Not a racecar, not a chick magnet, but a decent compact car.

My new wife (of 2 weeks) bought the 2005 Ford Focus ZX4 SES, which is the high-end sedan, just under the "ST" performance version. She bought it new about 2 years ago, and we have since put about 24000 miles on it.

We have been together 5 years so I have been with this car since the beginning. As far as cars go, it's pretty far from my idea of a dream machine, but honestly I don't have much to complain about.

THE GOOD:

The first, and best, part about the Focus was the price. Thanks to my wife's stubborn nature (not with me, just with sales people), she purchased the car brand new for $12,500, bargained down from the sticker price of just over $19k. This is one of the higher end models, with spoiler, 6-disc changer, nicer 16" wheels, power everything, etc.

Second, the fuel economy is good in city, and something over 30 MPG on road trips. We've taken this car on several trips (most recently to the Oregon coast to get married), and have saved a good amount in gas money over other vehicles. For a compact this isn't the best MPG in the world, but it's better than anything I've ever owned.

In the 2 years we've had this car, I don't think we've had a single mechanical problem. We've had it in every 3000 miles for oil changes. The only time there was anything of note, we were noticing a noise occasionally when you'd go over a bump. It sounded like something was rubbing together, it was subtle but once you heard it you'd hear it every time. We mentioned it the next time we had the car in and they weren't able to duplicate the problem, so we've moved on with our lives. This car is parked under a carport, so the fact that it's had no cosmetic or mechanical problems is even more impressive.

The engine has enough pep to get you on the freeway, and when you're at freeway speeds, kick on the cruise control and relax. It's got decent off the line acceleration due to it's size.

The interior materials are of decent quality for what they are - no leather for example, but the cloth seats are nice. They're reasonably bolstered for support, and comfortable to a degree. I've been able to stand sitting in them for hours at a time for road trips, so that's something. The various textured plastics in the cabin are nicer than they could be. Everything fits together and I think everything is well designed. The dashboard buttons are intuitive, and the stock in-dash changer works great. It occasionally has problems, especially with burned cds, but usually after saying 'bad disc' and ejecting, you can reinsert it and you're good to go. This doesn't happen enough to really be an issue.

Official specs, like crash test ratings, are extremely high - reassuring but I'm still not willing to get into an accident to find out.

THE BAD:

The engine is small at 2.0L, and like most little engines it has to rev pretty high to get any sort of torque to the wheels. It's audibly buzzy when accelerating, albeit not as annoying as the imports with their coffee can exhaust tips, but still not exactly awe-inducing. It has decent off the line acceleration but not great high-speed passing acceleration.

The overall design of the car lends itself to those of the female persuasion. In other words, it's a girl car. I do drive it occasionally, and frankly I'm glad we got the windows tinted cause I wouldn't want people to be able to see me. I think it's a great car, but I can only do it cause I have the excuse that it's my wife's car. If you are male and you actually buy one, even the ST, I'm going to look at you weird.

The interior is good quality, however the interior noise level is a little high. Especially when on the highway, it's a little loud for comfort even with the windows up. If I really wanted to take this car seriously, I would cover it in Dynamat Xtreme, and then it would really be a nice place to be when driving. As is, it's loud but not unbearably so.

Conclusion:
Basically, this car is a middle of the road "make everybody happy" vehicle. It's well priced, well-optioned, decently zippy, and good enough on gas. There is not one out-standing feature, but there really isn't any one problem feature either. I guess the best description I can give this car is I would definitely buy it for my little sister, because I'm confident it would take care of her.