Have a new shape focus for a few days

rodenal

rodenal

rodenal

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7 Dec 2011
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Had one of these for a few hours before and been in one but not driving, not really the same as having a car to run around in for a few days so some initial thoughts, to be clear I've never thought the focus was the all singing all dancing car the press want you to believe despite (or maybe because of) having a couple as company cars. Anyway some observations:

My car is, I think a 1.6 econetic diesel, no idea on power having a guess at 115ish bhp


The car itself is a bizarre thing, the interior is rotten (I hate the centre console) with a very cheap little screen and oddly cheap looking plastics (even compared ro the last one). The seats are horribly covered and it feels small on the inside, big on the outside. It is however very comfortable and also impressively quiet for this size of car at speed. Handles decently enough and it has a willing little engine, though its very easy to catch it out of optimal range. The stop start guff seems to work ok but in a diesel I just find it annoying so the next task is to figure out how to turn it off.

It has voice control and phone prep......but no climate and no bloody central armrest as well as those disgustingly textured/net seats. Who really prefers voice commands (which never work I've used them in the civic once) to climate??

Almost forgot, the clutch has zero feel, overly light and just rotten to use. Why does nobody care how the basics feel when putting together run of the mill cars now? Something the old focus was perfectly good for.

It is vastly, vastly superior to the MG I last had as a hire car though that's hardly a surprise. I reckon however thst the new astra is a nicer all rounder than this having had a similarly powered effort of that
 
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The only thing I like about newer cars are the amount of things that come as standard and the safety side of things.

I drove my mates 56 plate Ibiza and hated it. The clutch was so light I just about put my foot through the floor, steering was the same and had NO feel(coming from an almera which is bad itself for feel) and the plastics used seemed to be from the same bin my almera got them from.

My uncle is driving a new Astra on the mobility thing, it's mint green :|, and although it has loads of stuff/buttons as standard it is still made of the same stuff the old one was which is similar to the sort of thing you find on a McDonalds toy.

Cars are being designed with women in mind I guess which means things have to feel light.
 
I think you really need to drive the higher-spec ones. The low-spec ones look quite dated inside, particularly when they don't have climate like the Zetec S I drove a while ago. They feel cheap for a reason, because they are. :D

It's one of those cars where you really need to move up in the trim levels to get the best package. I had the Titanium 1.6-litre TDCi for six months, excellent bit of kit. Far better than the Vauxhall equivalent (Sorry Joe :(), and I preferred it to the Golf as well because the interior wasn't so uninspired. My opinion, of course, mind...

The Golf was fractionally better to drive, though, but most of that was down to it being a 1.2 TSI.

Voice control worked OK but it has limited functionality so it's more of a gadget rather than a useful feature. I did like being able to change the climate settings without taking my hands off the wheel though.
 
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A higher trim level would probably help but it depends what you really get, the addition of an armrest and some decent colour lcd screens (the blue things scream cheap) and seats would make a big difference. Ford used to do even low trim levels pretty well - its a basic car and lots of people will buy a basic version of it, i feel this model has been completely misjudged. The interior is a bit garish with the stupid number ber of buttons laid out poorly (from someone who owns a civic no less!)and the on wheel buttons look very cheap, i cant see a higher trim altering this.

I dont think its a bad car, it seems decent enough but stupidly equipped given the trim level and with questionable materials that are sub par compared to its predecessor, it's more that I hate the direction most mainstream motors are going in now than the cars fault I think.
 
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I had a new Focus Edge 1.6 TDCI for a couple of days last week. It's pretty nasty inside, and the engine was hopeless. Didn't ride brilliantly at high speeds, although was reasonably comfortable otherwise.

Oh and there's a button at the bottom of the centre console to turn the stop/start off, it looks like an A with an arrow circling it.
 
I know where you're coming from about the over lightness of everything. My friend has a new shape Fiesta which I couldn't believe how light everything was. Weird feeling.
 
I kinder agree about the shape , prefer the mk2 and 2.5 style , I have a mk2.5 titanium and prefer the shape , I also prefer the not so cluttered dash area , it just looks way to complicated in the new focus.
 
Am seriously looking at the 1.0 123bhp Ecoboost Titanium/Titanium X models.
Engine power isn't that big a deal, I'd be coming from a '99 1.6 focus petrol (owned for 9 years) and read that the 1.0 ecoboost is similar so that may well do me.
Models below Titanium trim don't seem worth getting at all.
 
Power wasnt the issue for me, it was a small diesel it was never going to be quick. Interior quality, weight of controls and level of kit as well as interior space was though so be sure youve had a good drive of a similar model before buying. That's an interesting little engine though and by all accounts a good choice
 
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