Let's just start with the obvious: this car ROCKS in the snow! I live in Ottawa and use my car for work. I have to park on the street which means during snowstorms I sometimes come out to the car buried under a foot of snow. I clear it off, get in, and drive away like it's nothing!

Performance is decent with the 2.5L 4-cylinder engine and 5-speed manual but let's just say you won't be beating many people off the line unless you really push it. Fuel economy is very disappointing. Averages 13.0L /100km around town which isn't great for a 4 cylinder but I suppose this is a midsize car so I can't complain much. Good mileage on the highway though: 8.5L /100km. I tow a 1,000 lb camping trailer with this car and you can barely tell the trailer is there. On big hills the engine definitely struggles though.

I'm the second owner of this car and it has low mileage on the odometer, 196,000k. I've had to replace a wheel bearing, the steering column and the transmission! NO ONE should have to replace the transmission on a 12 year old Japanese car. I must say I'm very disappointed with my purchase of this car. After driving two unreliable American brand cars I had much higher expectations for this car.

I owned a 2003 Focus wagon for 7 years. It's a great drive, very peppy and handles really well on turns. Great interior space; I used the trunk to its full potential for work many times.

That's about all the car's pluses though. The car turned out to be VERY unreliable. Non-stop work required on the front suspension, had to replace the distributor caps and wiring at about 175,000. Spent almost $3000 trying to figure out why the car wouldn't start after I turned it off after using the A/C. Turns out it had a faulty emission control valve.

Oh and did I mention the rust? No rocker panels left to speak of when I got rid of it. And this in a car I took care of and oil sprayed every year.

Unless you're paying less than $500, AVOID these cars.