Ford Focus Estate 1.6 EcoBoost
Titanium review
by David Finlay (12 October 2011)
The current Ford Focus went on sale in the UK in March of this year, and I can hardly complain that Ford has been keeping CARkeys in the dark about it since then. Damn it, there have been times when I have believed I've been driving little else. The model under advisement in this particular epistle is worth talking about, though, because it brings together familiar elements in a combination we haven't encountered before.
Most obviously, it's an estate. If you're not up to speed with the Focus estate way of things these days, the first thing you should know is that there is a very considerable increase in practicality compared with the hatchback. The load volume is 476 with the rear seats in place and 1502 litres when they're folded down, which represent increases of 106 and 401 litres respectively.
The second thing you should know is that it isn't possible to fold the rear seats if the front ones are at the rear of their travel. Which is fine if the front passengers are in the small-to-medium range, but if not, not.
Thing number three is that the estate versions of the Vauxhall Astra and Renault Megane are roomier still. It may well be that Ford didn't feel the need to muscle its way to the top of the class in this respect, and that's fair enough - it's not as if the Focus is particularly cramped. But people who regularly have to transport large items might want to take note.
The last Focus estate I drove pleased me because it was the first model of the present generation that wasn't fitted with the 18" wheels and low-profile tyres which affect the ride quality of the hatchback so unpleasantly. Less good was the fact that the suspension - presumably compromised to account for the possibility that heavy loads might be carried - was overly soft and could cause confusion on difficult roads.
This estate had the 18" wheels, so in terms of the last paragraph there were two things wrong with it rather than just one. Oddly, though, the combination actually worked quite well. The soft suspension knocked the edges off the ride quality, while the low-profile tyres sharpened up the handling. It seems a clumsy sort of compromise, but it leads to quite a decent result.
(This may not be entirely fair. The extra weight of the diesel engine might very possibly have created problems which were avoided in the EcoBoost. My instinctive preference would still be to go for the smaller wheels.)
As the title of this page suggests, the car tested here was fitted with the 148bhp 1.6-litre turbo petrol EcoBoost engine, about which I remain to be fully convinced. With an extra 10bhp it still can't push the Mondeo along at great speed, but in this less powerful form it gives the Focus respectable performance, and it has been designed to create quite a rousing noise when pressed hard.
I didn't press it hard very often. The greater part of my driving with this car consisted of several hundred miles of cruising in a relaxed manner along motorways. According to my measurements the fuel consumption was 38.9mpg (the trip computer claimed just over 40mpg, but in Fords these do tend towards the optimistic), and since I'd done slightly better in the more powerful and much heavier Mondeo I really wasn't too pleased about this.
In previous Focus reports I've mentioned the limited legroom for rear passengers and deeply questionable rear visibility, though the latter is probably worse in the hatchback than in the estate. Another grumble, which for some reason was more apparent during this test than in any other, is that the turning circle is very large, which makes manoeuvring in tight spaces quite difficult.
You would probably think I was exaggerating if I claimed that a Volvo 850 estate needs less room turn than a Focus, but you'd be wrong, because I have one of those, and it does.
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