the most sorted of a generation.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 391 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 1,568 |
| Involving a crash | 60 |
| Involving a fire | 7 |
| Recalls | 2 |
| EPA combined | 26 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- bag — 21.2% of this year's complaints, against 4.9% across the model's other years (4.4×). Owners wrote it as: bag, air bag, bag light, passenger seat.
- deployed — 13.8% of this year's complaints, against 1.5% across the model's other years (9.2×). Owners wrote it as: deployed, airbags, impact, chest.
- airbag — 16.4% of this year's complaints, against 5.2% across the model's other years (3.1×). Owners wrote it as: airbag, airbag light, stays, side airbag.
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
TRAVELING AT 45 MPH, VEHICLE PULLS OUT IN FRONT OF MINE AND MY CAR IMPACTED THE FRONT END OF THEIR VEHICLE. FRONT END OF MY VEHICLE WAS TOTALLY DAMAGED AND AIRBAGS DID NOT DEPLOY BUT AIR BAG LIGHT CAME ON. TOOK TO DEALERSHIP AND HAD FIXED. SIX MONTHS LATER THE…
WHILE DRIVING 70 ON THE TURNPIKE THE DRIVER SIDE SIDE AIRBAG DEPLOYED OUT OF THE SEAT WITHOUT ANY TYPE OF IMPACT OR ACCIDENT CAUSING IT TO DO SO. THE DEPLOYMENT CAUSED NUMEROUS INJURIES. THERE ARE NO SIGNS OF ANY DAMAGE TO THE VEHICLE THAT WOULD HAVE CAUSED TH…
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 2007 Ford Focus? What happened to yours?
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