Love this car. With a mix of street and freeway driving I am averaging over 31 mpg (manual transmission) and that's with a semi-heavy foot. This is an outstanding commuter car. I love the sync. The bluetooth phone feature is very easy to use along with the voice usb feature for my ipod. I really like the appearance of the car. I have the SES model with the 17 inch wheels and spoiler. The handling is phenomenal for a car that gets easily 30+ mpg. The sport suspension on the SES is highly worth the upgrade. The ride is surprisingly smooth considering the 17" wheels with 45 series low profile tires. Performance is very reasonable again considering the mileage it gets. I have no problems accelerating on large hills on the freeway and can easily maintain 80+ mph on those hills. Passing can slightly be a chore but is not a problem with a little room. I purchased this vehicle as a commuter but I truly enjoy driving it.

Love everything about, I never thought of Ford as a sporty car until I got mine. I get lots of compliments. Has plenty of get up and go for a 4 cyl. Handles great on the road. Hugs the corners.

Performance- it has very little. Since the car is quite sizable and the engine quite small, it doesnt have much get up. Build Quality- its a Ford. While everyone hails the progress of Ford, they still have a lot of progressing left to do. Appearance- its oddly proportioned. Cost of ownership- the only redeeming value of this car is that its cheap to buy and cheap to maintain. Fun factor- It doesnt have a lot going for it in this category. Its suspension, while insanely firm going over bumps is also extremely wobbly through corners.

The Focus quality was much higher than other brands we looked at (Kia, Aveo, Pontiac). For the money, the Focus SEL was loaded with everything we wanted including a leather interior and SYNC system for hands-free bluetooth operation of our cellphones.

I got this car to replace my 2001 Ford Ranger, I was only getting about 14 mpg. Now I'm averaging 30+ now. Its my first fwd car and so far I love it. Its fun to drive and gets great fuel economy.