Long-term test: Ford's future-proof Focus

Long-term introduction: Ford Focus 1.0T Trend auto

By: Brendan Seery

Johannesburg - Forget electric. Forget hybrid. Forget fuel cells. The future – immediate and medium term – of the urban automobile, in this country and in most of the rest of the world, is simple: small petrol or diesel engines and automatic transmissions.

For the last few weeks, I have been driving the future. And I must say, it isn’t half bad.

Ford’s Focus sedan doesn’t look small on the outside – it’s a decent size for a family. But, it is under the bonnet that the new wave of downsizing is evident.

It is powered by a “mere” 1.0- litre, three-cylinder engine. I put “mere” in inverted commas because this award-winning powerplant is proof that petrolheads of decades of devotion are going to have to rethink our definitions of size going forward.

With the addition of turbocharging and surprisingly high compression for such a motor, along with the latest tricks in fuel injection, the Focus engine pushes out 92kW.

In the “old money” of horsepower, that’s 123hp. My first car was a second-hand 1965 Ford Cortina GT, the performance model.

It had just 78hp. Even the highly desirable Lotus-Cortina of the same era had just 105hp. And my mate’s macho 3-litre Ford Capri of 1973 vintage managed only 15 more horsepower than this new Focus.

If you had told me all those years ago that a family sedan with a 1.0 litre engine would have been blowing the doors off my Cortina GT, I would have thought you were insane. Mind you, back then, Twitter was something birds did and Googol (spelt that way) meant a 1 with 100 zeroes…

Smaller-sized engines mean lower fuel consumption and turbocharging means decent power can be retained. Fuel consumption, even if saving the world is not top of your agenda, is going to become a concern in the years ahead – mainly because the international drop in the price of crude is only going to be temporary.

High-end gadgets

Another reason cars like the Focus are going to become increasingly attractive is because you can “buy down” from your “executive” car and not feel cheated in the process. Quite the opposite is true. Our long-term test Focus sedan costs about R270 000 and comes with a pack of optional extras, some of which are not even available in cars costing twice as much.

For example:

- Automatic headlights, which automatically dip when they detect lights coming the other way;

- 360-degree parking sensors with a rear-view camera;

- Automatic parking control (which effectively parks the car for you; all you do is follow the commands and operate the accelerator and brake);

- A blind spot warning (alerts if someone is in your blind spot);

- Lane departure warning (alerts in the instrument display and with a jiggle of the steering wheel when you try to switch lanes without indicating);

- Tyre pressure sensors;

- Emergency city stop – brakes for you if you are about to hit something you haven’t noticed; and

- An auto-dimming rear-view mirror;

Ford’s option packs, which include such features, are ridiculously reasonably priced – less than R15 000 for each. In an Audi, BMW or Mercedes-Benz, it wouldn’t buy one of the features mentioned.

They’re quite useful too

In practice, the gizmos are more useful than I had thought. My brother-in-law, Neil, has the 1.5 Focus sedan, with a 132kW 1.5-litre turbo-petrol engine and a great attraction for him was the gadgets. He loves playing with them.

I thought I would pass them off as mere toys in the test Focus.

However, I have found the all-round parking radar invaluable, and the blind spot and lane departure warnings a useful safety extra.

It has been the tyre pressuring monitoring system, though, which has helped remind me of the importance of checking tyre pressures.

Soon after we got the Focus, the system warning alerted me to check. With a previous Ford, the tyre-pressure monitoring system told me I had a flat after hitting a pothole. Because of the warning, I headed straight for home to change the tyre. So I didn’t plan to ignore it on the Focus.

After pumping up all the tyres to the same pressure, the warning light went out – and came on again after what felt like a heavy smack of a rock on a dirt road in the Waterberg. But the puncture that I initially feared I had never materialised and the warning light went out once I equalised the pressures.

The episode did make me worry about pressures and I have bought a fairly expensive digital pressure gauge to double-check.

Nico autobox, but no paddles

The Focus sedan is equipped with Ford’s dual-clutch PowerShift automatic transmission which, although not as quick and slick as the VW-Audi DSG system, does what it has to. An irritation, though, is that manual shifting has to be done through an awkward, counter-intuitive knob on the gear lever, instead of paddles on the steering wheel. It’s best to leave the lever in drive or sport (the latter speeds up shift times to the point where you almost couldn’t do it quicker in a manual car). In the city, it is a breeze. I reckon that as our cities get more crowded and journey times increase, you’re going to see more and more automatics.

It’s early days – and we will be reporting in detail as the weeks and months go by – but the Focus ticks a lot of boxes.

It is economical (although perhaps a bit thirstier than expected); has plenty of space; lots of useful gadgets; shows good fit and finish and is easy and relaxing to drive. And it’s good value for money.

FACTS

Ford Focus sedan 1.0T Trend auto

Engine: 1-litre, 3-cylinder turbopetrol

Gearbox: 6-speed automatic

Power: 92kW @ 6000rpm

Torque: 170Nm @ 1400-4500rpm

0-100km/h (claimed): 11.0 seconds

Top speed (claimed): 192km/h

Price: R270 900

Warranty: 4-year / 120 000km

Service plan: 4-year / 80 000km

ALTERNATIVES