Bought my Focus in July 2005. A few months later, I couldn't get the car to start. The starter cranked for a long time but no start. I sat there and waited a minute and tried again. The engine sputtered and came to life. I took it to the dealer and they said the transponder in my key and the ignition cylinder lost communication, which I don't think was the problem, because the starter would not energize if the computer couldn't locate the key transponder.

For as long as I've owned the car, it starts up right away sometimes, takes 5 seconds of cranking sometimes.

It's February 2008 now. In the last month, I've had three instances of stalling on first start of the day. When the problem occurs, it starts, stumbles and stalls, but I can restart it. On the most recent event, I was able to save from stalling by pumping gas, but nonetheless it wasn't acting normally.