The Focus may well be awesome but after all the issues in the first couple of years I am still wary of them.
Are you referring to the recalls of the first couple of years? The ones from 7-9 years ago?
If so, are you wary of Honda Civics for the same (but much more recent) reason?
Early Focus were pretty awful based on my own anecdotal evidence as well as from reading Lemonaide Guide and reading posts on here as well. I can't speak for newer Civics; but I know many around here with 7'th gen Civics and other than our trannie issues with our 2001 all the 7'th gen Civics I know are essentially troublefree. I can't say the same for people I know with Focus.
Again, I am open to the fact that the newer Focus might be a great car.