back to article Filthy – but sadly frothy – five door fun: Ford Focus 1.5 Zetec

The original Ford Focus was an incredible car. The latest generation has a lot to live up to. The man behind the Focus was Richard Parry-Jones, who, with incredible attention to detail, produced a reasonably priced car that handled well. He also got the designers, who were bright young things, to wear ageing suits, gloves and …

  1. DrXym

    I hate bad usability in cars

    I used to drive a Nissan Almera which had a central dash with buttons numbered 1 to 6. Two buttons either side set the mode for what they did. If you were in radio mode they changed the radio station. If you were in air conditioning mode they controlled the fan speed. This meant at any given time there was a 50% chance they were in the wrong mode and it screwed up the action. Such a stupid system may have saved Nissan £1 for a couple of extra buttons and caused untold confusion and frustration for me.

    IMO every basic function in the cabin space should be controlled with a button, dial or switch which are grouped sensibly with the most important functions closest to the driver's line of sight. If there is a computer / tablet interface, save it for the extraneous stuff. And make damned sure that it is predictable and navigable with only the briefest of glances.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I hate bad usability in cars

      Its easier to control everything in the focus with voice control

      All you need to say is Radio DAB to get DAB working.

      1. The First Dave

        Re: I hate bad usability in cars

        Except that if the radio is playing, it probably won't be able to hear you telling it to shut up...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I hate bad usability in cars

      Nissan Almera !

      My deepest sympathies.

  2. John Tserkezis

    "but it’s the kind of car you’d be perfectly happy with as a company car"

    So, you're saying it's a wonderful car - as long as you don't have to pay for it.

    I'm wondering if the electronics is secure, or is it the same as every other car on the planet - free for all.

    After the previous elreg articles on the matter, would be nice to know.

    1. Hairy Spod

      Eh! who told you that company cars were free? they tax you on them to the extent that you have to very carefully do the maths to see if having one is worthwhile.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I have a Titanium X with 1.5L 180HP petrol. It has keyless start, auto wipers and adaptive headlights, auto parking (parallel and perpendicular), road sign recognition, lane keeping assist, rear view camera, active city stop, auto start stop, cruise control, speed limiter...

    That only cost £20k, so not sure where you got your price from...

    1. MrT

      List prices...

      ...are a work of fiction for bulk brands like Ford, Vauxhall, VW, etc. I've only ever bought two brand new cars - one at 28% off list and the other at 39% off. One's a rep-mobile and the other a 7-seat MPV, so in reality the price paid was just the manufacturer recognition of free-fall depreciation, otherwise they'd never shift what they build.

  4. jason 7

    Group 16?

    I remember a time when Group 16 were rather special cars.

    How things change.

    1. MrT

      Re: Group 16?

      And before the 20-group scale (plus sub-groups like those ending 'E'), everything was on a 9-group scale, with a lot of the interesting stuff 'on application'. Still, back then 150mph was the dividing line between regular car and something more specialist (Lotus Esprit, Ferrari 308, etc). Then came mildly hot hatches with no security to speak of and the insurance premiums went loopy.

      1. annodomini2

        Re: Group 16?

        There are now 50.

  5. Lars Silver badge
    Meh

    keyless start

    I wonder about this keyless start thing. Is it supposed to be modern and such a wonderful new invention that makes us drool and happy to boost about. Around 1950 at least Frensh Peugeot had a start button and much earlier there where cars that would start when you pressed the acceleration pedal, like some today for a modern reason.

    I have a feeling the key was added in order to lock the drive wheel (too complicated for GM sadly).

    So what is going on here, is there anything else to it than saving a "buck" in production.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: keyless start

      (We have it on both our cars).

      It's convenience. Once you've had it for a while, you miss it when you don't have it.

      It means you don't have to fish into your pocket or handbag for your key. You just walk up, open the door, get in, push start (unless your car automatically starts when you get in) and go. It's particularl helpful when it's cold and you're wearing nice, thick warm gloves.

      If your fob battery dies, you use the hidden key to unlock the doors and then hold/place the fob somewhere that uses induction to recognize the fob.

      It's just the next step on from keyless entry.

      1. Lars Silver badge
        Happy

        Re: keyless start

        Well well Mrs AC , "you don't have to fish into your pocket or handbag for your key." I suppose the door is open then too. Oh no, oh no, Lars, there is a "chip" in the key and the door will open (or lock) when I approach the car, and if I loose the key, I, as anybody else, will find one on Ebay for any car.

        However, my post was really about the "NOW, THE FORD FOCUS WITH THE NEW FANTASTIC START BUTTON, THE FIRST KEYLESS CAR NOW".

        Ps. I am all for a keyless world, then again...

        1. PNGuinn
          Holmes

          Re: keyless start

          Morris Minor.

          1. Pop the bonnet

          2. Stick a small coin between the 2 fuses.

          3. Press the starter button under the bonnet (or pull the starter on the dash).

          4. BINGO.

          So what's new here?

      2. Rabbit80

        Re: keyless start

        Except that the Focus (mine anyway) doesn't have keyless entry.. I still have to push a button on the fob. I then get in the car, wonder what to do with the fob before I hit the button to start the engine!

    2. druck Silver badge

      Re: keyless start

      We've found a big drawback with key-less start in our Mondeo Titanium X; after having the tyres changed my wife was driving back up the A1 at night when it started raining, the automatic wipers came on, something flew off in to the darkness and the wipers and axillary electrics went off. She stopped on the hard shoulder and turned the engine off to investigate, it then wouldn't turn back on - no key present.

      It had been the keys which flew off! The mechanic had left them on the windscreen, which was close enough to start the car, but with recessed wipers, not noticeable from inside. As my wife never normally had to take her keys out from her handbag to start the car, and it started, she didn't realise anything amiss. I'd come in to work by train, so I had to get a lift from a colleague to rescue her with my keys from over an hour spent freezing wet hard shoulder on a winters night.

      Although I blame Ford for a stupid design that lets this happen, I made sure that the garage paid for the replacement car and house keys. I also got them to change their policy of leaving the keys on the windscreen, and now explicitly hand them back to the customer.

  6. Adam 1

    >"but it’s the kind of car you’d be perfectly happy with as a company car"

    One of the best backhanded compliments that I have read in a while.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Urgh, how I loathe rain sensing wipers.

    Designed in Europe for European weather, I think, and entirely ignorant of British drizzle. It drizzles and drizzles and the wiper sensor just keeps saying 'nope, no rain here' as your windscreen gets progressively more opaque.

    AND YOU CAN'T TURN IT OFF! That bugs me more than anything. I've turned off the automatic headlights, because I am a functional adult and can gauge when the lights should be on, but I can't turn off the automatic wipers. Drives me mad.

    1. Alan Edwards

      Re: Urgh, how I loathe rain sensing wipers.

      > AND YOU CAN'T TURN IT OFF

      Yes you can, on a Ford anyway. The automatic setting is where Intermittent is on the lever if you haven't got auto wipers. You've still got 'Off' below and the two continuous settings above it.

      Also, there is a sensitivity roller in the middle of the wiper lever. It always runs the wipers once when you turn the sensitivity up, so you can flick it up a notch and back down to get the wipers to run once.

      The auto-lights means you can't leave the lights on and kill the battery, and it ties in to the auto wipers and puts the lights on when it's raining.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Urgh, how I loathe rain sensing wipers.

        That's not 'turning it off'. What I want to do is to choose the speed at which the intermittent wipers go because the rain-sensing one is no good at gauging the speed the wipers should go at.

        The sensitivity sucks balls. And I don't want to just get it to 'run once'.

        It's really not hard to operate the lights and the wipers. The controls are surprisingly close to the driver's position and they are also labelled. I do wonder when it became necessary for people to have cars remember to turn their lights on for them.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Standard questions

    Is there space to store a full size spare wheel?

    How much time and blood must be spent to change one of the halogen headlight bulbs?

    I wish reviewers would answer these questions.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Standard questions

      I own a 2014 Focus and I can confirm that the answer to your first question is 'no'. The fashion is for spacesavers so that's what you get.

  9. dogged

    Warning - C-Max is shit.

    I don't know how many of you have driven the C-Max, it's marketed as a family car with lots of space.

    It handles like an elephant on a beach ball and wallows like a pig but you expect that in a family car. What you don't expect is for it to utterly fail at being a family car too.

    To the point, then - this is a "family car" in which you cannot safely fit two rear-facing child seats because there isn't room. So much for "spacious". It also fails in carrying lots of stuff around. Sure, you can fold down the rear seats but they don't fold in. This means all that lovely boot space effectively already contains the volume of three big suitcases before you ever pack anything.

    I wanted to like the C-Max. It looked like a good idea. It isn't. It's a fucking stupid waste of a car. Don't get one.

    1. jason 7

      Re: Warning - C-Max is shit.

      Why the need for such size of family cars?

      I remember four of us going up to Scotland for two weeks holiday in a Triumph Herald. Mum, Dad, a 6 year old and a 3 year old. We managed fine. The only things extra than us in the main part of the car were a cassette player and a tin of travel sweets.

      Ten years later we managed just fine in a two door 1.4L Volvo 340 for three weeks down to the Algarve.

      I see my friends taking their single 1 year old out for the day and it's like the Rolling Stones going on tour.

      1. dogged

        Re: Warning - C-Max is shit.

        I've got a 2 year old and three week old baby. The law states they must be in car seats and the rear-facing ones do better in crash tests.

        Any "family" car that can't fit two rear-facing car seats is a failure.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Warning - C-Max is shit.

          Dogged - How far back are your driver and passenger seats? I don't remember a problem with a rear-facing infant seat on the rear seat of my Focus. It's not a C-Max but it's the same chassis.

          1. dogged

            Re: Warning - C-Max is shit.

            @Flatpackhamster - the C-Max was provided as a courtesy car while an '09 Civic was in for repair. Front passenger and driver seats were pushed all the way forward and as upright as possible.

            I was prepared to go along with this - even though it means it leaving it to the other half because she might - at 5'10" - stand a chance of actually fitting behind the wheel whereas I - at 6'4" - stood no chance whatsoever but even then, the seats were actively pressing against the child seats which is unsafe - you need an inch of clearance for them to be effective.

            For the record, both seats fit in the Civic and I can (just about) ride passenger. Both fit in my RAV4 with the seats fully back.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Warning - C-Max is shit.

              I find that very odd indeed. I never had that problem in my Focus with a rear-facing infant seat. Maybe it was the child seat model or the ISOFIX system.

              1. dogged

                Re: Warning - C-Max is shit.

                I think it's specific to the C-Max although I hear that the B-Max is similarly stupid.

        2. jason 7

          Re: Warning - C-Max is shit.

          I can fit two rear child seats in my i10 so...?

          I think for blokes the coming of a child nowadays is just a big excuse to buy the biggest car they can.

          Let's be honest here...

          I've seen it at work. Literally an hour after the sperm hit the egg they are trading in their Civic's and ordering a Mercedes 4x4 or similar.

          1. dogged

            Re: Warning - C-Max is shit.

            @jason7 -

            > I can fit two rear child seats in my i10 so...?

            I don't doubt it. Your i10 is a sensible little car. The Ford Focus C-Max is a marketing stunt designed by a retard.

      2. tony2heads

        @jason7

        Depends on the family:

        Brother in law had 3 teenage boys, two of whom were well over 6ft before they left school.

        1. druck Silver badge
          Happy

          Re: @jason7

          Everyone with small children is guilty of packing too much shit these days.

          I just managed to get my 17 month old, pram, high chair, travel cot, bedding and a weeks luggage for the wife and the self in to my RX-8 (Fiesta sized interior according to the courtesy car I was given by the insurance company once).

          I took the opportunity to take the car for a long trip while the fuel prices are low (the RX-8 does 20mpg on a good day), and that we'll be back in the Mondeo in 7 months due to child no.2 being on the way. You can get plenty of shit in the Mondeo, even if it doesn't handle as well.

  10. StripeyMiata

    Just a couple of things if you are thinking of buying a Focus.

    1) They do a 1.0 Ecoboost model. It's an amazing wee engine, they managed to get 125BHP out of a 1.0 Three Cylinder unit. It's a hoot to drive. But it's meant to average 65MPG, you have no chance of getting anything near that, you'll average just over 40MPG if you are lucky.

    2) You'll get the hard sale from the dealer for paint protection at about £400, if Trustford it will be Diamondbrite. The kit costs them around £72 ex VAT so it's almost all profit, plus it's an average product that a proper valuetter would never use. It also only lasts an average of a few months if you don't use PH neutral shampoo when washing the car. To be fair to Ford all dealers are at it now as it's such a moneymaker. Apparently Aston Martin charge £2000 for the same £72 kit.

    1. theOtherJT Silver badge

      RE: Just a couple of things if you are thinking of buying a Focus.

      It's a HORRIBLE engine in something the size of a focus. My mother just traded in a Mk 1 1.6 focus for the new ecoboost one, and the old one was infinitely nicer to drive.

      It's fine when it's rolling, but moving off is a nightmare. Until the turbo spools up it feels like you have about 60bhp, at best, and the new focus is most definitely not a small car. Every roundabout becomes a bit of an adventure. You have to thrash the hell out of the poor thing to make it move and that just makes driving it tiring. It would probably be more economical with a bigger engine in it because you wouldn't have your foot buried in the floor all the time to make it get it's lardy arse in gear and move!

    2. MrT

      A colleague bought a Focus 1.0 3-cyl to replace her 1.6 4-cyl from only a couple of years earlier. It sounded great, but apart from the unattainable claimed mpg, her main gripe with it was the lack of traction in adverse weather (she lives high up and on a north-facing hillside). The older engine pushed the front down enough to get going, but she found the teeny 3-cyl job was too light.

  11. Sir Lancelot

    A major omission...

    The tester forgot to mention the Focus is so much better for the school run than the Porsche 911 Turbo S. The 911 Turbo S is much better at scaring naughty children from 0 to 60 and beyond however...

    1. StripeyMiata

      Re: A major omission...

      There used to be a 911 Turbo that did the school run near where I live, I was secretly rather impressed. Then one day she turned up in a Cayenne instead :(

  12. theOtherJT Silver badge

    Middle aged spread...

    One thing you didn't mention here is how claustrophobic the cabin has become. That centre console is HUGE and really eats into the space in the front. I'm on the tiny side, and I still found it intrusive. If you're a bit more substantially built I would expect this to be really rather uncomfortable in the front. The visibility is nothing like as good as the old one too, and that wasn't exactly brilliant. The whole car is much bigger than you think it is too - although that seems to be a modern disease that most cars share. Despite being quite cramped on the inside it's actually _wider_ than a MK2 Mondeo., never mind the old focus.

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