Going to Dagenham? Don't bet on the dog in trap 2. (Ford Focus 1.6 LX Estate)

Member Name: buzzard_cad

Product:	Ford Focus 1.6 LX Estate
Date:	20/02/07 (1774 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good handling, less road noise than the original

Disadvantages: Poor engine, brakes worse than the original, etc....

I had a Ford Focus on a 04 plate which is the older style to this one I'm reviewing. It was a diesel hatchback model, however it had a terminal problem which meant I was given this newer 56 plate version as a replacement by my company. In this review I will look at the differences between the old and the new version as I have driven both and I rarely get my hands on the other car namely Mrs Cad's Honda Jazz.

Firstly the newer Focus has had many changes from the older version and the first one is the looks department. The curved bonnet and horrible bulbous front lights are gone and have been replaced by a squarer bonnet and lights. With an aggressive looking protruding bonnet and kinder to the eyes headlights the front of this newer Focus looks so much better than the original. Further back the wing mirrors are again less curved and now have repeater lights in them like Mrs Cad's Jazz. The tail has been altered and amended to have less of a downward curve and more of an angled straighter back in this estate as well as the hatchback version. In all I think as looks go this is better than the original Focus. So what is it like inside?

Here I found that all the changes were not for the best. Gone were the figure hugging seats that held your sides in gently as you cornered. Also gone was the old twist adjustment on the seat that rotated the base rather than the new lever arrangement that raises or lowers it. Next up for criticism is the stalk controls on the steering column for the radio. In the old model the tabs for volume were easier to bat at with my fingers and I didn't need to look at them. In the new model I have to reach behind and push in the buttons with I disliked immensely. Also the channel changer need my index and middle finger to tweak it, whilst a dab of the index finger worked the old one. The worst part is whilst I'm fingering around for the radio I have to take my eyes off the road to work out what I'm doing. In all it is a pointless revision and has negated the value of the radio controls on the steering column.

In this model I was cursed with a trip computer which in my view is a worthless addition in any modern car. This one was more annoying as I got a leak in the fluid washer pipes which drained the bottle two hours after I filled it up every day. So in place of the mileage which I really needed to workout my business from my private miles I had 'Low Fluid Level' with an orange light blinking incessantly at me. It wouldn't go away and there was no way for me to workout how to turn it off. Here I found yet another problem as the trip computer display changer is mounted on the headlight stalk. I bet everyone coming the other way wonder what I was doing as I kept on flicking main beam as I desperately tried to change the trip computer.

Once I had resolved the fluid leak problem I found I was disappointed with the information the trip computer gave me. Total mileage, trip mileage, outside temperature, distance to empty tank and fuel consumption per hundred miles are displayed and can be changed at a flick of a switch. The first two items are fundamentals, but why the rest? I never get it. Outside temperature is silly as if it is cold I turn up the heating, or if it's hot I turn it down. Distance to empty tank is silly as there is a fuel gauge that gives you the contents in the tank and if you forget that if flashes a light up to remind you. Finally fuel consumption per mile is plain daft as I don't drive economically and it always seems to be going all over the place depending on whether I'm on the motorway or sat in city traffic. So the trip computer is pointless, hard to change, gives out useless information and warning text when it arises cannot be blinking well turned off!

As I have the estate version I thought I would get a good boot area to take lots my junk to the tip. Well the boot space is not bad and you can increase it by dropping the seats, but here there are more moans. The seats are still a bugger to drop down as I had to play around with the headrests again and generally get all hot and bothered trying get the seats to lie flat, which they didn't. The result is a rear cargo space that is not flat and felt not much bigger than Mrs Cad's Jazz by the time the boot is closed. So poor is the inside design for the boot and the folding arrangement for the seats that I thought the 'super-mini' Jazz used the available space so much better. I've banged on enough about the inside of the car and I didn't even cover the huge blind spots of all the pillars, the small rear window, the controls for the door mirrors and the limited space for the drivers feet.

I will now discuss the most important item of all. How is it to drive? Here the main improvement to the newer Focus is that the cabin noise of the old Focus has been reduced to more tolerable levels and the suspension is a little softer giving a much smoother ride. Handling is still crisp and even in the bigger estate version I felt comfortable when taking corners at speed. Yet the suspension softening negates the old Focus handling and when driving I felt they cancelled out each other leaving a car with handling that was slightly lacking any feeling. Also there were two other problems with the newer Focus when driving.

First up is the brakes for the rear of the car have been changed to drums. My old Focus had discs all round and even though the rear ones got a bit rusty in winter I felt safe under braking. The brake balance has been affected and now you are more likely to find the ABS kicking in under heavy braking as the front discs heat up or go off and the rear drums have no real effect. I thought it was probably an optional thing but I checked with other newer Focus owners at my company and they had the same 'lack of brake bite' complaint. I was surprised that this change and it took me aback a bit to find that this has affected the braking system in such a bad way. The last time I drove a car with this disc/drum arrangement was back in the dark 1980's. Are the manufacturers putting profits before safety once again?

The second item I have cause for concern was the engine. The 1.6 Litre petrol engine placed into this car is gutless. There is no other way to describe it, it had no power in any rev range and in the high rev range it still didn't want to pull an empty car. This is not too bad if you drive in a relatively flat area of the country but when you start hitting hills it will drop revs quickly and not pull even with the throttle on the floor. As it won't pull its own weight with one person and a few bags in it, I would hate to find out what it's performance was when it was fully loaded and towing a caravan. A truly terrible engine if there ever was one for a car of this size.

At the end of the day I am lucky that I didn't part with hard cash for the newer styled Focus as I would be royally upset. It is an okay car even though I am no great fan of the original version, but to me Ford are stepping backwards and are not concentrating on what was good in the old Focus. They have delivered a car that has improved looks but little else. Indeed I have compared it many times to Mrs Cad's Honda Jazz and in most aspect like ease of driving, use and versatility I felt that the 'super-mini' Jazz beats the bigger bulk of the Focus estate. All the good points from the old Focus have been dropped like the figure hugging seats, rear disc brakes, half decent engine and good vision all round. They have been replaced by a car that it's truly a dog from Dagenham. To this end after a few months my old Focus came back from a protracted and extensive rebuild. My company offered it back because I had been overheard whinging about the new one so much. I took the old oil burner back without hesitation and returned the newer car even though I was a petrol head before I had the diesel Focus. That sort of says all you need to know about this version of the Focus. It's really naff!

(c)2007 buzzard_cad
This review can be found at other review sites under the same user name and is also written by me.

Summary: New '56 plate was worse than an '04 plate oil burner

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