Hi! I'm Chris Wardlaw for CarGurus, and that car behind me is the 2015 Ford
Focus. Designed and engineered in Europe, the Focus is sold all around the world,
and it's one of the most popular cars on the planet. Here in the U.S. it's the
closest thing that America builds to a Volkswagen Golf. It's fun to drive, and it's
got more expressive styling than the Volkswagen. C'mon, let's go for a ride.
So the Focus we're driving today is the hatchback model in the Titanium trim - that's the
upscale version of the car. There's also an electric version of the Focus and
a performance-oriented ST model, but this is the one that has the powertrain in it
that most people get most of the time. Now the price tag is fairly high - with
the options that are my car it's over $27,000, but don't have a heart attack,
because Ford's always offering incentives and rebates on the car - you're not gonna pay that much.
Now the engine under the hood is a 2-liter 160-horsepower 4-cylinder
engine. It gets out of its own way, but it's not fast. It does exactly what you
think it's gonna do most of the time. It's connected to Ford's 6-speed
PowerShift automated manual gearbox, which in the past has proven a little
bit troublesome for a lot of Focus owners, but Ford has had this
transmission on a continuous program of improvement, and it is much better.
What it could really use is some paddle shifters, because this car is so much fun
to drive on a twisty back row that having this silly toggle switch on the
side of the shifter and just a Sport mode to use is really almost a
disappointment. My test car's got the optional 18-inch wheels that are available
only on the Titanium model. Of course that produces a lot of extra grip, and the
steering is almost a miracle. I really think that every other automaker should be using Ford's
electric steering as a model of how this kind of technology is done.
One other comment with regard to driving dynamics: The brakes proved
outstanding. I tested this car - I should say I abused it - in 90-plus degree
temperatures in the mountains, and the brakes successfully resisted fade I was
super impressed by that. Now as far as comfort is concerned, this isn't a roomy
car - I mean it competes in the compact segment - it's a small car, but I fit
perfectly behind the steering wheel. Power driver's seat, tilt-telescopic steering
wheel - I find a perfect driving position no problem.
The back seat is kind of tight. It looks small back there, but with the seat - this
driver's seat - set to my preference I can get behind
the seat, and I'm comfortable, because the bottom cushion sits high, and while
my knees and shins are in full contact with the seat back, it's soft and padded, so that's not a problem.
Now Ford says that behind the rear seat there is 23.8 cubic feet of cargo room. I'm not so sure they're
measuring that properly. Maybe if you get rid of the cargo cover and you ditch
the spare tire that's how much space is back there, but practically speaking you are going to be
able to stick a couple of full-size suitcases in there, maybe a couple of
duffel bags and a few other things, and that's about it.
Now you can fold the rear seats down, and the hatchback supplies 44.8 cubic feet of cargo space.
That's a sizable amount of room, but folding the rear seat is such a pain in
the butt, because the giant rear head restraints have to be removed - there's
not enough clearance between the top of their travel and the ceiling, so you have
to release the seatback, hold it in place,
pop the head restraints, then you can flop the seatback. It's really quite inconvenient.
Now as far as the control layout is concerned, I have no trouble at all
finding exactly what I need when I need it, especially for the primary controls. I
really like Ford's approach to volume and tuning - it's a single button here, it's
got rocker switches on either side of a center volume knob. Very intuitive, easy-
to-use, and it looks clean, modern, and technologically advanced. My test car
also has Ford's often maligned My Ford Touch infotainment system. Like the
transmission, this infotainment system has been on a continuous program
of improvement, and
today - 2015 - it actually works pretty well. It's fairly intuitive, I had no problem
using the voice controls to program a destination. The one thing it is missing is
the modern trend of smartphone tablet-style gesture control, and it also doesn't have
natural voice recognition, and it also doesn't have a Wi-Fi hotspot, so maybe
next year or the year after that the Focus will actually get Ford's next-generation
iteration of this technology, which is called Sync 3. Now as far as safety is concerned,
the Focus gets a 5-star rating from the federal government, and it gets Good
ratings from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety except for in the small
offset frontal impact test. It gets an Acceptable rating, so there's some room
for improvement on that front, and Ford also needs to install a forward
collision warning system with automatic emergency braking just as soon as it can.
Now for 2015 they have made a couple of other key safety technologies available
for his car. One is a blind-spot information system, which shows the
warning light right on the mirror where you're already looking, and then it flashes if there is a car
in your blind spot when you are using you're turn signal. And also rear cross-traffic alert, which can help you when
you're backing out of a blind parking space.
It warns you when cars are approaching from either side.
You can also get a lane-departure warning system and a lane-keeping assist
system in this car.
Overall I really enjoyed driving the Focus, and I think it's a much better car than
some organizations' ratings would indicate. It's also a much better car than your
last experience with a rental Focus probably was.
While it's true that the Focus is the closest thing to a Volkswagen Golf that America builds, this
car isn't quite as easy to live with as the Volkswagen is. It's not quite as safe, it's not
quite as refined, the lineup isn't nearly as diverse. Volkswagen offers more
powertrains than Ford does, but the Ford does offer superior value, and compared to
most compact cars in the class there's a lot of selection in the Focus line-up - a lot
more than you get with a lot of other automakers. Be sure to check CarGurus.com
for my full review of the Focus, and if you found this video useful, please offer
constructive comments at the bottom.
Also we publish new reviews all the time, so subscribe to our channel. For all of
us at CarGurus, thanks for watching.
it's not quite up to the same levels of refinement or fun to drive...damnit
it does have such a diverse product lineup...product lineup?