2016 Ford Focus: what breaks, and at what mileage

What owners report breaking

Owners have reported 73 named failure modes on the 2016 Ford Focus, and the three most-reported carry 44% of everything filed.

Other powertrain problem leads with 431 reports, about 2.4 per 1,000 vehicles and with the middle half of reports between 25k to 87,000 miles.

Other engine problem follows with 162 reports, usually reported between 37k to 82,500 miles. 1 of those report mention a fire.

Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure follows with 105 reports, usually reported between 47k to 77,500 miles.

By system, the reports fall mostly into transmission (545), engine (283) and fuel (240).

What happens when these parts fail

Across the named modes, 35 mention a crash, 5 a fire and 19 an injury. Those are the words owners used in their own complaints, and NHTSA does not verify them, but they are the closest thing in this data to a measure of what a failure actually did.

The average severity weight across every report on this year is 4.01, where a stalled engine or a failed airbag weighs many times more than a rattling trim panel, and a figure this high means the reports are dominated by failures with safety consequences rather than annoyances. The weighting is set out in full on the methodology page.

What the top failures cost to put right, as editorial estimates for an independent US shop rather than figures from NHTSA: other powertrain problem at $400–$4,500, other engine problem at $300–$4,000, fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure at $250–$1,800 and other fuel system problem at $300–$2,200. Dealer labour, a seized bolt or a part that is no longer made can push any of these past the top of its range.

58% of the reports on this year sit in the engine, transmission, drivetrain or cooling systems — the four where a repair bill is usually four figures, so more than half of what owners complained about here is expensive.

How often, against how many were built

Scaled by an estimate of how many of these cars exist, the 2016 Ford Focus draws about 8.6 per 1,000 vehicles, which puts it in the 88th percentile of complaint rates among 2016 vehicles we can rate.

That denominator is the weakest number on the page and it is fair to say so plainly. Rate per 1,000 uses a fleet-size estimate derived from recall paperwork for this exact model year. It is a lower bound.

The working figure is 183,228 vehicles. If the true number is twice that, every rate on this page is half what it says; the ranking against other 2016 vehicles, which is what the risk score uses, is far more robust than the rate itself.

Recalls on the 2016 model year

NHTSA has issued 10 recall campaigns covering the 2016 Ford Focus, affecting an estimated 261,543 vehicles. A recall is a different kind of evidence from a complaint: it is the regulator and the manufacturer agreeing that something has to be fixed, and the fix is free for as long as the car exists.

The campaigns cover fuel system, gasoline:storage:evaporative emissions:canister, power train:manual transmission and equipment:electrical:engine block heater. Whether the work was actually done on the car in front of you is a question only the VIN can answer, and the manufacturer or NHTSA will answer it free.

Recalls also distort complaint counts. Publicity about a campaign reminds owners that complaining is possible, so reports for a recalled component often spike after the recall rather than before it.

How 2016 compares with the other years

Severe risk for a 2016 — 65th riskiest of the 255 2016 vehicles we can rate. Because the ranking is against the same model year only, age cancels out of it.

Across the 20 model years of this car that carry enough reports to score, 1999 comes out best at 55 and 2014 worst at 80, with 2016 itself at 76.

If the model year is negotiable, 1999, 2011, 2009, 2004, 2010, 2005, 2003, 2001, 2000 and 2006 score lower than 2016 by a margin worth acting on. Same body, same engines, different luck — usually a supplier change or a mid-cycle fix, which the complaint data can show but never explain.

Within the 2012–2018 generation specifically, 2018 is the strongest year at 74 and 2014 the weakest at 80.

What the numbers say to check

The mileages below are where the first quarter of reports for each mode had already been filed, which makes them the point at which a fault is worth looking for rather than the point at which it happens: overheating from about 15k, other electrical problem from about 16k, cruise control failure from about 17k and dual-clutch or clutch-pack failure from about 23k.

On a 2016 Ford Focus with more miles than that on it, the useful question to put to a seller or a mechanic is whether overheating has been dealt with, and if so with what parts and at whose expense. A car that has already had the repair is in a different position from one that has not.

None of this is a diagnosis. It is a list of what other owners of the same model year reported, ordered by when they reported it, which is a good place to point an inspection and a poor place to stop.

Where these figures stop being useful

1,571 owner reports; fleet size estimated from this year's own recall paperwork. Every count on this page is therefore a floor: it is the number of owners who went to the trouble of filing with a federal agency, which is a small and self-selected fraction of the owners who had the fault.

Of those 1,571 reports, 994 carried an odometer reading, so the mileages here describe 63% of the sample rather than all of it. Owners also round: readings pile up on multiples of ten thousand, which is why this site publishes "about 90,000 miles" and not "91,438".

Named failure modes come from matching phrases in the complaint text, so a badly worded complaint can land in the wrong bucket. The effect washes out across hundreds of reports and does not wash out across five.

And nothing here predicts what one car will do. These are other people's complaints, filed years apart, on cars maintained by strangers. Read the page as a map of where this model year has previously gone wrong, then have the specific car in front of you inspected.