What's new
Ford puts Focus on quality
Charles Renny, October 09, 2009
Ford is on a roll, almost literally. The company, which has weathered our economic downturn better than other domestic auto manufacturers, is rolling out new products and ideas at the rate of about one every six months.
By the end of the year, every Ford product will be essentially all new. The Focus is just the tip of the affordable Fords that are coming to your local dealer.
The Focus has expanded in size, been reshaped and given a new powertrain. Best of all, you can order a Focus coupe in two trim levels and a sedan in four different trim levels.
The sedan I test drove came as an SES. I have no idea what SES means except that it's the third trim level out of four. The basic Focus is the S, while the next trim level is SE. At the top of the heap is the SEL.
As an SES, my tester came with some pretty neat content. One of the most intriguing systems to use was what Ford calls Sync. Technically, it's a voice-activated in-vehicle communications and entertainment system. This system manages your electronic needs while in the car. Your phone is paired via Bluetooth to the car. You can tell the system what you want your phone to do; think of it as a super hands-free system. The big difference is that it will also manage the music you provide via your iPod, flash drive or other MP3 player. I used the flash drive after my son pointed out that people steal iPods but rarely take flash drives.
Once the electronics are sorted out, which, depending on what you want to do and your level of computer geekness, should take about half an hour or so initially, you're ready to get comfortable in the car. This is pretty straight forward and will take about a minute.
Drivers will notice that the instrument cluster and the centre stack are easily visible with all the controls falling readily to hand. Ford has done these basics long enough that it is classic Ford and fully modernized. Tach and speedo are front and centre where they should be since a five-speed manual transmission is standard across the lineup and a four-speed automatic is optional.
One concession to luxury was that my tester came with a power moon roof that includes heated leather seats for some reason. Heated seats are standard and I'm not enough of a fan of glass roofs to give up the headroom (which is good anyway) and pay for the option package.
What I would pay for is the Audiophile package that puts in a six-disc CD changer and upgrades the stereo. Sirius satellite radio is standard and comes with a six-month subscription; it sounds pretty good through the four co-axial speakers and sub-woofer that this SES option uses to belt out my favourite tunes.
After testing out all the static options, I managed to get the Focus out of my driveway and into traffic. My first thought was that the five-speed manual was a fine transmission. The clutch was smooth and progressive while the shifter moved easily and positively from gear to gear. Then I headed downtown at 4:30 p.m.
That made me think the four-speed automatic might be a better choice for a car used mainly in the city. As light and smooth as the clutch was, the act of pushing it down every hundred feet or so was tiring and irritating.
Once downtown, the Focus was manoeuvrable, getting from lane to lane easily. The quick steering and great visibility made short work of getting in and out of parallel parking spots. The Focus is also small enough that the angle spaces we do have are a breeze as well. It takes having a one-ton park beside you before space gets really tight.
Out on Circle Drive or on the highway, Ford's 2.0-litre Duratec inline four gets the job done. As with any 2.0-L, 140-horsepower engine, performance does change significantly when you have five people in the car versus just having the driver on board. Passing distances increase noticeably and you get a lot more grief from the "extras" when you push a bit too hard in the corners and make the suspension work.
When playing by yourself, the Focus carves up corners quite well. It stayed on the cornering line I chose, until I pushed too hard and the nose started to slide out. On the straight and narrow, the Focus suspension was quite compliant with only the tires making noise of tar strips and small road irregularities.
What it comes down to is that Ford is now building cars that put a grin on my face and keep my stuffy, boring accountant happy, too!
Illustration: The Focus is just the tip of the affordable Fords coming to a dealer near you
