Car of the Year they said ! I think people giving this kind of "award" should drive the car more than 2 miles on closed roads with selected cars from the factory. So far, since I got my ZX3 kona in August and after 5,000 miles,I went five times to my dealer for two safety recalls and the total change of the rear suspension: 5 months, 5 visits..pretty good huh ???<br>I am a foreigner, so please tell me you real american guys: Does the word "quality control" has a sense in this country ? Let me tell you this story: I got the safety recall 00S20, change of the A pilar because the plastics are flying away in case of a side impact, as they said at Ford ! I called my dealer (Sheehy at Gaithersburg, free commercial) to make sure that they got the part (they are quite good for keeping your car three days because they are running out of parts) and brang my car. The next day...surprise ! the new part where installed in a way that a half-inch gap was presnt between the plastic part and the car roof. Good job ! For a safety recall, that's a safety recall. The factory was concern that these pieces might fly inside the car in case of an accident. Well, with Sheehy ford at gaithersburg, don't waste your time for the accident, the parts are installed loose already when they perform the recall ! But the most amazing was when I discovered it, I got No sorry, noting, nada, only "well, it happens" and "we are out of parts, come back later" !!! AMAZING ! but the best part is for the end (as usual). As I was inspecting the car with them for their sloppy job, I noticed that the plastic parts were pretty worn at some places. Making the comment, I got back: "well, you know, sometimes the parts are already worn-out when we get them from the factory" !!! IN-CRE-DI-BLE !! Guys, don't go there if you have troubles with your windshield, they might be able to install one already broken but "freshly-out-of-factory" !! and you will get: "yes sir, it's broken, but we got it like that from the factory, it's not us" MORONS !<br>I took some pictures of their great job and I would like to send those somewhere for making enough noise against these morons at sheehy (who said shitty ?) Ford. Where do you think I should send them for getting some feed back ? I cannot accept that they let my car out of their dealership in that shape !<br>Thanks for your input...

It's true the auto makers in this country hold to the motto "quantity over quality", when it breaks buy a new one. I realize that this is no consolation to your problems but you're one of a very few who seem to end up with "lemons". As for recalls you can't exactly get every thing perfect 100% of the time. Especially when you release a car for the first time in a new country. Even though there is no real difference between a Focus sold in GB than one sold in the US those differences are going to cause problems. There is one thing ford needs to get a handle on is the quality of service at their dealerships. I live in the Seattle area and purchased my ZX3 from Evergreen ford in Issaquah. I will never go back there a agin. I have since tried another dealership in Bellevue, I found the same sort of problems with them. So I do think there needs to be a change there and maybe you will be able to start something if you get enough people making noise.

Actually, gerardmajax has a point... I bought my ZX3 at the same dealership [Sheehy of Gaithersburg] on august 14, 2000, and I haven't had any recall work done to it because two days after I got my car, a marked police car hit it while tailgating another car [his lane stopped, so he swerved into my lane and hit me], and when I got my car back, I noticed that the door locks didn't work properly, so I took it back: they couldn't reproduce it [it was intermittent at this point], and after another few days, I took it back again because I noticed that the left-front headlight was out [brand new car with no headlight??? fishy] and it turns out that when they fixed my front drivers' side quarter panel and bumper cover, that they didnt hook up the light. Then, they found a bent piece of metal in the door when I finally got the door locks to malfunction for them, and I finally had a good car again... ouch.<br><br>Fast forward to two months ago, and I have been taking my car to the dealership every month to 1 1/2 months [3,000 miles if you can believe I drive that much] to get the oil changed, and while driving home I noticed an oil smell... and while stopping at a red light, I notice a large amount of smoke coming from my hood... Needless to say, the idiot who did the oil change had forgotten to put the oil filler cap back on, and any oil that had hit that area was thrown into my engine compartment... the smell finally went away about 1,500 miles later :c( and so I won't take it for the A-Pillar recall or the new Seatbelt recall, because of that sort of thing... gerardmajax, I'm with you on this one... I'm only going to by SVT cars from them, unless I stop being lazy and go somewhere else [they are one of the only SVT dealerships within 50-100 miles of where I live]<br><br>Anywho, talk to you all later!