[Alex0391]

Hey everyone! Hoping to finally purchase a ST1 this weekend with 72 month financing. This would be my first big purchase and I'm extremely excited ! I am sure this has been answered but I will still ask.

Following proper maintenance and performing no mods. Will I be able to see 8+ years out of the St? I know it has not been out that long, but any professional feedback would be awesome!

 

[Gats]

I'm sure not a pro, but if you're just daily driving a stock car and taking good care of it you probably wont have any major issues. Of course, you could always end up with a car that's plagued with issues, but that doesn't seem to be the norm (and the issues should present themselves while under warranty).
For what it's worth, mine's a daily driver and our primary family car on the weekends. It's a 2014, just hit 20k miles, and it's mostly city miles. I don't have so much as an interior rattle. I don't beat on it but I certainly don't baby it either. All stock besides a green filter and Breedt shift arm.
Enjoy your new car!

 

[Evitzee]

You'll be fine, just change the oil, rotate the tires and keep an eye on things. You will get at least 8 years out of it without any issues.

 

[drew925]

No plans to mod ...

I said that too. Lasted 2 hours before I started modding it LOL.

 

[Straightline]

One thing I want to add, I just got back from the ST Octane Academy. The instructor commented on the potential for the car to break down on track, he said "anythings' possible, these cars get nothing but abuse". I noticed all the cars had around 7000 miles I asked him if the reason we dont see any with higher miles is because that is the point they start breaking down. His paraphrased response was "Ford rotates these cars very carefully to spread out the wear & tear, that is why they are all around 7000 miles, we do not know yet when these cars will start breaking down".

Anyway from my experience I promise those cars truly do get beat to ****. I acknowledge 7000 miles still is not a lot, but I think it is a good sign that even with extreme abuse conditions these cars seem to be keeping their reliability.

 

[Alex0391]

Thanks guys. My initial fear was a year ago I had a rental car that was a regular 2014 Ford Focus, the quality felt okay but it would redline in first gear with me casually driving it (automatic). Now I know we're talking two different specimens but that was unfortunately my first experience in a ford. Seems like a great deal so I might do it! Was just worried because I'll of course need the car to last at LEAST 6 years for my payoff.

 

[RoachRage]

There are some here that have had nagging troubles, but there are a couple of people with over 300k miles with no major issues. Personally, I have had nothing major in 66k miles. I wore out my brake pads at 22k miles and replaced them with hawks and i am on my third set of tires. But I drive like an idiot.

 

[Mikaila]

I've had no major issues and I DD and autox my car regularly I did 8 autox events this summer and some practice events with 20-30 runs. There are certainly things like suspension and brakes I will wear out faster but so far these cars have been very reliable overall. Mines a 2014 with 22K. I intend to take care of mine until its been driven to the ground which will take me a lot longer then 8 years. I'm on my second set of summer tires, only 12K of the the eagles. I will have dedicated RE-71R for track next year, then summer street tires, and winter tires...... sooooo many tires

 

[SearchMaster]

Thanks guys. My initial fear was a year ago I had a rental car that was a regular 2014 Ford Focus, the quality felt okay but it would redline in first gear with me casually driving it (automatic). Now I know we're talking two different specimens but that was unfortunately my first experience in a ford. Seems like a great deal so I might do it! Was just worried because I'll of course need the car to last at LEAST 6 years for my payoff.

I'm pretty sure the automatic regular Focus had documented transmission issues. The ST has had its share as well, but most of them were in an early batch in the '13s (a few have popped up since). The ST has had a few other somewhat common issues but IMO Ford has done a pretty good job of addressing them with warranty work and recalls (such as the wiring harness issue).

FWIW, my '13 ST3 with 50K miles has been pretty trouble free (one short-lived rattle, occasional My Ford Touch issues, and a few false warnings about "Headlamp Fault"). Each of these are not uncommon, only the latter is really "concerning" but it hasn't happened since the first year of ownership and there has never been an actual problem with the headlights. Oh, and the OEM brake pads shed brake dust like a Golden Retriever sheds its hair but I replaced them pretty early and am happy with the new ones.

 

[SirPhobos]

2014 (early build) with 63,000 miles. Nothing to make me regret the car. Biggest issue was the wiring harness which caused erratic idle (fixed) and the gas gauge reading incorrectly due to a canister leak (fixed). I change the oil every 5K and just did the first brake change on this car at 62975 miles. Rotors were still in good shape, pads were worn a bit more in the rear than front. Still on original tires, though they may need replacing come spring.

I'd say as long as you dont drive like a jackass and stay up on the basic maintenance you should easily see 8 years. I mean really, any modern car should get you plenty of life

 

[RoachRage]

I'm pretty sure the automatic regular Focus had documented transmission issues. The ST has had its share as well, but most of them were in an early batch in the '13s (a few have popped up since). The ST has had a few other somewhat common issues but IMO Ford has done a pretty good job of addressing them with warranty work and recalls (such as the wiring harness issue).

FWIW, my '13 ST3 with 50K miles has been pretty trouble free (one short-lived rattle, occasional My Ford Touch issues, and a few false warnings about "Headlamp Fault"). Each of these are not uncommon, only the latter is really "concerning" but it hasn't happened since the first year of ownership and there has never been an actual problem with the headlights. Oh, and the OEM brake pads shed brake dust like a Golden Retriever sheds its hair but I replaced them pretty early and am happy with the new ones.

This sounds like my experience. I have an early '13 TS ST3 I got Christmas 2012. I knew I wasn't buying a Honda, so I wasn't expecting it to be trouble-free. All-in-all though, very few issues.
BTW, the "automatic" focus is a DCT (dual clutch transmission), basically an automatic stick shift. Manufacturers have had varying levels of success with DCT's. They seem to be great for supercars, not so much for daily drivers. The Ford DCT has been problematic. Whoa, I think I just gave it a new name. "Tired of driving your stick shift? Try the new Ford Problematic! It's guaranteed to drive you to the edge!" Bwahahaha!
Anyway, lets just say that it was not quite ready for prime time. Yes, millions of unsuspecting Focus drivers were the beta testers for Ford's DCT program. Yes, it had it's share of issues, but some of them are just related to people not being familiar with a tranny that behaves differently than a normal automatic with a torque converter.

 

[RoachRage]

2014 (early build) with 63,000 miles. Nothing to make me regret the car. Biggest issue was the wiring harness which caused erratic idle (fixed) and the gas gauge reading incorrectly due to a canister leak (fixed). I change the oil every 5K and just did the first brake change on this car at 62975 miles. Rotors were still in good shape, pads were worn a bit more in the rear than front. Still on original tires, though they may need replacing come spring.

I'd say as long as you dont drive like a jackass and stay up on the basic maintenance you should easily see 8 years. I mean really, any modern car should get you plenty of life

I drive like a jackass but do keep up with the maintenance.

 

[Straightline]

This sounds like my experience. I have an early '13 TS ST3 I got Christmas 2012. I knew I wasn't buying a Honda, so I wasn't expecting it to be trouble-free. All-in-all though, very few issues.
BTW, the "automatic" focus is a DCT (dual clutch transmission), basically an automatic stick shift. Manufacturers have had varying levels of success with DCT's. They seem to be great for supercars, not so much for daily drivers. The Ford DCT has been problematic. Whoa, I think I just gave it a new name. "Tired of driving your stick shift? Try the new Ford Problematic! It's guaranteed to drive you to the edge!" Bwahahaha!
Anyway, lets just say that it was not quite ready for prime time. Yes, millions of unsuspecting Focus drivers were the beta testers for Ford's DCT program. Yes, it had it's share of issues, but some of them are just related to people not being familiar with a tranny that behaves differently than a normal automatic with a torque converter.

Just researched this the automatic focus for curiosity. I can see myself getting annoyed with a clunky/junky automated manual transmission. Makes me appreciate my manual transmission.

 

[rei]

the dual clutch trans in my old Jetta TDI was amazing, really enjoyed it...
I enjoyed the $800 maintenance way less

 

[brian60]

the dual clutch trans in my old Jetta TDI was amazing, really enjoyed it...
I enjoyed the $800 maintenance way less

Volkswagen life. We've all made that mistake at least once (Jetta Mk4 for about a year)

edit: maybe not all of us...but I know a lot of people haha

 

[RoachRage]

Volkswagen life. We've all made that mistake at least once (Jetta Mk4 for about a year)

edit: maybe not all of us...but I know a lot of people haha

I had the first model Passat for 11 years. It was without question the worst car we have ever had. You might say "Then why did you keep it for so many years?" I kept thinking it would level out and stop having problems. Never happened, and it's the reason I can't even consider a VW now. I have had several Fords and while I can honestly say that they were not the best cars I have ever had, they at least didn't cost me $1000 in repairs every year like the Pissant.

 

[brian60]

I had the first model Passat for 11 years. It was without question the worst car we have ever had. You might say "Then why did you keep it for so many years?" I kept thinking it would level out and stop having problems. Never happened, and it's the reason I can't even consider a VW now. I have had several Fords and while I can honestly say that they were not the best cars I have ever had, they at least didn't cost me $1000 in repairs every year like the Pissant.

Ford sells sooooo many cars so there is bound to be sooo many issues every now and then, but the super bad rep some guys give Ford are just ridiculous. They are way more reliable and cheap to fix than most other companies.

 

[LockeLamora33]

had the now infamous tdi passat for 3 years, as soon as my warranty ran out the car went to complete ****. The dealer had tried to put off thousands in work that needed being done until the warranty ended. Needless to say they paid for everything and I immediately sold the car and will never buy vw again

 

[rei]

I was scared of Ford because my dad had a Mercury Sable in 1990 that would regularly have all electric systems fail at 100kmph; multiple times in the shop didn't fix that.

My VW was "ok" - I liked hte mileage (tdi!) and the torque (236lbft), I didn't like the $800 transmission maintenance or the $3000 blower resistor replacement job that led me to trading it in for a honda lease

 

[brian60]

I was scared of Ford because my dad had a Mercury Sable in 1990 that would regularly have all electric systems fail at 100kmph; multiple times in the shop didn't fix that.

My VW was "ok" - I liked hte mileage (tdi!) and the torque (236lbft), I didn't like the $800 transmission maintenance or the $3000 blower resistor replacement job that led me to trading it in for a honda lease

Well now you push more torque so more fun and less maintenance haha


The mileage is a gonnor though...gotta pay to play.