One car that we have been not-so-patiently waiting to get our greasy mitts on is the Ford Focus RS. With plenty of power on tap, all-wheel-drive, and the button that made every last Ken Block-worshipping teenager weak in the knees, it’s one of the very few ways we have found ourselves paying full, unadulterated attention to a four-door hatchback that doesn’t involve a fire. Forum member “andy30thz” recently scored one of these little monsters, and has a bit of a story he’d like to share with the class…

“I am fortunate to be in a stage of life where I have some disposable income, so this of course prompted some car shopping! The wife really wanted an AWD, manual shift hatchback with some snot (sounds like a keeper! -ed.) so my immediate conclusion was an older bugeye Subaru WRX. But she saw pictures of a pre-production Nitrous Blue Ford Focus RS and was hooked. We had a great time following all the developments and the car being introduced. We decided to wait for the 2017 model to let the demand die down and for more local availability. We found our car at a local dealer in January and decided to take the plunge.

We had done a lot of research about the car before the purchase and one of the main complaints was how hard it rode. So we weren’t that surprised on the test drive that the ride was very firm, even in “normal” mode. All of our test driving was on newer pavement. After buying it, our first trip on a major highway with expansion joints was an eye opener…the ride was unbearable! I discovered the tire pressures were way over 55 PSI (recommended pressure: 46 PSI). Dropping the pressure improved the ride significantly, but it was still way too harsh over big bumps. We just accepted the fact that a firm ride was part of the deal with this car, so I started shopping for coilovers. Because the Michelin Pilot Sports are not supposed to be used under 45 degree temperatures…and we live in Upstate New York…I bought a winter wheel/tire setup. While I was installing them I found this:

Hmmmm…that looks weird. Looks like spring spacers. I jumped on the forums and found out that YES, those are shipping coil spring spacers for trans-Atlantic crossing, installed in Germany during production before being shipped over to the U.S.  As crazy as it may seem, it turns out this is a VERY common occurrence! A thread on FocusRS.com has a bunch of guys with the same issue! Some of them put miles on their cars with them in place! Turns out overinflated tires and spring spacers are common on most vehicles that travel by ship. The guys at Ford dealerships just aren’t used to that…although, supposedly there is a LARGE sticker on the windshield reminding them to remove the spring spacers.

So does the Ford Focus RS ride like poop? ABSOLUTELY, when still equipped with the factory shipping spring spacers!”

Click HERE to check out the FocusRS.com thread about the spring spacers found after delivery!