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Ford Focus Hatchback ZX3 - Part XIV
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Comments
However my hatchback has very obvious faults in this department. For example the driver door fits not as flush as the passenger one. And there is an abnormally big gap between the front fender and the passenger door. This sloppiness is specific to my car only.
At the same time I noticed that about every Focus ZX3 has huge gaps between the the back door (hatch) and surrounding panels. In comparison all of the Hyundai or Daewoo hatches have very small gaps in that area, not mentioning the Civic hatch.
Comments?
wheel assembly. i saw the dealers paperwork
on recall from ford,.there is an exploded-view
print of the assembly and mod t
hey are going to install a redundant nut as a safety proceedure . there was a design change to the assembly.
i still maintain,as i have for many months that
most of these problems are related to outsourcing.
hey vadp- you know some get it and most dont. im with you,man.
And building the Focus in the U.S. for them = just
earning CAFE credit in order to be able to build even more of profitable gas guzzlers? Truly, follow the money.
build dates are affected. it says that ford is
voluntarily recalling 351,102 model yr.2000.
owners are asked to upgrade their vehicles to meet
new federal standards for protecting passengers against head injuries.dealers will install new a-
pillar trim panels with new energy-absorbing material.owners of 33,225 cars are being asked to return than to inspect the cruise control cable.
ford has received 12 reports of accelerators sticking to the floor. owners of 260,390 vehicles
will have rear assemblies inspected.ford has received reports of brake drum assemblies separating when the hub retaining nut that secures
the rear wheel bearings became loose.
in the article,theres this so called industry analyst who states"as long as ford handles the recall properly with owners,by the end of the week it will be completely forgotten.think again!
lieve him so i e-mailed ford at the owners connection site. sure enough 3 days later i get an e-mail confirming the recall. i then called ford again after e-mail not mentioning that i just received it and asked to have my vin checked for a recall.within a minute they confirm what e-mail
had stated.i brought this up to rep,they said when i originally called that there was a glitch in their system,there fore i was given the wrong info.who are you going to believe, your own ears or eyes?
i support everyones right to express their views .
if you have been following this forum,those who have been critical lately,including myself have also poured praise on the focus as well.in fact,
the civic vs. focus forum was shut down because of
the heated exchanges defending each others choice
of vehicle.the honda guys did forewarn us about ford build quality.i have to concede that point at this
time.you cant argue the facts.that was their main beef and they were right.personally,i was glad to
see that former import buyers were won over by the z.i truly thought that ford had turned the corner
in building a first-class,affordable,reliable vehicle.ive owned numerous ford vehicles,i always believed ford offered a lot of vehicle in a given price point.most of my experiences with thier products have been pleasant.however, i am sorely disappointed about the current situation involving
the focus.i had serious reservations about it being built in mexico,and i still do.i took a chance and my previous doubts have borne out.my initial reaction and gut feeling is to trade it when the recall work is completed.although i have soured on ford, i am still fond of the z.its that old feelings thing again.
I don't plan on trading mine in the near future. (At least for as long as the extended warranty). I'm sorry to hear about the problems some of you other guys are having. It's good to hear all sides, though. And the posts are for the most part intelligently expressed. That's why I've been coming back.
Charlie
Just out of interest are ford going to recall the Excursion?... to give it a hot wash and make it smaller?
I went to my first ford dealer yesterday to negotiate a new focus. Saleperson told me that Holdback was "non-negotiable". Hmmmm.... I walked. Will try another dealer today.
In defense of dealer, tho, I figured out price based on 3% over invoice vs. splitting invoice/msrp and came out only a few hundred bucks difference. will keep you all posted.
Cobie, don't try to complicate your life.
Just shoot for invoice or $100 over which is still a great deal. Bring the holdback information to the table only in case when the dealer is trying to convince you that he doesn't make any money
with your offer.
And again it's next to impossible to make the dealer to share the holdback unless the situation is super special and the dealer is just dying to make a sell.
Anyway, I still love my Mexico built Zx3 although I should have probably bought a European made 5 door hatch before I came here.
The request came in a letter to suppliers.
The total percentage of the cost reductions varies by supplier, but 2000 targets ranged from 3% to 6%
This means the requirement jumps as high as 9% for some. Suppliers were to submit their plans to Ford on Friday, Oct.6.
"What they're asking is unreasonable," said a sales executive for one supplier who asked not to be identified. "Unless someone blinks, I don't think they'll get it from (segments of the supplier community). It's a ruthless industry."
At the heart of the issue for many suppliers is Ford's recent financial performance. "What makes me so mad is that they're making record profits," said another supplier who asked not to be named. "How can they come to us and claim that we're partners and do this?"
Ford earned $7.23 billion in 1999 on revenue of $163 billion. Third-quarter earnings will be reported Wednesday, Oct. 18.
Ford said this is the second year it has sent out a letter asking for reductions. "This is just the start of the process," said Frank Sopata, Ford spokesman. "We're going to work with these suppliers. This is all part of doing business and remaining competitive."
Some suppliers are resolute about not capitulating, while others already have started seeking ways to spread the pain. Budd Co. asked its suppliers for cost reductions of about 3%.
"Your cooperation positions our respective companies to continue to do business in future years," the letter from Budd states. "Another rejection absolutely places our long-term relationship at risk. We await your response."
"It's classic hardball right now," said David Cole, director of the Office for the Study of Automotive Transportation at the University of Michigan. "It's not and enduring kind of thing. This kind of process can't last. It will get to a point, and we have a lot of people (that are close), where they will go out of business.""
I wonder if Ford is asking them to improve quality at the same time. I don't think that quality will be the first priority for the supplying company desperately struggling to stay afloat.
and wagons have much better aerodynamics than the ZX3. Which is very strange. I always thought that the hatchback body style is supposed to be the slickest of them. Any thoughts?
http://carpoint.msn.com/vip/Heraud/Ford/Focus/2000O.asp
So why don't they use a reverse thread on the left side? Even a garden-variety bicycle does this. (I know, I know - it saves a part duplication. Much better to have the wheel come off
Who knows - maybe Ford doesn't trust their service departments to check for thread type before cranking away... either that, or they wanted to save a few cents by making all the nuts the same.
My moderately uniformed guess is that the ZX3 is too "chopped off" at the rear, relative to its height to garner a better coefficient - I recall several concept designs from 15-20 years ago that improved their coefficient by gradually sloping and extending the last third of the vehicle.
Thanks for the link - I had heard the ZX3 had a worse drag coefficient than the sedan - but had never seen any actual numbers - I'm surprised by the differential.
I think it's a matter of a couple not being torqued to specs, and Ford isn't taking any chances due to other in house problems. i.e. tires.
s***. By doing this FoMoCo is trying not to spread them over time and reinvent itself in the near future as a Quality oriented company once again. (ye, right).
Especially when the author calls the ZX3 "the 3-door sedan". What was he
According the folowing article a hatchback (fastback) should have better air flow than a sedan.
http://www.fortunecity.com/silverstone/lancia/58/technical_school/aero/tech_aero.htm
One segment of the show involved the 59 story Citicorp Center in New York City. This building has an unusual design due to the fact that it shares it's lot with another building. Citicorp center is built on four legs that are in the center of the tower's four walls. It looks really strange, like it could fall down.
After it was built the architect had a call from a high school student asking just why it didn't fall. The answer was that the building has cross supports that actually transfer the building's weight to the four legs.
But the call got the architect thinking. It seems that during construction a cost cutting decision was made to bolt those cross supports together rather then welding them as the original design called for. A few calculations revealed that a good storm, of the type that New York sees perhaps every 16 years, would (not could - would) cause the 915 foot tall building to fall down! It would take out entire city blocks and kill thousands if this happened. And it was very likely to happen.
An emergency plan was put in place to reinforce the building. Welders were called in from all over the northeast. Lot of money was spent to fix this cost cutting.
There was a mad race as a hurricane approached. The project couldn't have been done in time. Fortunately the storm went out to sea and the city was saved.
It took 20 years for the public to be notified of this near disaster.
So my point? S*** happens. Be glad it's only a wheel nut.
See the PBS story on the web;
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/wonder/structure/citicorp.html
ploding ford pinto.be glad its only a fuel tank.
are you kidding?ive never forgotten the firestone 500 tires from the late 70's.be glad its only a nut,sounds a little screwy!the consumer gets the shaft once again.
What's the fastest y'all have driven in your Z? How's the ride at top speed, eh?
http://www.fordracing.net/focusrs/focusrs.html
zgrrrl,
in the US the governor doesn't allow to go faster than 106-108 mph.(cuts fuel)
At those speeds the car feels as stable and sure tracking as at 70 mph.
You're just a ray of sunshine.
How are the things going now?
My front brakes are holding up quite well. (no warping or strange noises after 9000 miles).
The rear ones started to squeal after I hit the 6000 mile mark. The dealer changed the brake shoes.
It helped, but just for 1000 miles. Now it squeals even worse than the original set.
http://www.days.co.uk/mondeo.zip
It does look very sexy
http://www.days.co.uk/newveh/newmondeo.htm
Unfortunately Ford decided not to bring it to the US shores. But anything is possible.
European design school produces truly outstanding looking cars. Too bad that reliability is still trailing the Japanese standards.
Civic too.
With the high volume models like the Focus and the
Civic the 5w20 grade should become wildly available pretty soon.
Not much noise from the rear brakes, altho I parallel park almost every nite and when I back up I notice a CLUNK noise when I brake...is this a bearing issue?
Which is easy to check by rocking the wheels side to side.
The drivetrain in general is notorious for making clunking noises.
They don't have anything on the front windshild/door pillar fix yet. The only thing they know is what they read in paper. Oh well.
Silver bullet: got it.
Drebe73: did you find what you needed.
Pat
Pat
Here are my ?s-
1.) do i claim it a lemon and have it replaced...
2.) has anyone else had to deal with Ford's "Dispute Settlement Board"? what was the outcome? experience? etc... it is worth it basically?
i would love to hear some info from other who have had problems. feel free to e-mail me or for benefit of all post here. i LOVE my car and i do believe this is the best car in this price range feature for feature.... but this gets frustrating.between this and 3 of the 4 recalls i have seen enough of the service dept.
at Kkulig@aol.com with the request of his Lemon Law article.(He will want to know what version of the word processor you're using).
He had some experiences using the Wisconsin Lemon Law against Chrysler.
He will e-mail you back the copy of that article.
Good Luck and please keep us posted.
Find some 1 lane straight road somewhere and break 100 people!
THANKS
The thing is that Ford had a one step EZ in/out seat available on the Escort and Festiva a couple of years back and they did not adapt it to the Focus. Must be they forgot about it, or the pencil pushers said it was cheaper for us to do it ourselves.
Pat
I have a question that will require inspection of your car if someone will please answer for me. It is in regard to the "felt" lining in the rear wheel wells. I notice that the "felt" in the passenger side well of my Z is pulling away from the fender. Now when my car was being repaired from the accident, the body shop removed the plastic skirts from the side panels. I noticed on the other side of my car that the "felt" attaches to the plastic skirt on the sides. Follow me so far? Now there are these holes in the plastic piece attached to the "felt" and there is a similar hole at the end of the side skirts. My question is, on your car, is there a screw or something threaded through these holes that attach the "felt" piece to the skirt? I believe the "felt" piece is coming out on my car because the body shop never reattached it to the skirt. Upon inspection of the drivers side, it looks like it is attached better and looks like there is a small mud flap looking piece of plastic that isn't present on the passenger side. Sorry to be so elaborate, thanks for any help.
Pat
Pat