2018 Ford Focus
This year drew an ordinary 1,568 complaints for a Ford Focus — the model's median is 441. What they were about is the unusual part: 31.8% of them mention oil, against 11.3% 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 | 1,568 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 441 |
| Involving a crash | 30 |
| Involving a fire | 6 |
| Recalls | 7 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 31 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- oil — 31.8% of this year's complaints, against 11.3% across the other years of this generation (2.8×). Owners wrote it as: oil, engine engine, cooling, engine cooling.
- vin — 22.4% of this year's complaints, against 8.1% across the other years of this generation (2.8×).
- cooling however — 9.8% of this year's complaints, against 1.3% across the other years of this generation (7.6×). Owners wrote it as: cooling however, tool, vin tool, confirms.
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
while driving 10 MPH, the low oil pressure warning light illuminated on the instrument panel, and the vehicle lost motive power. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic, who diagnosed a failure with the oil pump belt tensioner. The vehicle was not rep…
while driving at approximately 70 MPH, the vehicle lost motive power, stalled, and shut off independently. The vehicle was towed to the dealer where it was diagnosed with engine failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The contact received notification of NHTSA…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 18V735000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE
- 18V845000 POWER TRAIN 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.
- 26V369000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 26V376000 POWER TRAIN 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 2018 Ford Focus? What happened to yours?
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