I know I haven't been keeping you posted on the status of this project, this is largely due to the frustrations my daily driver has been causing me since my last update in July. So now get a snack and a drink and allow me to fill you in on the situation for the last few months.

 

 

 

​Prologue: ​In 2012 I was given a 2003 Toyota Rav4 as a gift from my grandmother who had recently purchased a new Lexus RX. It was my 3rd Toyota and I enjoyed the car for about 2 years before the Transmission Control Module failed. The TCM is a large computer chip about the size of a lunchbox which controls the shifting of the Automatic transmission. At the time I was in between jobs and didn't have money to repair the vehicle at a shop and was reduced to walking and catching the bus again. Eventually my mother found a repair shop in California which specializes in repairing the TCMs for multiple cars. When the TCM fails the transmission doesn't know when to shift gears, resulting in a harsh shifting and jolting about making the car undrivable and unsafe. The repair shop offered their services on Ebay. You pay them the fair price of $60 and ship your damaged TCM to their shop in California and in a week they send it back fully repaired. Sure enough it worked and I was back on the road in a matter of days.

 

However the car was getting old and was nearing its $200,000 mile mark and I was sure something else major was going to happen, so I made the choice to sell the car before any new repairs were needed. I took the car to Carmax the biggest used car dealer on the East Coast. Carmax offers free appraisals and after determining what your car is worth, will hand you a written offer if you sell to them. Carmax valued my car at exactly the blue book value (mostly because my Grandma loves her cars and always takes care of them) and I sold it to them for $4000. Now I began my search for a new set of wheels.

 

In June 2014 I purchased a new 2015 Ford Focus sedan. The new Focus finally received the Fusion front fascia and an update. In my excitement in buying my first NEW car I overlooked the fact that this is usually the worst thing to do. Buying a car right after the new generation is released does not give enough time for any bugs to be worked out. I almost immediately began to have problems with it and here we arrive to the present day.

 

 

 

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​One after another.........:​ The first problem I had with the car was actually with the Front Passenger Door. Build Quality at Ford had actually been improving another reason for high sales. However 2 models have been having difficulties with their new 2015 model years, The Mustang and the Focus...both new gen.

 

I have a friend who purchased a new Mustang and one very noticeable flaw is that the body panels do not align correctly. The gap between the fender and hood was larger on the passenger side than on the drivers side meaning the hood had to be wiggled to be shut properly. This problem could be found all around the car and was worst at the trunk.

 

On my 2015 Ford Focus the passenger door had to be lifted up then either pushed or pulled to open. The door was not level. And never opened or shut properly.

 

The interior of the Focus is covered in dark black plastics which scratch remarkably easy. simply resting the keys on the dash was enough to scratch it.

 

The next problem was with the 60/40 split folding rear seats. On the drivers side rear the latch was already broken from the factory and I hadn't discovered this until putting the rear seats down for the first time. The clamp which secured the rear seat to the frame was stuck in the closed position meaning the rear seat could not be secured and would frequently move out of position. The dealer tried to fix it but as soon as they fixed it the clamp would again be stuck in the closed position.

 

The biggest and most notable issue I had with this car was with the TRANSMISSION ​which is terrible design and one of only two parts on the car sourced with foreign parts and labor. (Engine in 2015 + Ford Focus comes from Japan, Transmission comes from Mexico) The Ford Focus (and Fiesta) use DCT Transmissions or Dual Clutch Transmissions. DCT's use 2 clutches to control the gears. Gears 1,3,5 were controlled by Clutch 1 and 2,4,6 were with Clutch 2. This transmission has been in use since the 2012 redesign of the Focus model and is a well documented problem. DCT's do not behave like normal automatic transmissions and in lower end cars like this one have terrible performance.

 

The most irritating thing about the 2015 Focus is the change over from gear 1 to gear 2. The car doesn't like to leave first gear from a stand still and when changing to 2nd the car always shuddered violently. For context this is normal for Manual Transmission cars, When disengaging the clutch there is a noticeable shaking when changing gears, this was 10x more pronounced in the Automatic Focus. (This made it impossible for me to continue doing Uber).

 

About a month ago the clutch pack and transmission on my 2015 Ford Focus failed and the car was sent back to the dealer for repairs covered under warranty. After a 3 day wait I got my car back and 2 weeks later the transmission failed again. 2 days prior to this Ford sent letter to all owners of the Ford Focus saying Ford was extending the drivetrain warranty for another 6 years. (This was secretly Ford's way of admitting they know the transmissions were terrible). The transmissions were designed this way because it causes an automatic transmission to behave like a manual and improves fuel economy. The car also had the tendency to roll backwards like a manual as well.

 

All of this came with a large number of recall letters sent by Ford as well. The Focus was recalled twice for fuel pump issues which caused the car to stall. This did not effect me while driving but occasionally my car would not start on cold mornings, another recall for defective side marker lights, another recall for the child safety locks becoming jammed on, and the most recent for the door latches which have been shown to open while the car is in motion.

 

Currently the 2015+ Ford Focus only has a 3/5 Star Rating from Consumer Reports, Edmunds and Kelly Blue Book all due to reliability issues.

 

​Washing My Hands of The Problem:

 

I purchased the car for $20,000 and put $4000 down but I received a terrible interest rate due to my student loans wrecking my credit. After a year of paying every month on time for this car I had finally had enough. The dealer was no help, they offered to move me into a 2017 Ford Fusion SE but wanted me to put $6000 down. After 3 days of fighting the dealer I gave up and went to the Toyota/Lexus dealer I formerly worked for.

 

 

 

 

 

I was greeted by a salesman and explained to him I was in search of a Used Scion tC. At this point there was no way I would be able to fund a side project in addition to paying for a car causing me such headaches. The Toyota Salesman explained to me that Scion was being cancelled by Toyota this year and no tC's were available and no new ones were going to be ordered. He asked me if there was any other car I was interested in and looking at the current Toyota lineup I wasn't interested in much other than the Scion FR-S which I knew I wouldn't be able to afford. He kindly showed me a standard Corolla and it was far bigger than the Focus but it didn't satisfy my thirst for a platform on which I could build on. There aren't many mods for the Corolla and those that do exist are for the Corolla S which has a better suspension and engine.

 

The salesman snapped his fingers and said he knows the car for me. And told me he would be right back after getting a key. I began to get nervous. I still owed $16,900 on my current car and by now with 21k miles it was only worth $9000. Any new car I trade for will have the remaining balance rolled over into the price. But anything was better than the idea of dealing with the Focus for the next 3 years. The salesman returned and handed me a key and said "we only have one left, you'll like this"........

 

 

 

 

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A Pleasant Surprise: ​The key was for the brand new 2017 Toyota Corolla iM Hatchback. Formerly called the Scion iM the car was rebranded as a Toyota due to Scion's cancellation. I was never fond of hatchbacks but one thing you learn very quickly in the modding and tuning community is that there are always more aftermarket parts for the hatchback version of any given car. I sat down inside and I was in love. The car has an amazing seat, its racing style bolstered and almost hugs you. The interior and dash is similar to the Corolla sedan but far better. It came with so many features as standard it was almost overwhelming a car like this only cost $20,000. Despite looking smaller than the Focus Sedan it is far more roomy because the Corolla has a flat dashboard while the Focus has a raised and angled dash.
It was in my favorite color for a car, Black Sand Pearl (picture above) and it came with the Auto transmission. The rear hatch area has similar space but the rear seats fold down (with only one button push) and can carry all of my work items and anything else. Visually the car is very pretty and different, It has standard Toyota front end similar to the Camry using a honeycomb grille and bright LED DRLs I told the salesman I would be interested if the numbers worked. The only issue with the car is its not a fast car (which really isn't an issue because of the TRD mods that are available now). At 137 HP its not the fastest car but this actually worked to my advantage. The Corolla iM is $200 cheaper to insure than the Focus meaning I would save a bit of money.

 

 

 

The interior is covered in soft touch plastics which give the car a premium leathery feel. Touchscreen infotainment system and backup camera as standard as well as dual zone climate control this car has so much more for the same price. On top of all this ... its a Toyota and comes with expert build quality and legendary reliability. My Toyota Camry 2 door ran until it reached 209,000 miles and the head gasket blew. I had previously owned a Lexus ES which was based off the same platform and received similar miles before breaking down.

 

I traded my Ford Focus for the Toyota Corolla iM which I will be turning into my project car. Now I can get started. First few mods will be visual, I ordered Rally Armor Mudflaps to give it the rally car look, I'm looking at a roof rack from Thule because I would like to carry a cargo box on road trips. Eventually I will get the TRD lowering springs for the suspension and TRD Exhaust kit for better performance and sound.

 

Hope to finally get going soon XD