Ford Focus 1.8 Duratorq TDdi

...comfortable, with a typically excellent Ford driving position completely ruined by flat, unsupportive seats which give no upper back support at all, and a plank like base cushion which makes your backside numb after an hour.

You can almost forgive all these faults however when you get the Focus onto a good twisting B-road. As with all the best handling cars, it suddenly shrinks around you and everything seems to gel perfectly. The ...
...an attractive design. Trouble is, Ford used cheap, shiny plastics which together with the dreadful seats make the interior of the car feel cheap and nasty. My car had the excellent Quickclear heated screen, but mirrors were manual (and not heated), and things like a trip computer, outside temperature reading, sunroof, and rear electric windows were notable by their absence. You also can't disable the passenger airbag which is infuriating when you ... more

This review relates to a company car which has just been returned to the lease company.

I got the car with 8 miles on the clock in November 2002, and it has just gone back in November 2005 with 112,000 miles on the clock. In that time it has had 8 services (the 9th was due), several sets of tyres and a couple of bulbs. Nothing broke, nothing failed, nothing fell off and nothing went wrong. The most dependable and reliable car I've ever had the pleasure to use.

Unfortunately, the old Duratorq DI engine does the Focus no favours. Although faultlessly reliable, and reasonably lively, it's unbelievably noisy, and vibrates like an old twin tub washing machine at idle. Once on the move, its relentless rumbling and rattling constantly intrudes into the cabin and irritates quickly. I have no problem with a loud engine if it sounds appealing, but this engine has all the aural appeal of a 20 year old diesel Transit with no oil in it. It's also thirsty if you drive it hard - 35 mpg is petrol-like, and I could never get more than 44 out of it driving like a granfaf. This can all be avoided by going for the far more refined, more powerful, and more economical TDCi engines, which actually are mechanically similar, but with common rail injection. The difference it makes is astonishing.

Combine this engine noise with the din from the tyres (which got louder as the car went past 70,000 miles), and the Focus is actually quite hard work on a long motorway run. Although it will reasonably easily pull past 100 mph if you want it to, the racket involved in doing so means you won't want to stay there. It's a good license preserver. It's not even comfortable, with a typically excellent Ford driving position completely ruined by flat, unsupportive seats which give no upper back support at all, and a plank like base cushion which makes your backside numb after an hour.

You can almost forgive all these faults however when you get the Focus onto a good twisting B-road. As with all the best handling cars, it suddenly shrinks around you and everything seems to gel perfectly. The steering is wonderful with consistent response, near perfect weighting, and a level of feel which wouldn't disgrace a sports car. You can actually feel changes in road surface texture through the wheel rim, which might sound a bit superfluous, but in icy conditions you can actually sense the levels of grip available by how the steering responds and how the tiny little vibrations that travel to your fingertips change in frequency and quantity.

What this all means is that you can hurl the Focus into corners in total confidence, adjusting the line on the throttle (as far as the grotty old boiler of an engine will let you) and feeling like a hero. It can even be persuaded into full blown oversteer if you want it to. Even in "soft" LX trim it doesn't roll much and is beautifully damped. Following a Golf GT TDI along a particularly challenging road last year, I was astonished at how the Golf was bucking and bouncing over dips and crests that the Focus barely noticed, and its ability allowed me to keep up easily, even with a 40 bhp deficit. In short, it's a brilliant chassis. The Megane that replaced this car, although better in many ways, is much more isolated and "easy", which unfortunately also means its nothing like as much fun.

The Golf reference brings me on to another important failing on the mk1 Focus - the interior. In its defence, 112,000 miles without a squeak, rattle or breakage proves the build quality beyond any doubt whatsoever, and it is an attractive design. Trouble is, Ford used cheap, shiny plastics which together with the dreadful seats make the interior of the car feel cheap and nasty. My car had the excellent Quickclear heated screen, but mirrors were manual (and not heated), and things like a trip computer, outside temperature reading, sunroof, and rear electric windows were notable by their absence. You also can't disable the passenger airbag which is infuriating when you need to take a newborn baby out and about.

To summarise then, the Focus was wonderful in parts, and awful in others. If I had a short commute to work across the back lanes, I would have another tomorrow. It's also reliable, very well built and cheap to run. However for longer stints behind the wheel it's too unrefined and too uncomfortable. Recommended, but with serious conditions attached. 

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