Ford Focus Zetec. TERRIBLE.

SlyReaper

SlyReaper

SlyReaper

Soldato
Joined
26 Apr 2008
Posts
6,653
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Bristol, Old Blighty
I've lurked here long enough to know that Vauxhalls are generally loathed and Fords are loved by many in this forum. I am here to ask why.

Today was the first time in my life I have driven something other than my ancient Astra. It was a company hire car, an 09 plated Ford Focus Zetec.

Pulling off from standing was SLOW and extremely sluggish despite the bigger engine. The brakes were terrible; coming off a fast road or motorway, I would put my foot on the brakes and be terrified thinking to myself "why am I still going forwards this quickly?!?" There was almost zero tactile feedback from the engine and clutch, meaning I had no idea how much the engine was thrashing, or where the biting point on the clutch was. This also sucked away any "fun" that might have resulted from driving.

The ancient banger of an Astra has none of these problems. It can pull away from standing instantly, I can always feel and hear what the engine is doing, the brakes are hard enough to make everything in the passenger seat shoot forwards (the Ford's weren't).

So is this just the horror of driving an unfamiliar car? The main complaint is how removed I was from the internal workings of the car and the road surface. Getting behind the wheel of a car, it's like the car becomes an extension of my own body. Having no feedback from the engine or road surface is akin to running with numb legs. Not fun at all.

So remind me, why does everyone hate Vauxhalls?
 
The other thing about the Zetec models atleast is the seats are horrible, they give me backache.
 
I fail to see how you drawing a comparison between Ford and Vauxhalls based on the experience in a single, speced Ford Focus.
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He's comparing a focus with an Astra, a perfectly fair comparison as both are in the same class...
 
Sin_Chase said:
I fail to see how you drawing a comparison between Ford and Vauxhalls based on the experience in a single, speced Ford Focus.
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I was ranting. Given how much hate Vauxhalls get, I had been looking forward to driving one of these much vaunted Fords. I was disappointed.

Yes I know that one car is not representative of the entire range, but I had at least hoped that a Ford less than a year old would be an improvement on a 16 year old Vauxhall.
 
snowdog said:
He's comparing a focus with an Astra, a perfectly fair comparison as both are in the same class...
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Hopefully GM will be in administration soon, thus ridding the roads of boring overpriced tat in the form of any Vauxhall I've had the misfortune of looking at excluding the Lotus Carlton & VX220. The Insignia is a step in the right direction though, but not enough IMO
 
SlyReaper said:
So is this just the horror of driving an unfamiliar car?
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Yes.

I've driven some cars I truely hated (Renault Megane) and others I wanted to hate (Datsun Almera) that were bedgrudingly OK.

It's unfair to draw an opinion on a car when you've not had a change to drive it for at least a good couple of hours/100+ miles.
 
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SlyReaper said:
I've lurked here long enough to know that Vauxhalls are generally loathed and Fords are loved by many in this forum. I am here to ask why.

Today was the first time in my life I have driven something other than my ancient Astra. It was a company hire car, an 09 plated Ford Focus Zetec.
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1.6 I guess? They are certainly pretty sluggish, but try driving the equivalent new 1.6 Astra and they are just as bad if not worse.
 
What engine focus are you comparing to what engine astra. Also which astra are you comparing to? The new one or the 98-04 one.

EDIT: I missed that you said 16yr old Astra. There is no way, under any circumstance that a 16yr old Astra is better than a new focus.
 
SlyReaper said:
Today was the first time in my life I have driven something other than my ancient Astra. It was a company hire car, an 09 plated Ford Focus Zetec.

Pulling off....
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What a ridiculously biased, one dimensional viewpoint.

Lets get this straight.

1. The only car you have driven in your ENTIRE life is a banger Vauxhall Astra, generally renowned to be close to the worst car on the planet.

2. You drive one of the best hatchbacks around and you don't like it, even though in every single way its lightyears better than your ancient Astra.

Your conclusion is that the Focus must be crap.

Spot the fundamental massive flaw in your reasoning.
 
MagicBoy said:
It's unfair to draw an opinion on a car when you've not had a change to drive it for at least a good couple of hours/100+ miles.
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I drove it from Bristol to Stevenage (20 miles north of London) and back today. That's somewhat more than a couple of hours/100 miles.

The Zetec was a 1.6 litre engine, my Astra is a 1.4 litre. I don't know if it's mk2, in fact it probably predates that because there's no mention of a mark anything anywhere on it.

I'm sure the Zetec is a better car in every measure you care to throw at it. But I personally hated every second of driving it.
 
Today I was mostly driving a Nissan Primera 1.8 SVE, and out of the many many cars that I've driven it's by far the worst. it's like being made to eat a salad bowl full of just boiled potatoes, so very slow, and just totally on stilts, it just feels like the car is going to slide into a wall constantly. Ugh, I would take a focus over this thing any day, I would take a focus with 3 wheels over it.
 
All cars are much more over-assisted than they were 16 years ago, Vauxhalls particularly. Most modern cars feel less 'connected' to the road than older ones.

I worked for a hire car company and drove pretty much everything, and have to say that Vauxhalls were more disconnected than their Ford counterparts, particularly the Vectra/Mondeo. I prefer Fords but that only comes from my experience of driving all of them back to back many times.

I do prefer Vauxhall's engines though
 
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