Focus SES 2.0L

• Automatic transmission
• 48,500 miles

This is the 2nd thing that's gone wrong with this car, 1st the bands on the transmission broke off and had to be replaced, it left my car undriveable for several months while I tried to find a way to fix it (this was at 40,000 miles Thanks for the quality product Ford), now this, the alternator, at such low mileage - 48,500! This is probably why I had to replace my battery not long ago. I must complain about the difficulty of replacing the alternator, I have changed many alternators on many different cars. This is by far the most complicated one. Just to take the serpentine belt off you apparently have to remove the motor mount and jack the engine up and push it to the side, then to get the alternator off you have to remove about 5 things before you can get to it. I'm not doing it, I'm sending it to a shop. My price for the repairs was the cheapest I was able to find, thats $97.50 for labor and $175.00 for the part. If you buy the Motorcraft part its $265.00, excuse me for not buying the same brand that failed so quickly. I found multiple forums with many Focus owners saying their alternators go out around the same mileage, and then others that say their alternator goes out about every 50,000 miles. Spectacular.