Maybe a ford focus lasts better in your location. I will never buy another one for resale. At accumulated milages that better cars usually will have had no issues. You will have a list of them. I have my last purchased one now for resale waiting for my attention.

At 75 thousand miles it needs a day or twos work. A garage would charge thousands of dollars. Starting with a complete brake job that will need attention by someone else again before too long. The braking system was made problamatic on purpose to cheapen the production costs of the car. Then there are suspension issues, non working hardware issues, The infamous ignition key lock issue to attend to as well.

The keyswitches alone go bad a few times over the lifespan of the car. Not always cheap to deal with either. There is gasket leakages on the engine of enough magnitude I will have to address them as well. At 75k an average honda or toyota should need nothing. Not even a timing belt change as they use chains that last the life of the car if the oil is changed on schedule.

People will buy a used decent japanese car with 150k on it. Will there be much left to resell of a focus at 150k average miles? Well if you spend enough money on it maybe. But you will spend considerable money in comparison to get there. Plus get a much lower resale price out of it. Generally a lose/lose situation.

Ford as with the other domestic big three labels also has tended to carry long standing issues forward. If this has really changed in the recent past I do not know. You cannot trust the commercials or those companies as they always use the same pitches. Quality is job one by ford was a spectacular example during the period they were making marginal cars. Now it is we are building better cars. how is the consumer to really know?

On the other hand some people out there have to contribute more than others to the economy. A good example is the amount of times you will repair the brake system in comparison to say a honda. You can actually reduce this to an equation. My guess overall is that a focus compared to a honda will have overall cost you twice as much if not more over an eight year period. By this I mean including the purchase cost and the retained resale value.

Unless they have really changed focus resale is going to be low. This factors very heavily into your cost of ownership.

Why not break with tradition in your family and get something better? Initially it should cost no more with a little effort. Cars like toyota and honda have earnt their position over the years.It is just not advertising. No they are not perfect either but in comparison to the big three costwise they are.

This is just not my opinion either. Again a used older toyota or honda still in decent shape will attract a new owner both easily and at a higher price by far than an old line domestic brand. So the car is absolutly far cheaper to own over it's usage period.

Now a given is maybe the newer focuses are better. They are just not old enough to absolutly tell yet. It is your money you are laying on the line to find out. Are you into gambling this much?

Why did I overall turn so sour on the old big three domestic cars? They cost me a fortune looking back on what could have been different. If the big threes fundemental drive would change from just wanting to separate you from your money. Compared to attempting to give you a good experience with no arguments about warranty.

Honda and toyotas view of the car market is more long term oriented and you can benifit from that. Your repeat business is wanted and they do many things to make it happen.

I hope you are also aware of the fact that honda and toyota use a lot of lifetime parts. These are just parts that you would have to change out normally at specified intervals as maintenace items on most other brands.Many of these are no longer cheap either.

I am not sure why they do not advertise this fact other than people do not use logic when purchasing cars. For the majority logic is displaced by emotional choices.

Now do not get me totally wrong. If the old big three produce cars that are equal or better than the others proven over at least a ten year period. That would mean that they have really dropped their old culture and ways I will buy them. At the current time this is just not the situation..