Return of Focus Wagon

[Anthony]

Is there really that much more room in the wagon vs. the hatchback?

 

[akirby]

More than I thought.

[2b2]

More than I thought.

= Tardis

[630land]

Buyers who want cargo area also want ride height. Only if AWD is an option, would a Focus wagon work in the US. VW has the Golf Alltrack [?] and there's Subaru Outback. [though more mid size now].

[Arlo55]

I do have an issue that probably belongs in another section, but, maybe someone here will know... I just replaced the rear shocks on our Focus, "MONROE SPECTRUM" shocks, quite straight forward, but the squeaking noise the car made with the old shocks has been replaced with a "clunking" noise , as if the mounting bolts that I re-used were too small in diameter and may need to be shimmed somehow? And, yes, I checked...all 4 are still in place and tight..oh, I almost forgot....when my wife says a car is "too big" I usually know it would be before I ask her.....because we've been married 27 years and her logic is not crazy, just includes height and width, as well as length. When we met in 1990, she LOVED her '86 Maxima and everything larger than it was too big....our 2002 Subaru was as big a she felt comfortable with and that was the vehicle she compared every potential new car to... but, then, I too preferred cars that were not too large as well, I loved my '85 Chevy (Suzuki) Sprint which was as tiny as you could find in the US, with its 1.0 litre 3 cylinder motor, and the terrific gas mileage that came in handy when I commuted 140 miles a day. In contrast, at work, I preferred the biggest vehicle in the yard , like this "9 axle" or "34 wheeler" which meant that I was in for a long distance, single load/ single unload day, meaning more driving time and less "outside" time in the weather....

Edited June 12, 2017 by Arlo55

[Arlo55]

I do have an issue that probably belongs in another section, but, maybe someone here will know... I just replaced the rear shocks on our Focus, "MONROE SPECTRUM" shocks, quite straight forward, but the squeaking noise the car made with the old shocks has been replaced with a "clunking" noise , as if the mounting bolts that I re-used were too small in diameter and may need to be shimmed somehow? And, yes, I checked...all 4 are still in place and tight..oh, I almost forgot....when my wife says a car is "too big" I usually know it would be before I ask her.....because we've been married 27 years and her logic is not crazy, just includes height and width, as well as length. When we met in 1990, she LOVED her '86 Maxima and everything larger than it was too big....our 2002 Subaru was as big a she felt comfortable with and that was the vehicle she compared every potential new car to... but, then, I too preferred cars that were not too large as well, I loved my '85 Chevy (Suzuki) Sprint which was as tiny as you could find in the US, with its 1.0 litre 3 cylinder motor, and the terrific gas mileage that came in handy when I commuted 140 miles a day. In contrast, at work, I preferred the biggest vehicle in the yard , like this "9 axle" or "34 wheeler" which meant that I was in for a long distance, single load/ single unload day, meaning more driving time and less "outside" time in the weather....

As my wife drove up the street a week ago, or so... I could HEAR the clatter as she ran over expansion joints, irregularities, pothole, etc....so I KNOW she was not exaggerating about the noise. I could hear it , too... and it was NOT constant, either. When she got home from work, the next day, I crawled under the car and found a tear in the heat shield, was allowing the heat shield to lay right on the pipe, making plenty of noise. I fixed it by adding a thin, wide washer under the nut,and it covered the torn section of the heat shield too. THIS HAD TO BE THE NOISE that I had been looking for, nothing else was loose or missing!!! So, when I said I was done and she could drive her car now, without the noise, she took the car to the store, and , as she drove up the street, I could hear the clatter coming from under the back of her car!!!! I said to her, when she returned, "I'm sorry , Honey, I heard the noise as you drove up the street, and I just DO NOT KNOW WHAT to do, I thought that I found the problem , and I DO NOT know what to check now...." So, last Tuesday night, after dinner, I had her back the car up the ramps and I took a wrench to anything and everything, and if it didn't have a place to attach a wrench or socket to it, I took a hammer and banged on it, looking for ANYTHING.....and I also checked EVERY part of the heat shield that Chance or Robb could have reached when they replaced the shocks a week and a half ago. I even bent the heat shield in places where I already checked, and tried to give it just one more millimeter of clearance in any section that I previously determined that the spot in question had enough clearance. And, again, I crawled back out from underneath my wife's car and apologized to her, saying again that I could not find ANYTHING, so, she suggested that I climb into the back seat, roll the windows down, and listen.....and, maybe hear something that I couldn't while under her car.....I agreed, saying that I had nothing to lose, and when we drove up the street..... NOTHING!!! The noise was GONE!

 

And I said: "But, I DID NOT DO ANYTHING.... I DON"T UNDERSTSAND..... I then said " Don't say any more, you don't want to JINX IT!!!! If it is really gone, you will know by the time you get home from work tomorrow." When she returned home from work the next day, she said it's "STILL GONE" GO FIGURE..... I give up!

 

So, back to the topic of wagons..... I was 25, single, and I had a nice, 2 year old 280Z that I did not like putting any

commuting miles" on, so, I bought a 2 door 1970 Corolla 1200 wagon, m 1st wagon, for $300 that needed a motor rebuild. It was a GREAT little wagon, and it spared my "weekend car" a lot of unnecessary wear and tear. So, for some reason, I have never been interested in any SUV's, but my wife and I haved loved all of our wagons, especially the AWD Subaru's....until 2010, when they just got TOO big for my wife, like the SUV's we have avoided....

Edited June 15, 2017 by Arlo55