2013 Ford Focus ST: What's It Like to Live With?
Read the latest updates in our long-term road test of the 2013 Ford Focus ST as our editors live with this car for a year.
What do you want to know about?
- Introduction
- Phone Pairing Fail
- Break-In, Prologue
- No One Else's Shoes Necessary
- Break-In, 4am
- Break-In, 7:24 am
- Break-In, 8:32 am
- Break-In, 9:35 pm
- Fantastic Seats
- I Don't Take It Back
- The Dreaded Front Plate
- Fashion Forward
- I Think I'm In Love
- Would You Wear the Badge?
- Digging It
- Four Sounds Like Five
- Clutch Commuter
- Mind the Gap
- It's Got Your Back on Hills
- The Maw
- Built for the Back Roads
- One of My Few Complaints
- Will the Car Seat Fit?
- Making Peace with MyFord Touch
- Well, This Is Familiar
- Storage Space Lacking
- Giving Thanks
- Needs the HIDs
- I Have No Idea What I'm Doing
- Black Friday Autocross - Consistently Lost
- Black Friday Autocross - Six Shots
- The Overboosted Ecoboost
- One of These is Not Like the Other
- So This Is...
- The Aftermath
- Black Friday Autocross — Attention
- Black Friday
- Break in 10:30 AM
- Break in 1:47 PM
- 5k Milestone
- Hoppin' Mad
- The Autocross Effect
- Does MyFord Touch Work with Gloves?
- Track Test
- Auxiliary Information
- New Shoes
- Interior Lighting
- Phone Pairing Cure. Bill Gates Style
- One Week Using Sync, Part One
- Choosing a Hot Hatch
- Everyday Performance
- Ride Quality - Six Shots
- One Week Using Sync, Part Two
- Could Use A Rearview Camera - Six Shots
- MPG Update
- Fuel Economy Update for January - Six Shots
- Small Cargo Space
- Space Management
- Angles and Edges
- No Such Thing As a Boring Drive
- I Wish This Didn't Bug Me
- I Can't Hack the Recaro Seats
- Hidden Fuel Door
- Recaros. Are They Worth It?
- Thinks It Has a Rearview Camera - Six Shots
- Reminds Me of a Subaru
- One Passenger's Take on the Seats
- Fuel Economy Update for February - Six Shots
- Why No Power Seats?
- Blind Spot Mirrors - Six Shots
- Extremely Conservative Fuel Light
- How To Love This Car - Six Shots
- Crappy Cupholders - Six Shots
- Hennessy Performance Engineering Tuning Package
- High Performance Yellow - Six Shots
- Parallel Parking - Six Shots
- Steering Wheel Audio Controls
- Blank Media Interface Screen
- That SYNCing Feeling Persists
- Enabling 911 Assist - Six Shots
- Fuel Economy Update for March
- Earns an A Rating
- Blamestorming The Poor MPG
- Who Turned Out the Lights?
- Intelligent Access
- Would You Want a 3-Door?
- Front Headrest Tilt
- Auto Up/Down on All Windows
- Why Hatchbacks Rule: Reason #613
- 10,000 Miles and Counting
- Skinny Console Syndrome - Six Shots
- Yellow
- Fuel Economy Update for April
- Bees Like It - Six Shots
- Oil Change Alert - Six Shots
- Recaro Sport Seats - Six Shots
- 10,000-Mile Service
- What Color Would You Have?
- Gotta Keep 'em Separated
- Kid Tested, Mother Approved
- Yosemite National Park, Part One
- Yosemite National Park, Part Two
- Fuel Economy Update for May
- Yosemite National Park, Part Three
- Still Really Like Sync
- Yosemite Road Trip, Part Four
- Top Five Favorite Qualities
- It's Got a Good Pedal Box
- Rear Seat Storage
- Family Road Trip
- Changes For 2014
- Exhaust Tip Cleaning, Before And After
- Dual Purpose Machine
- Still Appreciate Ford's "Easy Fuel" Filler
- Ford Makes Cars?
- Heavy Hatch
- Naughty Nav System
- What To Expect From the 2015 Ecoboost Mustang
- Fuel Economy Update for June
- Quiet on the Highway
- Cabin Compromise
- Teaching My Parents MyFord Touch
- Vegas Road Trip, Part 1
- Still Enjoy Driving It
- Fuel Economy Update for July
- Fiesta ST Debuts
- A Car To Take to Your High School Reunion?
- Vegas Road Trip, Part 2
- Still King for the Next Couple of Years?
- Rarity
- Really Hauls the Family
- Its Handling Does Take Some Getting Used To
- Big Bird or Lemon Meringue?
- Freeway Road Trip
- Sync Happens
- Road Trip Fuel Economy
- Fuel Economy Update for August
- Yes, The Toilet Fits
- Better Cargo Cover Attachment Points
- Seats Need Work
- Needs a Sport Button
- Cargo Space Review
- Performance Vs. MPGs
- Dog Report
- 20,000 Miles
- One Year Later, Would I Still Buy One?
- 20,000 Mile Service
- Sold to CarMax
- Dyno-Tested
- Wrap-Up
Introduction
For years it felt as if Ford was having an affair with the drivers in Europe. Not a one-and-done tryst, either, but a long-term, secret-family-in-another-town (or on a whole other continent, in this case) arrangement. Of course, it wasn't secret at all. Ford flaunted its sexy, fast European family, which included the Focus RS, while giving us Americans the scraps. If it hadn't been for the Mustang, we would've felt completely unloved.
Now, after years of watching and longing, we're getting our due in the form of the 2013 Ford Focus ST.
It's a true world car. It's a compact hatchback. It's turbocharged. It only comes with a manual transmission. It's the best chance America has to take down the Mazdaspeed 3 and Volkswagen GTI, and now it's ours for the next 12 months.
What We Got
The 2013 Ford Focus ST is available in one trim level with one powertrain option. Lucky for us, it's a good package.
Every Ford Focus ST is equipped with a turbocharged and direct-injected 2.0-liter inline four-cylinder engine that produces 252 horsepower at 5,500 rpm and 270 pound-feet of torque at 2,500 rpm. All that torque flows to the 18-inch front wheels with summer performance tires through an electronic limited-slip differential and a six-speed manual transmission. There is no automatic transmission option.
But just because there's no automatic, don't assume there are no niceties. In fact, the ST comes standard with one-touch power windows all around, cruise control, a tilt-and-telescoping steering wheel with audio controls mounted on it, and a six-speaker stereo with a USB input and, of course, Ford's Sync voice-control system.
All this for $24,495? Not bad, but we weren't going to stop there. Not when there was an option to get Recaro seats.
These supportive, race-inspired seats are part of the $2,505 Group 201A option package that also includes dual-zone climate control and an upgraded 10-speaker Sony audio system, and for better or worse, saddles you with MyFord Touch. We also considered Group 202A, which adds desirable HID lights, plus heated seats and LED accent lighting. But checking off 202A would have pushed the sticker price past $30,000 — a psychological barrier for most sport compact buyers — so we passed on it.
Apart from the Recaros, we really wanted our ST in the signature Tangerine Scream paint, which costs another $495 and, in California at least, significantly thinned the ranks of available cars.
Besides that, we don't like paying above MSRP. So when the first dealer insisted on a $3,000 markup, we walked. It turned out Galpin Ford in North Hills, California, had one in our color, but in addition to our preferred options, this Focus ST had the moonroof ($895) and navigation system ($795). We could either take it or wait. We don't like waiting.
Since we'd bought another car from this dealership, our 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid, and we were paying cash that day, Galpin agreed to drop the $2K markup they had on the car and sold it to us for sticker: $29,065.
Why We Got It
From the first time we drove the 2013 Ford Focus ST in the French Alps, we were hooked. Our own Michael Jordan wrote that Ford's new hot hatch was the $24,495 BMW M3.
"It's civilized enough for a day's drive through the mountains, yet tough enough to shred every corner if you'd like."
We were just as impressed when we drove the 2013 Ford Focus ST on our own turf. In our full test we wrote, "The Focus ST is quite simply the best front-wheel driver's car to date."
That's a huge statement, but the 2013 Focus ST promises Mazdaspeed 3 levels of performance along with near-GTI levels of drivability and sophistication. We've already owned both the Mazda and the VW, so we know the differences well. Will this Ford deliver the best of both worlds over 12 months and 20,000 miles, or will it turn out to be not too hot, not too cold, but not quite perfect?
Current Odometer: 1,488
Best Fuel Economy: 27.2
Worst Fuel Economy: 15.2
Average Fuel Economy (over the life of the vehicle): 21.1
Edmunds purchased this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.
Ford's SYNC let me down last night in the Focus ST by refusing to pair with my iPhone. Oddly, I've paired my phone before and it was still in the system's memory, but SYNC refused to pair.
In the video you can see that the failure notice appears before there's even a chance to search for SYNC on my phone. Yes, Bluetooth was turned on. After five minutes of failed attempts I deleted all the previously paired phones from the system, deleted all the Ford SYNC connection from my phone's memory (we drive a lot of Fords so they linger in the phone's memory) and tried again.
Nothing.
I cycled the ignition several times to fully reboot the system and tried again.
Nothing.
Even read the manual to make sure I wasn't missing something simple.
Nothing.
Must not be me because it still refused to pair with my phone this morning, which is infuriating. I'll contact Ford and see what they say. Meanwhile, looks like the Focus will be off to the dealer.
"Hey Takahashi," came a voice over the cubicle partition, "what're you doing this weekend?"
In my mind, the next thing I heard was, "I need you to fly to Italy to test the next Enzo at Fiorano," (I've been accused of being a real-life Walter Mitty many, many times).
"Nothing," I answered, "Whatcha got?"
"I need you to put some miles on a new long-termer," was the reply, "I want to be able to test it on Tuesday. Maybe drive it up north. Get a hotel room and expense it, but we'll need about 1,000 miles on it this weekend. Can you do it?"
Rule #8: The answer to "Can you do it?" is always "yes."
"I'm your man," I said.
"Great," said the voice behind the cubicle, "while you're at it, why don't you do the full test for IL."
Rad. This is also why rule #8 is so important.
So what do I do? Where should I go? Why the hell is there a raw steak pictured above?
In my mind (the same place that I'm testing the new Enzo), I needed more of a challenge than simply logging miles. A quest without challenges is merely a road trip, and a solo road trip is just plain boring. So I hatched a plan.
Friday, I would stop by my not-so-local butcher to pick up a dry-aged, bone-in ribeye. Early Saturday morning, I'd head north to Napa Valley to buy a bottle of wine to pair with the steak. The challenge is to get back in time for dinner on the same day.
A few of my colleagues thought this was a bad idea, considering the fatigue of being behind the wheel for so long. Others thought it was a great idea, and appropriate for my love of food and fun roads. I remained steadfast in my mission, plus, the places I like to stay up there are far too expensive.
So, starting tomorrow at 4am Pacific time, I'm going to start posting my adventure as if I were updating you in real time. Some of you may have followed that trek on Twitter, so this may not be news to you. For the rest, I hope you enjoy the ride. Oh, and follow me on Twitter.
In the course of evaluating a car, it' often necessary to place myself in someone else' shoes. Thoughtfully consider what needs and desires they have, then determine if that particular vehicle meets them. If I didn't, every minivan review I've ever written would go something like "This thing is pointlessly humungous, ugly, handles like crap and makes me want cry at the thought of my declining youth."
There are other times, though, when I can very much wear my own size 12'. The Ford Focus ST represents one of those times. I love small, torque-rich, sharp-steering, sufficiently damped cars with firm, tight seats that adjust to accommodate my height. I want a manual transmission that' easy to use and near-luxury cabin materials. I expect a certain degree of comfort and quiet for a long road trip. I'd like to order it with a unique color or trim choice, be it inside or out.
That' a lot to ask and at this point, our new Focus is checking every box.
I've liked a lot of our long termers over the years, but I'd only consider actually buying a handful. This could easily be one of them.
As noted in the prologue, I was tasked with getting our new long-term Ford Focus ST over the break-in period. And so begins my journey...
I awoke at 3:28 am; two minutes before the alarm was set to go off. There was a mix of excitement and trepidation as I headed out the door. I wasn't worried that I didn't have it in me to complete the mission, no, I was nervous about writing the test drive the following week.
You see, I knew nothing about the car. Not a thing. Somehow, I never paid attention to the press the Focus ST was getting. Horsepower? Yah, I'm sure it' got that. Price? Ummmmm, twenty-ish? The same thing happened with the Scion FR-S. Perhaps I avoided information about it because I figured I'd be disappointed. I was wrong.
In stillness of my neighborhood (as still as it gets, anyway), I packed the car with the essentials: dry Cotto salami, energy drinks, beef jerky and camera equipment. I topped-off the tank with 87-octane, not knowing that 91 was recommended for peak performance. Then I zeroed-out the trip meters. There was already 110 miles on the odometer by that point, so I really only needed to add another 900 miles or so.
There was a full moon that night. It was unusually bright, too. So bright, in fact, that at some points I felt compelled to tilt the visor down to keep from being mesmerized by it. It' weird being out so late/early like this. It felt like only cops and criminals are out, and I don't have a badge.
I drove over Laurel Canyon to hop on the 101 freeway north (it' funnier if you say this like you're on SNL' "The Californians"). Laurel Canyon is a twisty road that is made up of broken concrete and potholes that can swallow an F-150. The Focus shrugged off the bumps and ruts with surprising ease. Alright, well, so far I'm impressed.
I accelerated onto the highway and was greeted by an unusually beefy-sounding engine note. It sounded burly, like a Volvo C30 and approaching Audi TT RS territory. Ok, I could get used to that. The thing is, that growl is only heard when you're really accelerating. Otherwise, the car is as normal sounding as any Focus. Cool.
But then there was the Moon. It found that perfect placement between the visor and A-pillar. There was nothing I could do about it, so I submitted to it. The Moon became a traveling companion of sorts. I chased it for hours until it dipped just below the horizon, just as I cleared Santa Maria.
Next update: 7:24 am
Just as the Moon dipped below the hills, the sun crept up behind me, replacing the inky blackness with a blue-grey hue. It was about this time that I started paying attention to the highway ride.
The Focus ST' ride isn't as stiff as other hot hatches. In fact, it' downright enjoyable. You still feel everything, but it never gets harsh or tiresome. It' also agreeably quiet, with a hint of road and wind noise entering the cabin. This was an initial concern of mine. What if it' as stiff as a shopping cart and loud as a leaf blower? You know, like my old Lotus? Not a chance, the Focus was as well-mannered as, well, a Focus.
I pulled into San Luis Obispo at 7:24 am. This is my usual stop. I can't count how many times I've filled up at this particular station. Then the memories came flooding back (cue the daydream transition). The road ahead and I have a lot of history together. It' the route I took to Laguna Seca when I started racing. It' the way I would take to the Monterey Historics every year. Along the way is my favorite weekend getaway. Heck, a seven-year relationship was forged on the next 110 miles. Good memories of an epic drive, but I digress.
I was going to take the coast route, Highway One. If it' early in the morning, I'll always choose the serpentine temptation of this road over the monotony of the 101. It' a bit of a detour, but well worth the extra time. Besides, I had plenty of time, or so I thought.
Right around Morro Beach, the two northbound lanes became one. The right lane was closed to cars and was filled with bicyclists. Don't these people realize that they put engines in those things now? Still, losing one lane didn't impact traffic too much. Not as much as the Highway Patrolman that got in front of me, that is.
This officer had me stuck right around 42 mph. He had me stuck at this dreadful pace all the way into Cambria, some 20 miles further. Then after the bikes peeled off and the second lane opened up, he kept the pace right at the speed limit. Arrrrrgh! I felt like that delicious steak was getting further away from me. My biggest fear would be that he'd stay on this route all the way into Big Sur, effectively killing any chance of having fun on one of the greatest roads ever.
Next update: 8:32 am
It seemed to take forever to get to my favorite stretch of Highway One. In reality, it took an hour from San Luis Obispo. The Highway Patrolman that I mentioned in the last post departed the route somewhere around San Simeon. And now, things get interesting.
Being that I was breaking-in the Focus ST, I couldn't exactly have too much fun. I had to keep the revs down below 4,000 rpm as much as possible and vary the engine and wheel speed on the highway.
I figured this car wouldn't be all that fun in the winding roads with turbo lag and torque steer. Again, I was wrong. Turbo lag is just memory above 2,500 and torque steer is managed by a sophisticated e-diff system. Short-shifting around 4,000 rpm was a bit of a bummer, as the engine felt like it could keep winding up for a while. That said, I found it easy to keep the revs in that sweet spot.
There are a few sharp turns that interrupt long sweepers and straights as you approach the fun part of Highway One. I went into the first couple of turns at a very conservative pace and the Focus tracked through with expected ease. Then I started turning in later and later, loading up g-forces to get a feel for what the car might do.
After I was at that point where I'm comfortable with a car' handling — the point where I feel like I'm wearing the car — I pushed just a bit harder. An intentional lift of the accelerator got the tail to step out ever so slightly; maybe an inch or two at most. Nice. The car held that miniscule slide, too, right until I eased back into the pedal and the front tires pulled the rears into line.
Admittedly, I was never a front-wheel-drive type-of-guy. Regardless of where the engine is, I prefer the power to go to the rear tires, and only the rear tires. But this changed my mind. The Focus ST convinced me that I could have just as much fun with the power at the front. It was so much fun, in fact, that I was comparing it to our Scion FR-S in my head; mostly because you didn't have to be shattering the speed limit to have this sort of fun.
"Holy smokes," I thought (not really the word I used), "this changes everything."
Next update: 10:30 am
With my precious cargo securely belted in, I took the direct route back home. The long drone of the 5 Freeway beckoned.
Taking the 5 Freeway back to L.A. is decidedly less interesting than the coast route. It' just a long straight haul through farmland and scrub brush. It did, however, point out one of the Focus' shortcomings: the Recaro seats' side bolstering and a small gas tank combined with a pessimistic fuel gauge.
I made it a good 12 hours behind the wheel before my shoulders started aching. They were aching because the shoulder wings of the seats push them forward slightly. Odds are, you'll never be in that position as long as I was. It was an easy fix, though; sit up straight and stretch a few times. Man card restored.
I figured that after I filled-up outside of Livermore, I should easily make it to the Grapevine. "Not so fast," said the low-fuel warning light. Between Bakersfield and the Grapevine I knew I had to stop. The light had been on for a while and the gauge was telling me things were getting serious. I stopped and filled up, but only 10.2 gallons went in. I easily had another 40-plus miles left. Oh well, better than running out and being even later for dinner.
There' something special about dropping into L.A. from the mountains. I know it' all in my head, but when I reach a certain point, I feel like I'm home again. Those last 90 miles or so were a piece of cake. I got back into my neighborhood right around 9:20 pm, and stopped by for some side dishes to go with my much-deserved feast.
Fuel economy for the trip averaged out to 24.8 mpg (the in-car meter gave me 25.5 mpg). The best result came from the tank fill in Salinas that lasted until Livermore with a 27.2 average. The worst, understandably, included the Highway One shenanigans, with a 21.0 mpg. I'm pretty sure that the fun part of the coast route would have been around 15 mpg, at best.
As soon as I got home, I lit up the barbecue (real lump charcoal. None of that gas or briquette junk for me, thanks). I popped open the bottle of Overture and let it breathe in my last remaining Orrefors wine glass (previous girlfriends managed to break the others). The steak was perfect. Really, truly, epically good. But here' the kicker: the wine wasn't as good as the last couple of bottles I've had. It lacked the boldness and body of the one I brought back two years ago. It was still good, but not as phenomenal as I had hoped.
But it mattered little. I had made it home. I accomplished my goal and in the process, discovered a truly great car. I lit up a cigar from a small Caribbean island and splashed some Scotch into a glass. I slept like the dead, woke up in the morning and took the Focus ST out for yet another drive on MY roads, and without that pesky break-in procedure. Yes, it was even better higher in the revs.
A things considered, it was an incredibly satisfying way to spend a Saturday.
These Ford Focus ST seats are fantastic. Grippy, supportive in all the right places, good over extended distances and they adjust to a degree that makes all 6-foot-3 of me very comfortable. I even put it three slots forward from its rearmost travel — a rarity for me. I could use a smidge more telescoping wheel travel, but that' being hyper picky.
Furthermore, they look incredibly cool. Even the back seats do (pic after the jump). And they're yellow. Go ahead and buy your grey car with the black interior, but I want color, damn it. Not necessarily an explosion of it, but accents like the ST has are perfect.
You know how it is. You drive a car in France, then come back with such a buzz about the experience that you're not sure if the car is really good or you've just been seduced.
Fortunately this time it seems like I was right after all. The Ford Focus ST is just as good as I thought while motoring through some of the mountain passes behind Nice where the Rallye Monte Carlo is staged.
So I don't take back any of it, even the facts I got wrong.
Here' my post from Straightline early this past summer:
Gentlemen, your BMW M3 is waiting.
This is the message we all want to hear, isn't it? Even all these years since it was first introduced, the M3 is still the car we’re after. Practical package, bunch of sport equipment hung on it that’s worth more than what you have to pay, and a motor that will wake you up.
Of course, this time you better be brave enough to venture outside the box of conventional thinking, because this particular flavor of BMW M3 is actually a 150-mph Ford Focus, and it does business with front-wheel drive.
Clearly you’re going to have to accept some compromises. First of all, the 2013 Ford Focus ST costs $24,495, not $60,100. So if you're into bragging about the cost of a snappy badge from Munich, that’s out. In fact, let’s just make it clear that no BMW drivers need apply. They’ll just wear you out while they repeat conventional wisdom about front-wheel drive, and they’re still the same guys who like to show off by commuting with their driving lights blazing.
Of course, I’ll admit that I have some prejudices of my own, as I’m thinking all this while I’m driving this 252-hp Focus ST up the steep hillsides of the Maritime Alps in France. I’m weaving through the narrow streets of 200-year-old villages, dodging weird French cars driven by guys that are dangling a cigarette out of the window, and looking out for the wacky three-wheel scooters ridden by slim French girls wearing giant full-face helmets and not much else.
The Focus ST’s navigation system is leading me higher into the mountains where the stunted, windblown trees cling to rocky, worthless soil. Some of the roads are cut into bare cliffs above deep, glacier-cut canyons. It makes you think of the Monte Carlo Rally (which takes place nearby, actually). You can practically hear the crackle and pop of the WRC Ford Fiesta driven by Petter Solberg, the world’s happiest rally driver (and a guy who drives a rally car as if it were a motocross bike, if my brief experience in the right seat with him is any guide).
Just like any kind of M3 (or Mazdaspeed 3 or Mitsubishi Evo or Subaru Impreza WRX STI or Volkswagen Golf R), the 2013 Ford Focus ST is a wide-band performance vehicle. It’s civilized enough for a day’s drive through the mountains, yet tough enough to shred every corner.
The engine and gearbox are the key, of course. The turbocharged, direct-injected 2.0-liter inline-4 delivers 270 lb-ft of torque at just 2,000 rpm, which is enough to ensure that this 3,251-pound package can get off the corners quickly, especially with the aid of the close-ratio six-speed transmission that' standard equipment. The shift linkage has a crisp, mechanical feel and it works very quickly. The engine also effortlessly revs out to 6,000 rpm with hardly a trace of vibration, although there’s a kind of trumpet to funnel engine noise into the interior. The Focus ST’s powertrain is a pretty tough piece of machinery.
Maybe it’s to be expected, because Matthias Tonn — the Ford of Europe engineer responsible for developing the Focus ST (and the Focus RS before it) — stands six-foot-six and is clearly a tough guy himself. He’s the quintessential German engineer, but in the deeply practical way that has always set apart Ford’s engineers from their self-importantly clever colleagues at the other German car companies. As Tonn tells me, the Focus ST is going to be sold all over the world, and it’s way, way harder to make 10,000 cars that are all equally good for $24,495 than one car that is unique for $1 million.
If you sign up for the conventional wisdom, this is too much power for a front-wheel-drive car and you’d need the forearms of a hog farmer to control the torque steer. And yet the ST carves an apex without making you sweat. The little miracle here is that the Focus ST makes you not care that it puts the power on the ground only through its front tires. As Matthias Tonn explains to me, the magic comes not from any one little thing but instead a cluster of technologies.
First there are the 235/40R18 Goodyear Eagle AS2 tires (which Tonn says are really, really good). Then there’s the electronic brake-type differential (which can be programmed to anticipate torque steer), the electric-assist variable-ratio steering (which also can be programmed to anticipate and react), the steering alignment, and an engine calibration that keeps the power from coming in with an abrupt wallop.
As a result, the Focus ST turns into corner quickly, yet it still maintains a reassuring distribution of traction across the front tires, and there’s no sense of trickery aside from an occasional wriggle through the steering wheel. (The stability control has a Sport mode and can also be disengaged.) Then the car tracks out with equal sureness, and the build up of steering effort is just enough to remind you that there is indeed a lot of power going through the front tires. In short, this front-wheel-drive car has its act together. Since it’s been developed at the Nurburgring Nordschleife (as well as the high-speed Nardo test track) like everything else these days, maybe all this is to be expected.
There’s plenty else to like about this car, from the big front brakes to the Tangerine Scream paint, but then we’re probably all a bit used to this from cars like the Mazdaspeed 3, Mitsubishi Evo and Subaru Impreza WRX STI. Even so, everything is first class, from the wheels to the Recaro seats. Most of all, the Focus ST always drives like a dead serious car, as its ability to get to 60 mph in 6.6 seconds and reach a top speed of 150 mph should tell you. The engine also gives you 30 seconds of overboost, should you need it. (30 seconds!)
Usually when you come to this point in a story about a car like this, you have to apologize because the price is all bad news. Instead, there’s good news. This car is made in Michigan (as well as quite a number of other places around the globe), so the price tag has no nasty surprises.
You get the car with all the good stuff and cloth-upholstered Recaro seats for $24,495, including delivery. If you spend $2,385 more than the base price, you get (mostly) leather-upholstered Recaros, a trick audio system, MyFord Touch and dual-zone air-conditioning. If you spend $4,435 more than the base price, you get (fully) leather-upholstered Recaro seats, a trick audio system, MyFord Touch, dual-zone a/c, a navigation system, xenon headlights and ambient lighting. Deliveries start this summer.
With the money you save over a BMW M3, you could buy a Ford Focus ST and then send it to France to drive it around.
We've yet to get our license plates for the Focus ST. As it' the California DMV, they're probably due sometime in March. Any way, when they do arrive we'll have to besmirch that wide gaping maw with a front license plate and it' going to look stupid.
I'm lobbying to have it placed somewhere other than factory standard. Since there isn't a front tow mount like in a Mini Cooper, for instance, our options are few. I'm going to suggest an Altec Retractable Front License Plate Mount. Not only will it satisfy Johnny Law and his bitchy wife Nancy McMetermaid, but we can easily hide it for fun pictures.
Does anyone have a better solution?
I'm thrilled that we got our hot-as-hell Ford Focus ST in Tangerine Scream Metallic Tri-coat. None of the other Focus colors pop quite like it. Draped in it, our car is Beyonce, working the most arresting dress ever.
By choosing an orange car, we boldly broke out of the color doldrums that usually grip car buyers. According to Edmunds data, just 0.4 percent of the cars that consumers bought in the last decade were orange. The big color leaders should come as no surprise: silver and black, closely followed by white. Auto-paint supplier PPG says that white continues to be the top automotive paint color in the world. But PPG also says that stronger colors are on the rise, and earlier this month introduced its palette for the 2015-2016 model years.
You've got to love the color names and descriptions, as reported in our news story on the topic: "Al Fresco, a silver metallic with a 'fresh green tint' and Victoria Grey, a 'classic gray with an iridescent highlight of gold metal.' Other colors that may appear on cars in the near future include Opulence, a 'refined red pearl with intense jewel tone' and Elixir, a metallic mixture of silver and magenta. "Sparkly yellow exterior
pain
paint treatments" are also coming onto the market — ours is a forerunner of that.
This is not to say consumers want their cars to scream tangerine. The sales figures of the last 10 years prove it. What' your take on wild car colors? Have you ever bought something really bold? Did you go on loving it, or live to regret it?
Athletic, fun, great looks. And the car' nice, too.
So I ran across this video and found myself creepily obsessed with the female driver. Turns out, it' Chrissie Beavis, a rally driver. Errr. Mah. Gerd!
A quick google later and I find out she' also a designer and fabricator (she builds things, not a pathological liar). Aaaak! That means she can beat me behind the wheel AND with a tig welder! I may have to abandon my "never ever ever gonna get married" stance. Either that, or I'm going to get hit with a restraining order.
Sigh...Mr. Takahashi is smitten. No cure. Just shoot me now.
Oh, and there are other videos here with some guys named Block, Gittin, Foust and Deegan. Whatever.
If you own — or aspire to own — a Focus, Ford would like to deputize you. On the Focus site, you can choose and download the badge you see above, as well as a whole slew of other ones. They're formatted for desktop or laptop wallpaper, iPhone or Android phone wallpaper or Facebook profile. There are also versions to use with your signature line in e-mail or on a forum.
Ford says the badges represent "an exclusive opportunity — a cool invite to join Ford in a new way of thinking, interacting and creating." You don't have to own a Focus or other Ford car to get a badge, either. "Just be you," Ford says, and get access to contests, games, vehicle reveals and such. You'll also invited to submit "your amazing ideas and photos."
Some of the badges aren't Ford-specific. They show that you're a fan of road trips, such as the badge above, that you (heart) hybrids or that you're a woman driver.
A cynic would say that having you display a Focus badge on your Facebook page and in other social media venues is a no-cost way for Ford to have you advertise and promote its products. I'm not the cynical type, so I won't say that. But would you?
I'm a rear wheel-drive guy, so it takes a damned good front wheel drive car to win me over. I have a short list of FWD cars I truly enjoy: Integra Type R, Mazdaspeed 3... hmm, not many others leap to mind....
Our longterm 2013 Ford Focus ST is securely on that list. It' refined, turns in like a shark, sounds great and is way punchier than I expected. It' rewarding to drive without being over the top in any way. Much as I enjoy the Speed3, it doesn't have this car' cohesiveness. And unlike the GTI (the car that inevitably ends up being compared to the Focus ST), you can turn the ST' stability control off...
Whether the ST would be a better car if it was rear wheel drive is an irrelevant musing; mental, uh, "self-stimulation". The Focus ST is real, it' good, and you owe it to yourself to drive one. Especially if you're a RWD snob like me.
The first time I drove our longterm 2013 Ford Focus ST, I coulda sworn it was a five-cylinder. It really is uncanny — this 2.0-liter turbocharged four cylinder makes induction sounds that definitely ape those of an inline-5.
When you're at light throttle, the ST' engine is unobtrusive. Just a bit of smooth pattering and little more. Really civilized. Only when you give it some right foot does an electronically actuated valve open, allowing induction noise to filter into the cabin via an intake honkus. It sounds terrific, too.
And it turns out its five-cylinder sound effect was intentional — Ford engineers wanted to replicate the sound of the five-cylinder engine of the previous-gen Focus ST in the new car. Mission accomplished — the 5-cyl warble is unmistakable.
Please excuse the shaky photo, but this is what my commute looked like this morning: Dreadful bummer-to-bummer traffic. While so much has rightful praise has been heaped on our new Focus ST for its accessible performance (I think it' the GTI that VW refuses to build), the fact that we often drive in in conditions like the one pictured doesn't make me like it any less. In fact, I like it a bunch even as a commuter car.
For one thing, these seats (and most highly bolstered sport seats) are supremely comfortable. They remind me of seats in just about any Porsche 911 for their ability to support my whole frame without any "hot spots" so I'm rarely squirming to find a comfy position.
The clutch feel and action is outstanding even in stop-and-go traffic. There' just enough feel to know where the engagement point is and plenty of torque from the engine if you still manage to get it wrong. There' so much torque, in fact, that as long as the car is rolling, it'll happily pull its way along in second gear.
The same can be said of both the brake and throttle pedals, too: sufficient feel, intuitive action, and predictable response. It' remarkable how often and how wrong many manufacturers get these simple (but immensely important) things.
I know, not the most enthralling post, but it' worth noting that this performance-oriented car is also a very good commuter car as well.
Anyone who' been following our Focus ST here probably knows that it' won me over in a big way. When a car excels in so many ways, it' sometimes hard to find faults, but I did.
It' minor. I mean, really minor.
Take a look at the shot that Kurt Niebuhr took above. See the seam where the hood meets the front fascia? Yeah, it' crooked. The hood itself is on the flimsy side and buckles easily under the slightest pressure. It shouldn't bug me as much as it does, but when faults are so few, they small ones seem to be amplified.
It reminds me of this one time I spotted a very attractive Hollywood starlet having lunch near me. She was dressed impeccably and was even prettier in person. But she had the worst table manners I've ever witnessed. She was shoveling her salad into her face and talking to her agent with her mouth full. Chunks of soggy croutons were flying forth like sparks from a campfire. Gross.
But a deal-breaker? No, I suppose not, and neither is the ST' hood gap. MyFord Touch is getting pretty close to that threshold, though. Seriously, Ford, fix it or kill it.
This photo is by the Great Kurt Niebuhr.
Yesterday I took a fun drive in our long-term 2013 Ford Focus ST and took photos to help me remember it years from now when I'm too old and uncoordinated to drive. Unfortunately, my camera (and its SD card) and I are now 30 miles apart, so I'll have to tell you about it tomorrow.
Instead, I'll mention the hill holder clutch in our long-term Focus ST. This feature is quite common in the remaining manual-shift cars in the United States, and I knew our Focus would have it, because, well, the VW GTI has one. So I did a full, legal stop at a four-way stop on a moderately steep incline in the neighhborhood of my parents-in-law, declutched it, put the clutch pedal back in, and the car remained secure until I was underway in 1st gear. (Obviously, the above photo is not a depiction of that particular four-way stop.)
While a hill holder isn't essential, I think it' a nice feature to include in a car that' going to attract customers who may not be that experienced with a manual gearbox. Friendly conveniences like this can help make those first few months more pleasant... and ensure that said customers keep buying manual-shift cars, so that the automakers will keep building them!
In the early '90s the automotive grille nearly became extinct. Same with headlights. Designers wanted to improve drag and exploit the burgeoning miniaturization of lighting and cars' front ends were poised to become featureless lozenges as a result. Then they realized how dumb cars looked with no mouth and no eyes, and today we have cars with big, expressive faces.
Look closely at our longterm 2013 Ford Focus ST' gaping black maw of a grille and you can see that it is mostly decoration — at least half to two-thirds of it is blocked off completely. This way, the designers can have the face they want without incurring a big drag penalty. It' form before function in the most harmless way possible.
I really like commuting to work in our 2013 Ford Focus ST. Great ride quality. Readily accessible torque for catching the holes in traffic. Easy clutch takeup. Problem is, I realized I was looking at the car as though it was nothing more than a really nice Focus with a little more power... it' just that easy to live with every day.
But I know it' more than a commuter car. Mark Takahashi told me. So earlier this week, I went out on a familiar back road to see for myself. And, man, is it ever a fun car.
It' like the 2013 Focus ST was made just for these roads — East Fork, Glendora Mountain and surrounds. They have lots of tight turns, and the ST' willingness to change attitude in the middle of a corner, or wherever, combined with its big, useful wad of mid-range torque makes it absolutely addictive. I like the steering, too.
As this was my first back-roads adventure in the car, I left the stability control in Sport (having heard that it' a very good system) and kept up a respectable pace without once feeling like the system was dropping anchor. Mind you, the brakes were pretty smelly when I got to the bottom of the mountain... and since I wasn't on the middle pedal that hard, I can only guess that the electronic differential administered enough individual wheel braking to heat up the brakes. Next time I'll have to shut the ESC off completely to see if that makes a difference.
Another thing I noticed is that as deftly as the Focus ST tucks into turns, its suspension calibration feels softer, less aggressive than the setup on our old 2010 Mazdaspeed 3. Yet, on these public roads, with traffic, I'm guessing I was keeping the same pace. Plus, the Ford has a better ride quality on pretty much any type of pavement.
Finally, shifting. I didn't need to do a lot of shifting, but I really enjoyed the occasional 4-3 or 3-2 downshift. If you have average size feet (about a men' size 9.5), you'll find the pedals are set up ideally for heel-and-toe downshifting. And if you haven't yet mastered that art, a Focus ST would be a great car to learn on.
You see those gauges? Yeah, nothing special. Clear, usable, readable, but nothing special. It' one of the few things about this car that could use improvement. Other than that, I'm at a loss, 'cause the ST is nearly flawless otherwise.
The power band is flat out perfect, with more mid-range than you think and power all the way to the redline. Sounds decent, too.
The suspension is dead on as well. Firm, precise, predictable, everything you would want in a car like this without beating you up. And the seats rock. Worth every optional penny.
Yes.
In the center position anyway. Not the same as installing it in either of the outboard positions, I realize. But keep in mind that (1) the driver seat was one notch away from being all the way back on its track; (2) the front passenger seat was in fact all the way back on its track; and (3) this Recaro convertible car seat is giant.
Much has been written on these webpages about MyFord Touch. Our experiences with it in our Explorer were nothing short of aggravating, and although it has been greatly improved in our Focus ST and other Fords (both in terms of usability and glitches), it is very imperfect. I'm sure these web pages will continue to highlight those imperfections.
However, I'd like to say that MFT would not prevent me from buying the Focus — ST or otherwise. It wouldn't prevent me from buying the Fusion, Escape or Flex, either. Would I like it better if had Mercedes COMAND or whatever Chrysler calls its big new screen system? Yes I would. But that' not an option, and I'm willing to live with a few annoyances now and again given the rest of the car' excellence.
Besides, with the ability for software updates, Ford can in theory make improvements retroactively.
I am sympathetic to technology. I understand that it's 2012 and that everything uses software. But with my iPhone, Google Nexus 7 and all of my PCs, I have some control over when I install pending software updates.
In our 2013 Ford Focus ST, which has the Sync-infused MyFord Touch navigation/audio system, it's not nearly so elegant. Earlier this week I started the car after a fuel stop and was just about to enter an address in the nav system. Then, a brief "navigation system unavailable" message flashed. Then, the screen went black and the radio turned off. And then, I saw this.
In all, the unplanned maintenance/OS update delayed my departure by 3 minutes, maybe a bit longer. Not a big deal. But why did the update have to happen then, right then? Why not tell me an update is available and give me a 24-hour window to initiate the install myself? If I don't take care of the update in that span of time, only then would it be necessary to run an auto-update.
(Then again, I'm forgetting that unlike my phone or computer, the MFT nav system doesn't have an internet connection with which to download updates, which is why you have to visit a dealer or get an updated SD card to do any kind of major update on this system... which is an obvious limiting factor on factory-installed nav systems. Undoubtedly, then, barich1 is correct in diagnosing "scheduled system maintenance" as an unavoidable reboot.)
We interupt our gushing over Ford' hot hatch to mention that the Focus — ST or otherwise — lacks storage space. The armrest bin can fit your iWhatever plus maybe some sunglasses and that' it. The little bin west of the shifter is essentially useless. The door bins aren't especially large and the cupholders are only sufficient. The glovebox is on the large side, but no glovebox can only be so helpful considering its location relative the driver.
Frankly, it' not THAT bad for the segment, as I recall the Dodge Dart and Mazda 3 being similar, and a Chevy Cruze being worse. However, a Hyundai Elantra is far superior, and the Honda Civic is a little better as well.
It' certainly not a deal breaker, but I did found myself running out of places to store the relatively few things I keep in the car.
It' no surprise that our long-term Focus ST has a special place in my heart. This Thanksgiving, I'm thankful that A: Ford made it; and B: we bought one. But there are plenty of other vehicles that I'm thankful for as we near the end of 2012.
1987 Buick Grand National: What a time machine this is. Seriously, just when I thought there weren't any "barn finds" left, this thing comes along. It may not be all that fast, but it definitely hits my cool list.
2012 Jaguar XF Supercharged: Luxury and torque. That pretty much won me over.
2013 Scion FR-S: Lightweight, rear-drive, good looks and serious handling all at a respectable price.
I can't go into details on what' coming in, but trust me, 2013 looks to be epic for the long-term fleet.
Any guesses? And what cars are you thankful for?
If you want HID headlights on your 2013 Ford Focus ST, you have to spring for the big-ticket Equipment Group 202A, which bundles them with the nav system, Sony audio and Recaro seats that our car already has as optional equipment.
Now, I'd never want to part with the Recaro seats, but if I could design my own, less expensive option package that included the HID headlights, I would so give up the Sony audio and nav system to have the HIDs, along with the extra-cost sunroof.
The standard halogen headlights don't throw much light in front of the car on the freeway (yeah, I know, this photo doesn't really illustrate that...it' here more just to show how dramatic the sky was while I was thinking about the underwhelming headlights). I haven't driven our Focus ST on a back road at night, yet, but I have a feeling the brights would be on the whole time if that ever comes to pass.
I will be glad for the day when the ability to see down the road clearly after dark ceases to be a luxury amenity. Who' with me?
By the time you read this, The Focus ST and I will have already gone through tech and might very well be on course in our LT auto-x challenge-shoot-out-death-match, at California Speedway.
Mark jumped on the FR-S bandwagon and thinks that it will turn the better time in our highly unscientific testing. I, on the other hand, picked the Focus ST, just to be a pain in the ass.
I do have my reasons (it has a huge power advantage, a linear power delivery, a willing chassis and it' quick on it' feet), but I do have my reservations (it' front wheel drive, it' heavy, it' front wheel drive and it' heavy) with the ST but I'm going to give it my best.
My best, however, might be a bit lacking. See that fool in the photo above? Yeah, that' me auto-xing my old 1994 TransAm. At some point I thought that would be a good idea, too. I guess I never learn.
Stay tuned for the results.
At the end of every run, you pull up and grab your time slip. These are my first six.
Now, where Mark went out to explore the course, and his Prius tires, on his first few runs, I just jumped into it and started driving. But, as Mark steadily improved throughout his first six runs, making the best he could out of the stock tires on the last lap, I kinda didn't.
I started out faster. A lot faster. But instead of trying to learn the second half of the course, the part where I wasn't shagging cones, I decided to charge the first half and figured the second half would just fall into place. Nnnnnnope!
I've decided to be brave and post one of my early runs. Click on through.
Bleh.
See? Lost.
Now would be a good time to mention that I don't know the first thing about GoPros. While Mark' chugged on throughout the day, mine died after this run. After watching this one, I'm kinda glad it did. My steering is a mess and I don't even have the right gear for the first corner. I didn't trust the front, and as the ST can get a little tail happy, I didn't trust the rear, either.
Mark' been whining about me sandbagging, but this shows you exactly what kind of shape I was in after six runs. I wasn't doing the ST proud by any means.
Mark was happy with his times on the stock tires and he was looking forward to bolting on the sticky specials for the final six. He also knew the course better than I did.
I decided to use my next work session to regroup and learn the back half of the course, not by sight (I couldn't see it), but by sound - listening to the exhaust notes of the other drivers.
I was going to need all the help I could get. Even though I had already beat Mark and the FR-S stock for stock, I wasn't going to be happy unless I beat him and his fancy tires, too.
I'll lay down my last six laps in the next installment. Will it be enough?
When I last left you, Mark and I had used up six of our allotted twelve runs of the day. Predictably, the Focus ST had seen off the stock-tired Scion. However, Mark was now changing over to the trick rubber and I was getting that sinking feeling.
While Mark fiddled, I looked over the Focus. I decided to leave the tires pressures what they were as the outside tread hadn't suffered too much and messing around with that now might do more harm than good. I wasn't going to be happy unless I got into the 62 second range; not just because I thought that would be enough to beat Mark, but I had my own goals. Oh, and don't forget about the audience of experienced auto-x'ers.
Then, Mark went out and dropped the hammer. His first lap out was better than my fastest and he was only getting faster. Time to see if I could pull it together.
My first lap out was my new best. Still lagging behind Mark, I had just knocked .5 seconds off my time by not driving like an meat head. So that was my plan - drive less like a meat head.
Over the next three runs, my times dropped, albeit slowly, into the low 63'. The ST is a little complex. It' essentially a front wheel drive muscle car, so the power must be used judiciously or you'll just spin the tires, which just overheats them. The trick differential is also a little bit of an unknown to me. It works well enough, it' just not as predictable as a mechanical unit. This is only a trait you'll see in a situation like an auto-x, with lots of quick directional changes and varying throttle inputs.
And then there' the rear end. The car pivots very, very well. It' not often you drive a front wheel drive car capable of being set up for the exit of the corner before you get to the corner, but the ST let' you do it. The catch, naturally, is it responds quite a bit to very minor changes in throttle at higher speeds. There was a big sweeper on the back side of the course that, on my fastest runs, I was essentially counter-steering the ST through half the corner.
Cool, but tricky.
I walked over to Mark to talk to him about his times and his passenger, and through his huge grin (damn) he introduced me to Leonard - the novice coordinator for this region of the SCCA and a reader of Edmunds. He asked if he could ride along and see what the ST was all about. Anything for
free instruction
our readers.
The run was smooth, but a bit manic as I fought to keep the back end where I needed it. I was afraid I'd made him car sick after the run, but thankfully he was fine and graciously offered advice about slightly different lines to benefit corner exit and overall tire management. Oh, and the most obvious piece of advice - look up more and don't get lost.
Unlike Mark, with only two runs left I wasn't able to capitalize on Leonard' advice and had to settle for the fast time you see below you, a 62.860. 1.8 seconds quicker than what I'd done previously, it just wasn't enough to stave off those fancy tires (the tires that the Focus hauled down there, mind you) and Mark' driving.
Kudos to Mark, Leonard and everyone who put on the event. It was a huge amount of fun.
Will there be a rematch? Should there be one?
Glad to see that Ford put a little effort (very little) into making this engine look special, it deserves it. Not only does this turbocharged 2.0-liter put out just over 250 horsepower, it does it in a way that makes it usable in almost any gear.
No need to wind it by the intake manifold to get it going. Peak torque arrives at around 3,000rpm and uh…stays peaked. This is due to an overboost feature that cranks up the turbo boost for up to 15 seconds to keep the torque curve flat. It sounds gimmicky, but it works and works well.
Lots of turbocharged four cylinder engines have been claiming to deliver V6 power with four-cylinder mileage. So far, I'd say this engine delivers on that promise better than anything else I've driven.
At first I thought it was odd that our Focus ST didn't have any rubberized grip pads on the gas pedal. Not because you really need any help mashing the thing to the floor, but more for design continuity from one pedal to the other.
Then in the course of taking this picture I noticed that the pedal levers were a little different. The clutch and the gas are attached with flat plastic levers while the brake has a heavy steel lever.
Now I'm no Dan Edmunds, but I'm guessing it has something to do with the forces exerted on the brake pedal in a panic stop that dictates the steel lever. That said, I don't think I've seen such a setup before, so either Ford is ahead of the game or I haven't been paying attention.
What all the fuss is about. After my first time driving the Focus ST, all I can say is, dang, it truly is a remarkably good performance machine.
Plenty of smooth, turbo power, the kind that makes you want to run through the gears again and again. And again.
A decent note from the exhaust. Superb handling with quick and precise steering (yet the ride is hardly harsh). Utterly fantastic Recaro sport seats with aggressive bolsters, yet they're plenty comfortable.
About the only thing to complain about so far
is that the pedal spacing for heel-and-toeing could be a bit better. You can definitely do it, but I didn't find it second nature, like in, say, the Scion FR-S. This is compounded by touchy brakes when only using a light application, for instance when coming up to a stoplight.
Otherwise, I'm loving this car. It makes any drive fun.
There' no such thing as a free lunch, food swiped from other department' meetings excepted, and with charging around an auto-x course for a whole day, we knew the Focus ST was going to suffer some tire wear.
What did twelve runs through the cones do to our ST' tires? Click on through...
Since the course was mainly right turning, the left front tire took more of the wear than the right front. Since I kept the pushy, understeery nonsense to a minimum, the tires look about as Mark and I expected. There' wear on the shoulder blocks, but nothing' excessive.
The right front was used quite as much and it shows. This wear is about equivalent to a good day of hard driving in the hills.
Two days after the auto-x, the tires were rotated to the back where they'll get a well deserved rest. Sure, we took a bit of life off these tires, but if you buy a Focus ST and you don't drive it hard like this from time to time, you're missing the point of the car.
I arrived about ten minutes after Mark and the FR-S. I signed a waiver at the gate and slotted the Focus ST right alongside the Scion. Stepping out of the ST and looking at the Scion made plain my biggest fear - The ST is a whole lot more car that our FR-S. It' a big piece of meat. At least it' yellow.
I tapped Mark on the shoulder and pointed out every single other FR-S in the lot. There were about 60-something cars in total and at least 6 or them were Scions. Mark wasn't going to have anywhere to hide if he couldn't lay down a good time. I took some solace in being the only ST, or any non Mustang Ford in the lot, but I wasn't going to know if my time was any good or not. Beating Mark is one thing, but I kinda wanted to see how I handled the ST.
And then came the attention.
The car is yellow, I know, but before I knew it I had already talked to three people about the ST. They walked over and expressed interests ranging from the fuel economy to the size of the trunk. I offered up the car for their inspection and while every one of them were polite and appreciative of the chance to crawl around the car, they all ended the conversation with words I didn't need to hear, "I'll keep my eye on this thing. I can't wait to see how it does!" Great. Now I have an audience.
There was more of that as I brought the car through tech. Other inspectors and drivers walked over and poked their heads under the hood and peered into the fender wells to get a better look at it. I felt like tossing the keys to an instructor and letting them demo the car for the day, not to save what' left of my name, but instead to preserve the mystique of the car.
Our work group came and went. Mark and I walked off the course and over to our respective cars. He looked confident. I was starting to believe he was in the perfect car as the FR-S slinked away towards the pre-grid. I climbed into my mango muscle car, whacked my head on the door pillar and followed him out.
Stay tuned.
In all honesty, I don't understand the whole Black Friday mess. People standing in line for a so-called deal on something they probably don't need or getting trampled by the unwashed masses just does not compute. But you know what does work for me?
Autocrossing.
Kurt and I are taking the Focus ST and Scion FR-S to an autocross practice on Black Friday. Initially, Niebuhr thought the Focus would have the edge, since it has quite a bit more power. I disagree. I think the FR-S will paste the Focus because it' sending the power to the rear wheels and power isn't a primary concern when autocrossing.
What do you think? Which car will turn in the fastest time?
Basking in the afterglow of the twists and turns of Highway One and the beautiful scenery through Big Sur, my quest for dinner continued. I emerged from the rugged coastline and leisurely cruised into Carmel. Being so close to my spiritual home, I had to stop in, at least for a photo opportunity.
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. This is where the old me ended and the new me began twelve years ago. Shortly after getting into open-wheel racing, I abandoned my previous career to play with cars and bikes all day. I have it under good authority that this will be my final resting place when I take my final lap.
But that' not today. Nope, I'm on a mission, though I am late. I found myself about 40 minutes behind schedule. I pointed the car east out of Salinas to reconnect with the 101 freeway. The good news was, traffic was moving and I started making up some time.
Not knowing exactly how to get to Napa from here, I turned to the navigation system. Ruh-roh.
In the six-and-a-half hours I've been traveling, the only conversation I had would be with the Sync voice activation system. The female voice is pleasant enough, but she was not giving me what I needed (sigh…story of my life, amiright, guys? Anyone? Fine, forget it).
I went through the destination selection process, but Sync wasn't recognizing "Opus One." That was my goal, by the way, to stop by Opus One to pick up a bottle of Overture to pair with my perfect steak. The problem might have been that I was searching in Napa, CA, but the winery isn't in Napa, it was in a city that was just on the tip of my tongue. Aww man, what is it? Think, Mark. Nothing.
Instead, I just had the destination set for some nondescript gas station in Napa. Once I got into town, I stopped to check where the winery was on my iPhone. SAINT HELENA! That' it! Sadly, Sync still couldn’t find Opus One, so I selected the physical address instead. I was on my way.
Next update: 1:47 pm
Opus One. I made it to my mental halfway point. I was still behind my optimal schedule, so I had to make it quick.
I sprinted into the main reception area and was greeted by a friendly employee. She asked if I was here for a tour, and in a slightly winded response, I said, "Actually, I'm here to swing by just to pick up one bottle of Overture."
She smiled and said, "Well, that' just fine by us, too," handing me a pass to the tasting room.
I continued my sprint and squeezed through a group of people enjoying a tasting. As the sommelier rang up my purchase, one of the tasters asked, "Just in for that bottle? Any good?"
I replied, "I've had Overture in previous years and haven't been disappointed. It'll go great with dinner tonight."
"Cool," he said, "so you're a local?
"Nope," I said wryly,"I drove up from L.A," as I collected my bottle hand headed for the door.
He looked like he was trying to process that information, but I was probably halfway to the Focus before it finally hit him.
I then dashed across the way and stopped at the Mondavi vineyard to pick up a couple bottles of another favorite: the Unoaked Chardonnay. These are for safe keeping until I cook up another meal.
At this point I've been on the road for over nine hours and I needed something more than beef jerky and salami to satisfy my hunger. I headed for Taylor' Refresher, a crazy-good burger stand that I've frequented before. I was dreaming of a bleu cheese burger with a six-dollar strawberry shake. I showed up and the place was now called Gott' Roadside and there was a line around the place. I realized it was a Saturday afternoon and the place was packed with tourists and locals alike.
Plan B was across the street, another favorite called Tra Vigne. One risotto and roasted duck leg later, I was ready to hit the road again. By this time it was 2:52 pm and the trip computer was telling me I'd make it back to CasaHashi at 9:30 pm. Dinner' going to be late.
Next update: 9:35 pm
We've quickly reached the 5000-mile mark in the new Focus ST (right on the nose, in fact), and it's been universally loved due to its capable handling, smooth and plentiful turbo power and fantastic seats.
It has excelled equally at commuting, back-road charging, and it's even been autocrossed.
So far, no gremlins to report.
On a personal note, I was tempted to take the Focus ST for a run on one of my favorite mountain roads over the weekend. But due to a rainy forecast and too many other chores on my plate, I skipped it. I realized what a mistake that was as, on Sunday afternoon, I entered a corner intentionally hot, trail braking, to see just what the Focus had in store for me. The rear stepped out more than expected, but it was perfect. Damn, the suspension on this thing is tuned just right.
Next time I get the Focus ST on the weekend, there will be a back-road flogging. I promise.
Lay into the throttle in our long-term 2013 Ford Focus ST and you'll get a couple of surprises. The first is that, holy schnikes, this thing moves out. But you already knew that.
The other surprise is that if you give it the wood in first gear, one or both front wheels will wheel hop like mad. BAMBAMBAMBAM! And that's without even turning off the traction control.
I suppose the silver lining here is that the ST has enough poke to light up its tires just by laying into the throttle...
Noticed that there is a bit more tire chunking in the aftermath of Kurt's autocross day with our 2013 Ford Focus ST than originally thought. If you look closely at this particular chunk, you can see the tire's steel and nylon carcass poking through. This tire is currently on the left rear, swapped from the front post-autocross.
Honestly, this isn't all that shocking. Autocrossing is very hard on tires, especially when said tires are unshaved and designed for the street.
Needless to say, we'll be ordering two new tires for the Focus ST ASAP.
I was driving a 2013 Ford Escape Titanium last week during a quasi-vacation up in Toronto. Its MyFord Touch system is virtually identical to the one we have in our Focus ST, so it provided me an opportunity to try out the controversial system with gloves. Simply put, it worked just fine. Obviously dexterity is hampered, but the touchscreen still responded without any incident. The larger touch buttons introduced by the MFT update help as well.
Now, MyFord Touch in the Explorer and Fusion also comes with touch-sensitive climate controls as well as other buttons. I'm not sure how they'd fair with gloves. The Chevy Volt had something similar and often failed to recognize a press.
It takes some time to build a story. For something like a Long-Term Introduction we need to buy the car, schedule and organize a photo shoot, write an introduction and then find a time where it makes sense to "go live."
Sometimes, however, we buy a car that's too hot to wait around for. This was the case with the 2013 Ford Focus ST. We had planned to buy one anyways, but when we found out they were for sale before Ford had one available for us to test, we jumped and snapped up our $29,185 Tangerine Scream beast in record pace. We broke it in as quickly as you can reasonably break in a car and then got it out to the test track.
We'd been waiting to see how this car would perform since the minute they announced it. Could you blame us for being excited?
The track-tested was posted a full three weeks before the official introduction. In case you missed it, here's our official track-test of our Long Term, 2013 Ford Focus ST.
One of the notable upgrades on the Focus ST model is this set of auxiliary gauges on the dash. You get oil pressure, boost pressure and oil temperature, gauges that are typically left off most new vehicles these days unless you go searching through a few menus.
It's understandable as these are gauges you must have in day-to-day driving, but on a performance car like this it's a different. Keeping an eye on your oil pressure and temperature is always a good habit if you're driving hard, especially in adverse conditions. Obviously, low oil pressure is a bad thing for any vehicle, but monitoring it daily on something that gets driven hard will keep you thinking about the oil's condition and give you an early heads up if anything is starting to turn south.
As far as the boost gauges go, it's just fun to watch.
As Monty noted in a previous post, our recent autocross outing had taken its toll on the Focus' front tires. This afternoon, I dropped off the car and two new tires at our local shop, Stokes Tire Service.
I let them know that the new tires should go up front and asked him to take a look at the old ones and let me know what he thought. I got a call 30 minutes later and he said the old ones were fine and if it were his car, he wouldn't have bothered replacing them. In the interest of safety, we had them changed anyway.
But I had him save the old tires and stuffed them in the hatch. In the event I get to autocross the Focus ST again, at least I'll have the old tires to run without risking the new ones.
This is the place in most cars where manufacturers locate certain common controls and features: Dome lights, sunglasses bins, buttons or knobs controlling the sunroof, etc. Our Focus checks most of those boxes, but there's something missing.
Where's the dome light?
Ford has broken the mold and I find it puzzling. Rather than locating the primary dome light in a place that follows an industry standard, makes it easy to reach and puts it in a good location for illuminating the cabin at night, we have this:
Three lights. Two are located on the headliner where the B pillars join the roof and the third is centrally located above the rear seats. Illumination is OK unless, like me, you prefer a near-vertical seatback position. In this case, the headrest (and my head) block much of the light from reaching the front seat area. That's the headrest you can see in this photo.
Perhaps more problematic is the fact that the lights are hard to reach being above and behind the driver's head.
Bizarre.
It's possible that last week when I encountered our Focus's SYNC phone pairing failure I forgot the first and most import rule of dealing with a Microsoft product:
When all else fails, just restart the stupid thing.
I did this over the weekend and - after five or so minutes of waiting - it came back online.
Even paired with my phone on the first try.
Bill Gates would be so proud.
Ford has taken a lot of flak over its MyFord Touch electronics interface. As we noted in an earlier post, the latest, updated system in our 2013 Ford Focus ST is better but can still be finicky to use. After getting annoyed at MFT's virtual buttons yesterday, it occurred to me that our Focus ST still has Sync, Ford's original voice activation system that's earned plenty of praise.
I suspect a lot of our editors haven't used our Focus' Sync system much because either: A) they forget it's there; or 2) they just don't like talking to a car. Neither is going to stop my little experiment, however, so for the next week or so I'm going to use Sync as much as possible.
Anything that Sync lets me do with voice commands, such as controlling my iPhone, the radio and the climate and navigation systems, I'm going to do using Sync. The goal is to find how much I can use Sync in daily driving and whether I like it or find it drives me bonkers. At the very least, I'm hoping the experience will be interesting.
If you're shopping for a performance hatchback and stuck with a major case of indecision, I can empathize. I'd have a hard time choosing, too.
In my mind, the top picks here are the Ford Focus ST, the Mazdaspeed 3, the Subaru WRX and the Volkswagen GTI. (Here are the four cars set up on the Edmunds comparison tool.) I like each of these cars for different reasons. The GTI is the most refined and comfortable. The Mazdaspeed is the most muscular. The WRX is also strong and adds all-wheel-drive traction. Yet the cool thing about the Focus ST is that it largely combines the refinement of the GTI with the performance of the Mazdaspeed and Subaru.
In terms of price, the Ford Focus ST, Mazdaspeed 3, Subaru WRX and Volkswagen GTI all start in the $24,000 to $26,000 range (with destination). That would seem to be another point in favor of the Focus. But since it's new, dealers likely aren't going to be willing to negotiate down from MSRP as they would with the other cars (we in fact encountered dealer markups on the Focus when we bought ours.)
So you might end up paying more for the Focus. But from a long-term ownership standpoint, I'd say any relative extra you pay would be worth it given how good it is.
A friend of mine is thinking about getting a new car this summer. So far his dream pick has been a used, 2011 Mustang GT (the first year with the new 5.0-liter V8). But he's always been a little hesitant given that he has a family. The Mustang's limited practicality, fuel bills and insurance would all be problematic.
So, I've been telling him that for pretty much the same money he could get a new 2013 Focus ST instead. Granted, the ST can't deliver the muscular, rear-drive thrills that a V8 pony car can. But for just about everything that's important to him, it'd be better. It's still very fun to drive, yet it's got four doors, a super useful hatchback area and an EPA highway estimate of 32 mpg.
I showed him our long-term Focus ST yesterday. He really liked it. I even told him it's just as cool as the Mustang, too, though in a different way. Of that, he wasn't so sure. But I'll let the ST sink it a little. I'll be curious to see what he ends up with.
Given the excellent handling capabilities of the 2013 Ford Focus ST, you might assume that there's a tradeoff in terms of ride quality. Well, compared to a regular Focus, I suppose there is. But given how well the ST goes around corners, I'm pretty impressed by the way it takes on bumps and rough pavement. There's a nice compliance in the suspension that complements the all-around usability of this car. It's rarely stiff or jarring.
In terms of ride quality, the 2013 Focus ST is a performance car that I wouldn't have any problems using for daily urban commuting or long-distance freeway trips.
In an earlier update, I wrote how I'd try using Sync, Ford's voice activation system, as much as possible for one week and minimize using the MyFord Touch (MFT) screen. Here's how it went.
First, the good news. Using Sync really does make a lot of tasks hands free, and that's good for driver safety. You can use Sync for most things, from changing radio presets to adjusting the car's temperature. I liked using it to switch modes for the touchscreen (quickly bringing up the map, for instance) but I found it most useful in terms of audio.
Instead of using the finicky touchscreen to pick a playlist or artist from my phone, I'd just say "Play artist: Metallica" or "Play song: Skyfall" to quickly get what I want.
I only have about 10 satellite radio stations I listen to, so once I've cycled through the first six (using the steering wheel buttons) I'd say "Sat two" to move to the next band, or "Sat one, preset one" to move back to the original group of six presets. There's a Mode button on the steering wheel that will change audio sources, but it cycles through every source (satellite, AM, FM, etc), which I don't want.
I didn't use Sync as much for navigation or phone calls, mostly because I didn't have the opportunity. But for the few tests I did try out, Sync again worked well for inputting a destination or calling a contact on my phone. And while I don't have any way to really verify this, it seems like Sync has gotten better over the years at actually understanding what you say.
Now, the bad news. First of all, it is a little weird talking to the Focus. Talking to the Enterprise might have been fine for Captain Picard, but here it never quite seemed normal. I'd be quietly listening to something, but then pushing the voice button and saying a command would disrupt that calmness. It's really bad if there are other people in the car with you.
There are two other issues. One is you have to learn all of the voice commands. So that takes some time. And yes, Sync still wouldn't always understand what I said, and I'd get frustrated with it. But that was pretty rare.
One can argue that what I've described is just a Band-Aid for what is still a finicky touchscreen interface, or that a soundly designed set of physical buttons would be preferable to all of this. And those would be pretty good arguments. But from a hands-free and therefore eyes-on-the-road and safety standpoint, Sync works quite well.
Our 2013 Ford Focus is really cool and one of my favorite cars in the fleet right now. So when it comes down to negative impressions, it's really just nitpick stuff. But one thing I do wish the ST had was a rearview camera.
Because of its swooping beltline and smallish rear window, the Focus hatchback does not provide the driver the greatest of rearward visibility. It's not terrible in the sense of a mid-80s Italian supercar, mind you, but it can make backing out of driveways or parking spots a bit trickier than I'd expect for a small hatchback. A rearview camera would offer a little extra peace of mind, especially since I see the ST as a more practical, everyday use car than something like a Scion FR-S.
Curiously, Ford actually offers a rearview camera as standard equipment on the regular Focus Titanium model, and that's for both the sedan and hatchback. Yet a camera isn't available on the ST.
In just three months we've driven our long-term 2013 Ford Focus ST about 6,500 miles. During that time it has averaged 21.8 mpg.
So far our best tank was 30.2 mpg, which was absolutely all highway, and our worst recorded tank was 13.3 mpg, which was surely a fun blast through the hills with the ST's turbocharged engine living at its redline.
Anyway you carve it up we're still below the EPA numbers for the hot hatch, which are 32 mpg highway, 23 mpg city and 26 mpg combined.
During the month of January, we put just over 1,300 miles on our long-term 2013 Ford Focus ST. That mileage total is a bit low against our usual 12-month target of 20,000, but don't worry, I'm a fan of the Focus ST and a long road trip in it is on my to-do list. Over that 1,300-mile stretch, by the way, we put in 56.9 gallons of 91 octane fuel and the Ford averaged 23.1 mpg.
That monthly average is higher than our lifetime average of 21.8 mpg in the Focus ST, though with 6,500 miles on the odometer, there are plenty of miles ahead of us still. Given how fun this car is on a back road, though, it's doubtful that we'll raise our average to the EPA's optimistic 26 mpg combined rating. The Ford's city rating is 23, while the highway rating is 32 mpg.
Range will likely come into play when we take the Focus ST on a road trip, as we have yet to make it to 300 miles on a single tank. Of course, that's hardly surprising with the hot hatch's tiny 12.2-gallon tank.
Worst Fill MPG: 13.3
Best Fill MPG: 30.2
Average Lifetime MPG: 21.8
EPA MPG Rating (City/Highway Combined): 26
Best Range: 299.2
Current Odometer:/ 6,504 miles
That is not a big bike in stuffed into the back of our long-term Ford Focus ST. It's my daughter's 16-inch Tony Hawk BMX bike, which is cool, but not exactly large.
Yet, in order to fit it inside the cargo hold of the Focus I had to drop one side of its 60/40 split-folding rear seat.
Folding the seat wasn't much of an issue, although you first have to flip up the seat bottom and remove the headrest. I was just expecting more room in the rear of this hatchback. It's tight back there. Seemingly tighter than the 23.8 cubic feet Ford claims.
This is not the vehicle for hauling four passengers and their luggage to the airport.
There are four DVD cases worth of space in the Focus ST's door pocket. That's a good thing too, because there ain't much storage space anywhere else. The glovebox is flat and suitably deep but there's nearly nada in the center console. Just a little cutout next to the shifter where you can set the key, two cupholders, and a tall, narrow center console where keys, cards and wallets disappear on top of each other. There's also the increasingly anachronistic coin holder.
The door pocket is doubly nice for DVDs, since they're the first things tossed on the floor when leaning into a corner. Though you still suspect designers could find more room in the dash and center stack, the ST's current design feels in line with the car's aesthetic: power, fun, dynamics.
There's a hip-hop producer named Madlib. He deals in a heavily jazz-influenced sound, big beats with lots of swing. He put out a CD about 10 years ago called "Angles Without Edges," and I keep thinking of the title, not necessarily the music, when I drive the ST. Because the ST seems opposite the title: the ST is ALL angles and edges.
This is, of course, the case with most new Ford dashes and instrument panels. Ford is pursuing a high-tech machine-matrix Transformers motif, following its conviction that touchscreen/voice-activation everything is the future. Which it may well be, but if the future looks like present My Ford Touch, we're doomed (example: MFT crapped on me on my way out of the garage the other night. Eventually I pulled over, shut down, got out, did the reboot. Nothing. Even did it twice. Nothing. No audio, no Sync voice, no volume, nothing. Drove home listening to the 2.0-liter and some Pandora streaming from the phone speaker. Next morning, there was music and Sync Lady and voice activation, as if nothing had ever happened between us. But the trust in our relationship has soured).
Staring at the dash and IP, I wonder who Ford targets with the Focus ST. Ours wasn't cheap. Though it starts at around $25,000, our ST with the Recaros and other options brought it just over $29,000. That's not necessarily young sport compact enthusiast money. Sure, you don't have to option it, but even $25k is a leap for most young car buyers. Which leaves buyers in their late 20s and early 30s, ready to buy their first car, a useful sports car, no less.
That makes more sense, but it makes me wonder how many young professionals will pay between 25 and 30 grand for the ST when they could have a two-year old BMW 335i for the same scratch. "But not everyone wants a BMW," you say. True. But the folks who don't read the magazines or fine Web sites like ours go with the BMW, Audi or Lexus every time.
Perhaps the ST is one of those niche models like the GT-R. The ones who get it really get it. They might evangelize a little bit, but most of their buddies will buy a 911 before a GT-R. If you're a fella on the prowl, setting down a Nissan key fob on the bar doesn't carry quite the same weight as one bearing the Porsche shield.
I doubt Ford loses sleep over this. Only sad car bloggers puzzle over these questions. The Focus is Ford's best-selling car right now in both the U.S. and the global village, the ST's halo effect no doubt helping the cause here at home.
On a recent Saturday, my husband and I drove the long-term 2013 Ford Focus ST to Escondido, California to see some friends. We cruised the interstate on the outbound trip and it wasn't shaping up to be much of an adventure for the Tangerine Scream hot hatch. There wouldn't be time for a run up Mount Palomar.
However, additional errands forced (yes, really, forced) me to detour onto some curvy back roads in northern San Diego County. And honestly, you can't help but have fun in the Focus ST.
Like many turbocharged and direct-injected four-cylinders, the 2.0-liter EcoBoost isn't overflowing with personality, but its plentiful mid-range torque makes it a crowd pleaser nonetheless. Plus, as we've mentioned before, this car likes to turn and it has good steering feel, and really, that's all you need on a tight road.
The fact that the suspension was compliant over the rough patches on these little roads (and the interstate for that matter) is a bonus in my book, and it's the main reason I'd recommend the Focus ST over the Mazdaspeed 3 if somebody told me they could only buy one car to satisfy their commuting/back-roading needs.
Recently, I happened to notice the gap between the tweeter on the passenger side of our long-term 2013 Ford Focus ST and the door trim below it.
Then, I glanced over at the driver-side tweeter. It fits tight to the door trim.
Here's another view of the passenger-side tweeter. Now that I've noticed the gap difference, my eyes lock onto it every time I get into the Focus ST.
Hours later, I was getting some stuff out of the cargo area, and I noticed the botched installation of the rubber seal around the hatch. Apparently, it has been this way since the beginning and I never noticed. It didn't occur to me to attempt a quick fix on the seal, but this looks like the makings of a warranty repair anyway. We'll put it on the list for our next service visit.
As for the tweeter, my guess is that its fit is within the tolerance that Ford specified for that component during the assembly process, and at least it doesn't rattle or anything. But that doesn't mean I like it. And because I'm one of those annoying people who fixate on small things, this is exactly the sort of flaw that might keep me from buying my own Focus ST.
I adore the 2013 Ford Focus ST, I really do. I love the way it accelerates, corners and stops. I dig the sounds the EcoBoost turbo makes when it's working hard. What we have here is a hot hatch with a soul.
But I could never own one.
It's the Recaro seats. I loathe them.
Sure, they provide tons of support when the road turns twisty, and I'm a big fan of the upper shoulder wings. Trouble is the side bolsters amount to a big annoying rib clamp when I'm driving to get the milk. The seats don't turn off or tone down when I don't need them so much.
Maybe it's me. I stand within a half-inch of 6-foot 3-inch James Riswick, but unlike James I weigh 210 and wear 34-inch pants. The moderate difference in build is enough to turn these Recaros from brilliant to bothersome.
Editor Mark Takahashi came to my rescue in the midst of my despair, helpfully pointing out the Recaros are optional. It's true, but they are not a stand-alone option that is easily jettisoned. Forgo them and you give up the chance to have dual zone automatic climate control, the Sony 10-speaker audio system, HD radio, satellite radio, an overhead console, heated mirrors, interior ambient lighting, cornering lamps or HID headlamps.
What it comes down to is this: If you don't fit the Recaros, your Ford Focus ST will need to be the bare bones version.
I believe I can live with that. Question is, do dealers ever order them that way?
It's possible the Focus's fuel door is the most well integrated fuel door in the history of fuel doors. It complements the body lines and tail light placement and its gaps match those between the bumper and the rear quarter panel perfectly. In fact, looking at it the first time, I wasn't even certain it was a fuel door.
Nice work, Ford.
These Recaro sport seats are part of the Focus ST's $4,840 202A equipment group which also includes a pile of other features (Sony audio with 10 speakers, 8.0-inch LCD touchscreen, nav, dual climate control and more). That's the only way to get them.
The Focus ST's base fabric seats lack the Recaros leather, bold colors and aggressive bolsters. Is it worth it to nearly five grand to get the better seats even if you don't want the other bits?
For me that's a tough call and one I can't make without sitting in the base seats, which I haven't done. What about you?
This alert popped up in our long-term 2013 Ford Focus ST upon startup once over the weekend. Note: our car is not equipped with a rearview camera.
Apparently we're not the only ones who think it needs one.
I can't help it. Every time I get in our long-term Focus ST and see the logo on the steering wheel, the first thing I think of is Subaru, not Ford. Call it good branding on Subaru's part or poor graphic design on Ford's part. But either way the similarity between the two logos is unmistakable.
Now, I don't know which one came first, so I can't really point a finger in either direction. But needless to say, it's odd that two performance arms of two different manufacturers could have logos that are this closely aligned.
If you'd asked me a couple of weeks ago whether I'd get the Focus ST with the Recaro seats, my answer would have been an unequivocal "yes." Though I'm not necessarily a huge fan of their vaguely gaudy yellow-and-black color scheme, the seats are a satisfying fit for my frame. I haven't done any canyon carving in the ST, but when I'm pressed to make sudden stops and sharp turns on the commute to and from work, the seats work to make sure that I'm held firmly in place. And I like that.
However, over the weekend, I ferried a passenger in the ST, and his critique of the seats wasn't as kind. This is a friend of mine who's driven in our long-term test cars before, and who has, in the past, had little to say about them either way.
His first comment after entering the ST had to do with how uncomfortable the seats are. He's got a larger build than I do at six feet tall, and a stocky 230 or so pounds. He said that the seat's aggressive bolster jabbed him in a particularly painful place as he was getting into the car, and complained that the Recaro left him feeling "like 10 pounds of meat in a 5-pound bag" once he settled in. Not pleasant.
Anyway, the experience reminded me that you have to consider not just your needs, but the needs of your passengers when buying a vehicle. And if your passengers are more well-fed than skinny on the body-type spectrum, they'll probably hate riding in the ST's Recaro seats.
During the month of February we drove our turbocharged 2013 Ford Focus ST about 1,250 extremely thrilling miles. We've been finding that the Focus ST's combination of power and handling make even the most mundane drives a little something special. During the month the hatchback averaged 23.1 miles per gallon on 91 octane premium.
That's actually a bit above the 22.0 mpg we've averaged over the car's 7,858 miles, but still significantly below the EPA's 26.0 combined mpg rating. What can we say? We love this car's power, and it's hard not to lay into that right pedal occasionally. Or more than occasionally.
We also achieved our best range so far during the past month, 309.1 miles on a tank of fuel, up from our previous best of 299.2.
Worst Fill MPG: 13.3
Best Fill MPG: 30.2
Average Lifetime MPG: 22.0
EPA MPG Rating (City/Highway Combined): 23/32/26
Best Range: 309.1 miles
Current Odometer: 7,858 miles
Categories: MPG
I like the hug-me-tight Recaro seat in our Ford Focus ST. What I don't like is the fact that its adjustments are manual. Because I'm 5-feet, 3-inches tall, I have to pull the seat fairly far forward in order to get a comfortable clutch and steering position. Then comes the pumping up of the seat for the right height, the manual back angle adjustment, etc.
When all that is in place, the seat's high sides have me twisting like a pretzel to get out of the car. If I push back the seat for an easier exit, I have to fiddle with the settings when I get back in. If the ST had power seats, that would be a sweet solution. Power seats with memory would be even better.
But according to Ford the six-way power driver's seat isn't an option in the Focus ST. It only shows up on the Titanium trim level, and if I'm really going to be picky, that's not the Recaro seat. Memory is not an option at all.
I like a little convenience in a sporty car. Am I asking too much?
The blind spot mirrors on our 2013 Ford Focus ST are great. As a motorcycle rider who knows what it's like to have an SUV enter my lane unannounced (and out of bad habits), I like to check my blind spots by turning my head. On the Focus ST there are small blind-spot mirrors built into the upper outside corner of the side-view mirrors that give you a quite a bit more confidence the moment you step in to the car. They basically eliminate the desire to turn your head.
Ford includes these on a wide range of its current models, and they might go unnoticed at first glance, but I'm a big fan of these little helpers.
Mark filled up our 2013 Ford Focus ST when the light came on during his break-in trip and only got 10.2 gallons to go in. With a fuel tank that holds 12.5 gallons, that's a pretty conservative gauge. As I drove the Focus ST today, the light came on again.
I'm cautious and hate running out of gas, so I pulled over at the first gas station I could find. I went to fill up and noticed that the trip odometer only read 151 miles. Based on the mileage we've been getting in the Focus, something seemed fishy.
I filled up the tank and to my amazement, this is what I see:
Only 7.709 gallons! To have 4.8 gallons of fuel left (38.4 percent) and the car is telling me that the fuel is low. This is downright silly and, to put it in perspective, if we base the remaining mileage on our Average Lifetime MPG I'd still have over 100 miles to go.
Next time, I'll be sure to push it much further.
I've flip-flopped on our 2013 Ford Focus ST over the last few days. When I first took the Focus ST home, I hated it. My introduction to it was in rush hour traffic and I knew that was a bad place to evaluate it, but I couldn't help it. The gear changes felt abrupt, the clutch felt too firm and the bolsters on the Recaro seats hurt my shoulders. In stop-and-go traffic, I was asking myself why I ever thought this car could be any good.
The next day it changed my mind completely.
When I related my initial impressions to fellow editor Mark Takahashi, he couldn't believe that I didn't love the Focus. His road trip during the break-in period was a love affair of sorts. He recommended I take the Focus ST somewhere more fun than a commute between home and work, so I did.
After just a few miles in the Focus ST on the back roads, I knew what everyone was talking about. It felt connected to the pavement and more comfortable than ever when asked to hug a turn or accelerate out of a bend. The seats were no longer annoying and the suspension felt like it was designed for this place.
The Focus ST bandwagon is already pretty full, but I've hopped on board as well.
All cupholders were not created equal. Some do their job of, you know, actually holding water bottles and other drinks in place. Others don't.
When you think of cupholders, you might be of the mind that they're most important for people-haulers like minivans, SUVs and vanilla sedans.
I disagree. I think the best cupholders should be in performance cars, such as our long-term 2013 Ford Focus ST. It's cars like the Focus ST, which positively beg you to charge hard into corners, that truly need anti-tip cupholders.
As you can see from the photo, it doesn't have them.
With a slippery surface and no anti-tip knobs of any kind, the bottles just roll around the center console at will. I even had one end up in my lap after a particularly spirited right turn. Not good.
So I stopped at a fast-food place and ordered a large Diet Coke (even though I didn't need one) to see if the cupholders worked better with a larger beverage. They did. Still not perfectly secure, but it appears it's this size drink that the holders were designed for.
So, apparently Ford has decided most Americans drink oversized sodas from fast-food restaurants. How sad, on so many levels.
I've taken to using the door pocket's attempt at a bottle holder. It moves around a bit in there, too. But at least the drink won't end up in my lap.
After spending a weekend with the Focus ST, let's just say I've developed a certain fondness for its quick reflexes and eager powertrain. There's never a dull moment with this thing. I drove to the drug store to buy a birthday card for my niece and the journey was like time spent on an amusement park ride.
Anyway, there are some people who will always want more of a good thing, and for those folks, Hennessy Performance Engineering has rolled out a tuning package for the Focus ST. Called HPE300, the package includes several upgrades (such as a cold air intake, ECU reflash and optional Magnaflow cat-back exhaust) that up the ST's already impressive 252 horsepower and 270 pound-feet of torque to a breathtaking 310 hp and 320 lb-ft.
You can read more about the new package here.
Running errands in our long-term Ford Focus ST this weekend, I parked across from a bright-yellow Chevrolet Cobalt SS. I immediately felt a sense of camaraderie.
It's nice to see another cheerful color amongst beige sedans and non-offensive silver SUVs. Yellow is a paint color that you don't really see on mini-vans or SUVs (unless they've been converted to taxi-cabs). Car companies seem to give small, fast automobiles a yellow paint job to designate them as high-performance and to help them stand out in a crowd. The paint however, wasn't the only thing these cars had in common.
When this Supercharged Cobalt SS was new in 2005 it cost around $22,000 and the current Ford Focus ST has an MSRP of $23,700. (This was not, by the way, the one of the coveted 2008-'10 Cobalt SS coupes with the more powerful turbocharged motor and upgraded suspension.) While you get some additional features standard on the Focus ST (like a sixth gear), they've both got forced induction, tuned suspension, and vibrant yellow paint. They're basically hyped up versions of regular economy cars and I like both of them. Our Ford Focus ST has more space and utility, but it reminds me of cars like the Cobalt SS and even the old 'Phoenix-Yellow' Acura Integra Type-R.
My personal car is a '96 Integra, and I think it's a great success when a car company can combine comfort, handling, speed and efficiency into a small, affordable package like Ford has in the Focus ST. I also like it when car companies paint their high-performance cars in vivid, unique colors like this Tangerine Scream Tri-Coat Metallic.
I typically try to avoid parallel parking our long-term cars (or any cars that aren't mine really), but in West Los Angeles it's unavoidable. The streets are crowded and if you plan on having guests, taking an available street-spot is always a good idea.
Editor Brent Romans already noted that our Ford Focus ST doesn't have a back-up camera, but the tires offered me a bit of parking assistance this weekend.
High-performance cars tend to have low-profile tires these days. Some look like rubber bands stretched over 20 inches of aluminum, and I think that's a mistake as everyday usability takes a backseat to aesthetics. Our Focus ST has 18-inch wheels, but they've got plenty of rubber to protect them. One specific perk of the extra sidewall width on our stock tires, is the protection they offer from curb damage.
While I was backing our Focus ST into this spot to parallel park, I was paying attention to the two most important things I could think of: not bumping into the cars around me and not getting side-swiped by a passing car. This laser focus coupled with good mirrors and a small turning radius proved successful in avoiding bumper-to-bumper contact, but I'd angled the car so severely that the right rear tire tapped the curb.
It's not a lot of overhang, but there's a small lip on the tire that extends further than the wheel. A skinnier tire would've left the wheel vulnerable to damage, even at my extremely low backing speed. It's a nice meeting of function and form on the Focus ST, as you get both a tire with a wide sidewall and an 18-inch wheel that properly fills the wheel well.
The technology on our long-term 2013 Ford Focus ST has more than its fair share of issues. From the annoyances with MyFord Touch and pairing our phones, to the car thinking it should have a rear-view camera the audio and navigation controls and software seem to be the weak point on this car.
I'm not a big fan of the system, and this week I found myself putting another item on the well-this-isn't-intuitive-at-all list: the placement of the steering wheel volume controls. What the heck are they doing on the right-hand side of the wheel?
The volume and seek controls on the steering wheel are redundant and out of place. The requirement to take your right hand off the shift knob to change the track or adjust the volume defeats the purpose of controls on the steering wheel. It's true that these controls allow you to leave your hands at the proper positions on the wheel while driving along on an unchallenging, open highway. But they'd serve the exact same purpose on the opposite side of the steering wheel and allow drivers capable of walking and chewing bubble gum at the same time to select the appropriate high-octane soundtrack for their upcoming hooliganesque behavior.
We encountered another problem with the media interface on our 2013 Ford Focus ST. In the past, we've posted about issues with phone pairing and the fact that our Focus seems to think it has a rearview camera. Well, add these mystery radio buttons to our list of audio and technology woes.
When it is working properly, the six boxes display radio station presets. Those went blank the other day. It seems a dealer visit is in our near future.
Okay, this really is thrashing an expired equine, because there's a nearly identical photo and post right here from a month ago. However, I fear that with each passing glitch and shrug of our collective shoulders, that Ford is getting a pass on the persistent problems inherent with SYNC and MyFordTouch. I get the feeling we're all just saying, "Yeah, that's part of the package. They all do that," and to me, that ain't right.
I'm not exaggerating when I say there's at least one anomaly per drive in this car. Unfortunately, this usually requires a power cycle of one or more devices, sometimes the car itself, which can be highly inconvenient to say the least. I happened to be essentially parked when this popped up on the screen and it is the epitome of what I'm trying to illustrate. Over the course of just two days and perhaps a half-dozen drives, I had radio presets disappear, the audio go completely silent, my phone pairing went missing, and so on.
Look. Other than the infotainment interface, I love, love, love this car, but as a car. To me it represents the GTI that Volkswagen forgot how to build a number of years ago. Way to go Ford. It still feels really special each time I drive it. It never fails to impress passengers with its dynamics, and it looks pretty darn cool from every angle, as well.
So, am I off base here thinking this "They all do that" excuse for SYNC and MyFordTouch is lame?
Before I drove away, this message popped up on our 2013 Ford Focus ST's display, "911 Assist is OFF. Set to ON? Yes/No."
Many new cars feature some sort of built-in telematics or concierge service that varies by manufacturer in what is provided, but most use an embedded cell phone and there's usually a subscription fee.
On our Focus ST, however, it uses your paired phone to alert the local authorities if the car has been in a collision severe enough to trigger an airbag deployment, but one must first enable this feature. If, and when the service is available, there's also a piggy-back remote-diagnostic/maintenance service that goes on behind the scenes as well.
I read the manual to learn all this. Additionally, I read the (assuming) legal department's required privacy policy disclosure if you elect to set the 911 Assist to on. It basically says that the car will, in some cases, be able to communicate with responders the location of your now dented, airbag-popped vehicle. Yeah? I thought that's what I was asking for when I selected ON.
How do you feel about this service? Would you enable or disable it if it were on your car?
During the month of March we put 1,482 miles on our 2013 Ford Focus ST. We must've been having even more fun in this little turbo hatchback than usual, because we averaged just 20.4 mpg for the month on 91 octane premium.
That's almost 3 mpg below what we averaged last month, and it brought our average lifetime mpg down to 21.7 from the previous 22.0. Of course, 21.7 mpg is also well under the EPA's 26.0 combined mpg rating.
The drop in fuel economy can be traced to a significant amount of city driving during the month, along with some hard canyon charging. Hey, we gotta drive the car the way it was intended, right?
Worst Fill MPG: 13.3
Best Fill MPG: 30.2
Average Lifetime MPG: 21.7
EPA MPG Rating (City/Highway Combined): 23/32/26
Best Range: 309.1 miles
Current Odometer: 9,249 miles
Edmunds recently began assigning letter grades to each and every vehicle it tests. Here's a link to the most recent batch of letter grades by vehicle segment. The 2013 Ford Focus ST, our very own long-term test vehicle, in fact, underwent the laborious process and emerged with an A. See the details here.
What's involved? Besides our usual battery of instrumented testing (learn more here) at our test track, there's a 24-category rubric that scores everything from ingress/egress, cargo space and utility to ownership experience and fun-to-drive quotient. To gather much of the data that informs those scores, each vehicle is driven over a 115-mile Los Angeles drive loop consisting of a wide variety of conditions including stop-and-go traffic (natch), tricky canyon roads, rough surfaces, smooth surfaces, grooved freeways, and smooth highways.
Would you agree with our A rating for the 2013 Ford Focus ST? Any owners feel otherwise?
You probably want to blame us, the Edmunds editors, for our long-term 2013 Ford Focus ST's less-than-stellar fuel economy. Or maybe you think fault lies with the EPA's testing procedure. We've been averaging around 22 miles per gallon, which is below the EPA 23 mpg city rating, not to mention the 26 mpg combined rating.
Truth is, the blame lies solely with Ford. They're the ones who dropped such a fantastic turbo four-cylinder into the engine bay of the Focus ST. If a smile doesn't creep across your face every time you plow into the throttle, there's something wrong with you. Seriously, make an appointment to go see someone right now.
We're just not used to this much power and refinement (yeah, I'm looking at you Mazdaspeed3) in a hot hatch. The Focus ST's 252 horsepower comes on in such a smooth yet forceful manner that you continually find yourself laying into the throttle. Has a sporty note, too.
I try to use restraint. But it's just so darn hard when the car is this darn enjoyable.
Plus, it's a fantastic machine for squirting in and out of those precious few open lanes in our clogged SoCal traffic.
So don't blame us if we occasionally return some poor mpg numbers with the Focus ST. Blame Ford. Them and their silly-fun turbocharged engine.
I have two questions:
1. Who had the brilliant idea at Ford to put the switch for the 2013 Ford Focus ST's interior light above the B-pillar, which is both above and behind the driver's head? Admittedly I'm no genius, but it took me forever to find the light and the switch. Ultimately, I don't care that the light is situated there, but it's a silly place for the switch because it's awkward to reach back and up to press it, whether you're stationary in a parking light or especially if you're driving.
2. Who turned off the door light switch in the first place? And why? The whole point of these interior lights is so that when you open the door to get into a car at night you can, you know, see the interior of the car. This has happened in some of our other long-term cars, too, and if I didn't know better, I might actually think someone is intentionally screwing with me. But no one on staff would do that, right?
Our Ford Focus ST includes keyless ignition/entry (a.k.a. Intelligent Access with Push-Button Start), meaning you can unlock the doors and turn on the car while keeping the key in your pocket. Note the little black pad on the front door handle, which indicates where you press to lock the door. Also, note the lack of said pad on the rear door handle.
Now, normally this would indicate that the car must first be totally unlocked via the fob or from the front door handle before the rear handles are operational. It can be annoying if you simply want to toss some shopping bags in the back seat. However, that isn't the case with the Focus. If the key is in your pocket, pulling the rear handle will unlock and open the door. Intelligent, indeed. Sure, you can't lock the car with the back doors (that remains the realm of higher-end cars like our Jaguar XF), but the front pad remains only an arm's reach away. Barely a bother. Unlocking is the bigger ordeal.
Last night while perusing the DirecTV Guide, I came upon an episode of British motoring program Fifth Gear featuring a Tangerine Scream 2013 Ford Focus ST. Whatya know? That exact car just happened to be sitting a few floors below in my garage.
Beyond being incredibly jealous that the pointily sideburned presenter got to drive the Focus ST on a spectacular strip of Norwegian road, I took note of his principal beef with the car: the body style.
While its primary hot hatch competitors and immediate predecessor can/could be had in three-door body styles, the new Focus is five-door only. Frankly, I've always thought the three-door VW GTI looked a little dowdy, but the Vauxhall Astra VXR and Renaultsport Megane are borderline sexy. All things being equal, I'd have a hard time saying no to a cooler looking three-door. However, as they are not equal, I'm totally fine with the five-door and its added practicality. Still looks plenty cool to me.
Besides, for the majority of those here in the United States, I suspect the more significant omission is the lack of a sedan body style and an automatic transmission.
Back in the days of our dearly departed long-term Ford Flex, several editors were not fans of the front head restraint positioning. Essentially, they tilted too far forward in their effort to presumably prevent whiplash. It wasn't a universal problem, as some seating positions put the restraint in a just-right place. I was thankfully in that camp.
Fast forward several years and Ford has largely heard what must have been a common complaint. Most Fords today either have head restraints with adjustable tilt or a completely different design altogether. Note that I said "most" because our Focus ST still has some semblance of the old tilt. Once again I found them to be perfect, but when my much shorter wife tried to take a nap in the Focus ST's snazzy Recaro seat, she couldn't find a head restraint position that wasn't pushing her head forward.
"I'm sorry," I said. "At least the seats are yellow."
"It's the little things." We hear that all the time, but it really is the value of special conveniences and thoughtful touches that can make a car seem like so much more than just a moving appliance. When so many cars are so very good, it can be those little things that can make you go, "Both seem otherwise equal, but I'll have one of those, please."
Indeed, it's the little things the Ford Focus does that make it stand out for me beyond simply being brilliant to drive. They also help blur some of the discontent surrounding MyFord Touch. The windows are one such example. They all go up and down with a single touch from the driver's seat. That's a luxury car feature in an economy car and I appreciate it.
Now, Volkswagen has been the king of such "little things" for a long time. Actually, it was their absence that resulted in the most recent Jetta falling from reviewers' good graces. However, the Golf still has them, and since it's the segment benchmark in Europe, it should be no surprise that the "One Ford" Focus has such little touches to keep up with the top dog.
This is why. Because first you manage to jam two pieces of a Jeep Cherokee catalytic converter system into the Dodge Dart, packages you need to return to the manufacturer. But the cranky FedEx lady says you don't have the right shipping label and refuses your package, and you jam everything back into the Dart again.
A couple days later, you get the same label from the manufacturer again, and it turns out you had the correct label all along. But because you went late the first time, with a few minutes until closing, you apparently got the C-team who couldn't be bothered or simply were as baffled by real life as they appeared.
Not today. You've got the Focus ST to drive to the FedEx office and try again, and this time its weekday hours and the cogs of commerce are hummin'. The long cat assembly fits in the ST no problem, requiring only that you briefly remove the cargo cover. It's even got room to wiggle when you hammer the throttle on a long open cloverleaf on-ramp.
Just one of many ways the ST rules.
This sporty little hatchback with the turbo four-cylinder has quickly become a favorite of our editorial staff. Driving the 2013 Focus ST is never boring. And the car is practical, too. It has handled all sizes and shapes of cargo in its handy hatchback.
A day of autocrossing resulted in a new set of tires. But aside from some media gremlins, the Ford Focus ST has been a great addition to our fleet.
What's your favorite feature in the 2013 Ford Focus ST?
This seems to be going around these days. Maybe it's my imagination. But more cars passing through our garage offer increasingly smaller center console compartments. The Focus ST's tall, skinny compartment isn't exactly useless. You can still drop a phone or a wallet in there, sunglasses in a thin case, maybe. But you can't, as I like to do, dump the contents of my pockets in one central space. At minimum, a center console should accommodate wallet, phone, house keys and some sunglasses.
This looks like hurried packaging. The 12-volt outlet and coin slots in front can go somewhere else and free up that space (although the e-brake placement poses a possible limitation). You could also shave the real estate given over to the USB and RCA ports. Rework both of those areas and you reclaim four, maybe six inches.
A few days in our 2013 Ford Focus ST reminded me how few yellow cars are on the road. Aside from taxi cabs and one Gallardo, I did not see another yellow vehicle until this van parked next to me. The color doesn't work for everyone, but I love it. And it is great for marketing. Just ask this guy. You can't miss it.
In the month of April, our long-term 2013 Ford Focus ST spun an additional near-1,000 miles onto its odometer and consumed 44 gallons of 91-octane fuel. That equates to 22.4 miles per gallon for the month, which is a bit better than its lifetime average, too.
We're still not hitting the Focus's EPA combined 26 mpg rating. I have a sneaking suspicion it might have something to do with its potent, torquey character and willing chassis.
Worst Fill MPG: 13.3
Best Fill MPG: 30.2
Average Lifetime MPG: 21.8
EPA MPG Rating (City/Highway/Combined): 23/32/26
Best Range: 309.1 miles
Current Odometer: 10,238 miles
Note: Cars are sometimes refueled before their fuel tanks are nearly empty. As such, "best" and "worst" fuel economy entries above are not necessarily the result of an entire tank's worth of driving.
A weekend in our 2013 Ford Focus ST reminded me of being a kid again. For a portion of my childhood there was a yellow Ford Pinto in our driveway.
In the spring and summer, when the honey bees were busy doing their thing, they would inevitably swarm the Pinto thinking they scored the mother lode. It was a fun thing for an ignorant kid to watch. Fun, until we learned a family member was allergic to their sting.
Now I can't help but scan the paint of brightly colored cars before I climb in. The other day, my casual scan found this guy. Exciting, right?
This alert flashed upon startup of our long-term 2013 Ford Focus ST. It stayed lit for about five seconds (complete with handy progress meter beneath the image), so it was easy to see (but hard to fish out the camera in time).
We'll have it addressed soon.
Every time I walk up to the 2013 Ford Focus ST, the first thing I notice is the bolstered Recaro sport seat. And I cringe.
Not because of the bolstering. I like that. What worries me for a brief instant is the heavily rearward-angled seat cushion. That angle looks like it would crush the cash and prizes, if you know what I mean.
And I don't want to have to compensate for a rearward-raked seat cushion with a Josh Jacquot-esque forward-of-vertical seatback. That would cut off some circulation to the nether regions for sure.
But once I settle in, things turn out far better than feared. The legs have good support from the cushion, the driving position is plenty upright, and the bolstering, of course, is awesome. And I feel nowhere near as squished down there as feared.
Maybe one of these days I'll skip the first-glance cringe.
We recently had a service message pop up in the instrument cluster of our 2013 Ford Focus ST. The odometer had ticked a few hundred miles past 10,000 and the car was politely reminding us that it was time for some love.
We drove it to Santa Monica Ford, just down the street from the editorial offices, where service advisor John was happy to get us right in. Service would be closing up in about an hour, but we always like a quick turnaround if at all possible. John assured me that this would not be a problem.
As I pulled in, one of the other advisors, a kid who looked to be about 20 years old, heartily approved of the car's arrival. "Man, that's the sickest Focus we've had in here!" (A car guy clearly, because he also expressed admiration when Frio swung by to pick me up in our long-term Subaru BRZ: "Sick Subaru, bro. Sick Subaru.")
This visit would be pretty straightforward: oil and filter, tire rotation and pressures to spec, multipoint inspection. John called not 45 minutes later to let us know the Focus was done. We made it back to the dealership literally five minutes before the service department closed. Overall, it was a pretty good experience.
Total Cost: $44.33
Total Days Out of Service: None
While driving our 2013 Ford Focus ST the other day, I spotted another Focus ST on the highway, but this one was Performance Blue. I like the Tangerine Scream yellow paint on our Focus ST, but I'm a big fan of the blue paint, too. If I were buying an ST, I'd have a pretty long internal debate about which color to choose.
The yellow might hold its value based on rarity, but it's also pretty noticeable. I'd feel much more conspicuous in a bright yellow hatchback. As far as blues go, the one on this Focus ST is fantastic. Nope, still can't make up my mind.
Which would you choose?
I know we've have a couple of issues with the MyFord Touch during our 2013 Focus ST's tour of duty. However, when I've had the car the system was thankfully glitch-free. I had it multi-tasking to the max here with the phone paired, the iPod providing tunes and the navi doing its thing, and there were no hiccups. More to the point, I'd like to give props to Ford for its well-designed "Home" screen.
As you can see here, it displays the four functions (phone, navigation, climate and entertainment) of the infotainment system in a clear fashion. Each one occupies a separate quadrant of the screen and there are no cute, gimmicky graphics to hurt "at a glance" readability. To quickly access any of those functions to make adjustments, you just touch the respective word in one of the four corners.
I had our 2013 Ford Focus ST on Mother's Day, and it was the car of choice for driving to brunch. I'm the shortest son at 5 feet 9 inches, but my brothers are both at least six feet tall and they'd be sitting in the back. Would the Focus be big enough for us?
Absolutely. Both of my brothers had plenty of space in the backseat. At Mom's house the Focus ST's outside temperature gauge registered 104 degrees, but the A/C got the black leather down to temperature quickly after brunch.
A few days later I sent Mom a text message asking what she thought about the car and she replied, "Smooth ride. Great get-up and go. Comfortable seating and good dashboard display. P.S. Maybe there should be a warning if the key is left in it."
And that's what Moms are for, right? They remind you to not leave your keys in the car and give you great concise reviews of the cars you bring home from work. Well, at least I remembered the flowers.
Our 2013 Ford Focus ST wasn't my first choice for a road trip to Yosemite National Park. It's got high-performance summer tires, and there was a possibility of both thunderstorms and snowy mountain roads. The Recaro sport seats have gotten mixed reviews from the staff, and they made me nervous, too. I also had two passengers and the stuff we'd need for four days of hiking so I knew it'd be a tight squeeze.
Coolers, Camelbaks, hiking boots, clothes, toiletries, cameras, hiking poles, and three days' worth of meals would all have to fit in the Focus. Oh yeah, and three adults. There were a total of six of us, so we split up into two cars (the other car was a 2009 Civic). We needed half the Ford's backseat for some of the bags, but with some strategy it all fit and we hit the road at 8:00 a.m. sharp.
My long-time friend Greg took up the other half of the backseat. When I offered him the front seat for the journey, he declined, observing that the Recaro's lateral bolsters were way too confining for someone of his size: 6 feet, 4 inches. From the backseat, he reported, "The rear headrests go all the way up! Put that in the story!"
As much as I enjoy our Ford Focus ST's Recaros when driving fast on back roads, they aren't road trip seats. I'm 5 foot 9 inches tall and I weigh 165 pounds, and these seats shouldn't dig into my upper back, but they do.
A quick stop for gas outside of Yosemite revealed some rain clouds, but we soldiered on hoping to get in a short hike on our first day in the park.
Despite forecasts of 77-degree, sunny weather, we arrived to a steady rain. None of us had prepped for hiking in wet weather and a rainy hike in a t-shirt and shorts is miserable, so we decided to drive the scenic route through Yosemite Valley instead. We stopped for a few photos and did our best to stay dry until dinner time.
In lieu of staying in a hotel, we'd opted to rent a home from homeaway.com. It was one of the best travel decisions we could've made. The house had a hot tub, pool table, fully equipped kitchen, and even laundry services all for a price comparable to a hotel.
Over the next few days we hiked to the top of America's tallest waterfall, tested the Focus ST fully loaded at 10,000 feet, and even drove through some light snow next to the highest summit in the contiguous United States. Stay tuned for more highlights of the nature-filled Focus fun.
On day two of my trip to Yosemite National Park, our long-term 2013 Ford Focus ST had two simple tasks: get us to the trailhead and get us home. The trail would take us to Upper Yosemite Falls, the fifth tallest waterfall in the world. With all our extra baggage and food unloaded, the Ford's hatch had more than enough room for our hiking gear.
The rain had cleared in the valley, but May is high-flow season for waterfalls in Yosemite so there was still plenty of water. Lower Yosemite Falls is visible via a flat, paved pathway so we stopped there first.
Trailhead information pegs round-trip hiking time for the Upper Yosemite Falls trail at 6-8 hours. It's around 8 miles, with a 2,600-foot elevation gain. As the hiking guides say, "It's like taking the stairs to the top of the Empire state building, twice."
We stopped several times to rest, once near the middle of the falls for a view that makes you forget about rush hour traffic, city streets and cars altogether. Even as a certifiable car nut, I recommend getting off the paved roads from time to time. Cars should provide us with opportunities like this, not replace them.
From the top of the waterfall, I could see the parked Focus ST (yellow paint made it easy) and next was the descent down.
The hike back was pretty bad on the knees, and I was beginning to consider the stiff clutch pedal in the Focus ST. Gear changes are quick, and the travel on the clutch pedal isn't very long. When swift shifting on back roads, it's great, but at that point I was yearning for comfort. The sun set as we returned to the valley floor and that's right when wildlife starts to come out. Luckily, what creatures we did come across were vegetarians.
Note: About 15 years ago I went to Yosemite with my family and my stepbrother left an empty cooler, covered by a blanket, in his Toyota MR2 overnight. A bear broke the driver-side window, crawled through the sports car, rummaged around a bit, then exited by breaking the passenger window. My stepbrother had to drive 400 miles back to Los Angeles, in freezing temperatures, with plastic wrap for windows. Since this was not a story I wanted to tell about the Focus ST, I made sure to empty the car completely. It was right where I left it, unharmed.
Before leaving the valley we stopped for a photo op at the world-famous Tunnel Entrance to the park.
Since the drive back to our house was only a few miles, the shifting was bearable. When a bend or hill came into view, I typically didn't bother downshifting. I had plenty of power going uphill, even in 4th gear around 30-35 mph. That's probably one of the best characteristics of this small turbocharged hatchback. Tomorrow's plan? More walking.
We added about 2,000 miles to our 2013 Ford Focus ST during May. A big chunk of those miles came from editor Travis Langness' trip to Yosemite National Park. For the month, we averaged 24.3 mpg. That's still a couple mpg below the EPA's 26 mpg estimate for combined driving.
On the positive side, it was a bit better than our lifetime average, which stands at 22.3 mpg.
Worst Fill MPG: 13.3
Best Fill MPG: 30.2
Average Lifetime MPG: 22.3
EPA MPG Rating (City/Highway Combined): 26
Best Range: 339 miles
Current Odometer: 12,666 miles
I didn't like it at first, but after a week in our 2013 Ford Focus ST, I began to change my mind.
On the first stretch of the road trip (300 miles of highway monotony), I'd shifted around in the seat a dozen times trying to get comfortable. The Recaro sport seats aren't unbearably uncomfortable, but on a flat stretch of road, the aggressive bolstering becomes intrusive and bothersome. On tight mountain roads in Yosemite, however, the lateral support was perfect.
In stop-and-go traffic, the ST's clutch is not easy to depress and after a few days of hiking, my left leg was beginning to feel the burn just driving around Yosemite. Luckily, the Focus ST has all sorts of power on tap, so on the open road, not much shifting is required.
On our third day in the national park, we woke up early to beat the forecasted early-afternoon thunderstorms. We planned to hike to Vernal and Nevada Falls, via the Mist Trail. The day before we had all made it to the top of Yosemite Falls, and the hike had taken its toll on my knees. Even with a steady flow of ibuprofen and fish oil, my joints just couldn't handle another 8 hours of hiking. I did make it to the top of Vernal Falls which is the half-way point.
A drier and more accessible spot on the map was Glacier Point. This gave me the opportunity to put the Focus ST's canyon prowess to good use.
The route from the valley floor to the top of Glacier Point is epic. My inner John Muir was shouting at me to look out the windows, slow down and enjoy the forest for the trees, but I couldn't stop myself from pushing Focus ST around the winding turns. Shifting wasn't a problem, either: Staying in third gear provided plenty of fun for public roads.
From 7,200 feet, almost the entire valley was visible and cool 40-degree air was flowing into the Focus ST's intercooler. I'm not in love with the ST as a commuter car, but every time I hit a few hairpins on a mountain road, it comes alive.
The "tuned sound symposer" pipes a bit of engine growl through the cabin when you accelerate, and the car feels extremely competent around the bends. Body roll is minimal, and although the ride is firm, it's not overly harsh. I don't recall the Focus being so forgiving on crumbling Los Angeles roads. Then again, the roads at the top of the mountain are extremely well-maintained.
After meeting back up with the rest of the group, we hit up the gift shops for our last full day in the park and headed out of the tunnel towards Yosemite West. With no other cars nearby, I dropped the windows and went for a little tunnel-blast in the Focus ST...Nothing...Shift...Nothing. There really wasn't an audible exhaust note. I could still hear the intake air being piped through the cabin but if you're looking to be a hooligan in the ST, an aftermarket exhaust might be required.
The peppy little Ford had done well so far, but the next day a challenge arose. We had to take a fourth person home with us. You'll see how the game of luggage-tetris went in the next installment. Same Bat-Time, same Bat-Channel.
Earlier this year I wrote how I forced myself to use our 2013 Ford Focus ST's Sync voice-activation system for a week as a test. I wanted to find out what it was like controlling everything from activating navigation to adjusting the climate temperature. Overall, I was pretty impressed.
I hadn't driven our Focus since then. But I'm back driving it this week, and I instantly found myself immediately using Sync again. I wasn't expecting that.
I still really like Sync for three reasons: 1) The voice recognition software works quite well. 2) I can keep my hands on the steering wheel almost all of the time. And 3) I find it is actually quicker to use Sync to select music on my iPhone than just about any other car's "normal" audio interface. There's no menu structure to deal with. Just say what you want to hear and go.
On the final day in Yosemite National Park, our Focus ST got an additional passenger. It wasn't a bear or a deer or anything.
Six of us went on this trip and divided ourselves between the Focus ST and a friend's Honda Civic. But two people wanted to leave from the western side of the park before sunrise, while four of us wanted to sleep in and check out the eastern side of Yosemite. So, instead of three people in each car, we stuffed the Focus to the brim and sent the other luggage home early in the Civic.
On this day, one thing became very clear to me: I should've left our Focus ST's cargo cover at home.
If the Focus was sans-cargo cover, we could've packed a little bit more in the trunk. With two adults in the backseat, the rear window becomes pretty useless anyway. With the cargo cover on board, we played a game of luggage Tetris and forced the rear-seat passengers to ride with a few bags between them. We eventually got the hatchback closed and took a short walk to see Bridalveil Falls and Horsetail Fall before crossing Yosemite Valley and heading for Highway 395.
Back on the road, the ST was composed, despite its 800-pound passenger/cargo payload. The Yosemite Valley floor is 4,000 feet above sea level and when you exit via the Tioga Pass on the east side of the park, elevation rises to 9,945 feet. I've driven roads like this before with four-cylinder engines and they're typically exercises in excessive downshifting, but not so in the Focus ST. The cool mountain air turned out to be great for the turbocharged Ford.
As we ascended the highest highway pass in California, things got gray and cold. Snow began to line the roadways and stops for scenic views were everywhere. Really, that's why we came this way.
After exiting the National Park via Highway 120, we turned onto Highway 395 (which I drove just last month in our Subaru Impreza) and pointed the Focus toward Los Angeles. After all the mountain driving, along with several passes around big rigs on the 395, I was surprised to post a new lifetime record for range: 339.1 miles.
After consulting the owner's manual, I confirmed my suspicion that even though the Focus ST's trip computer read "1 Mile to E," I still had a gallon of fuel left. Save for one of Mark Takahashi's break-in road trip tanks last September, which yielded 30.2 mpg, this was the best mileage the ST has seen to date with 29.5 mpg. I imagine the low temperatures (38 degrees) combined with a few hundred miles of cruise-control use at highway speeds helped the mpg. But, since the Focus was fully loaded with passengers and luggage on this tank, I was definitely impressed.
We arrived back in Los Angeles well after rush-hour traffic. The Focus ST averaged 26.3 mpg over 900 miles of driving.
Before I collapsed in to a deep sleep, fully clothed and on top of my covers, I took down some thoughts on the Focus ST: It's not a road trip car, it's a fun in-town and back-roads car. I hate the front seats. They're uncomfortable on road trips. I love the front seats. They're great in the mountains. It's loud on the freeway when there's a crosswind. I checked to see if the windows were shut three times on the same stretch of road. It's fun. And, it needs a roof rack to be practical.
We're about seven and a half months into the year-long test of our 2013 Ford Focus ST. It's been a good time so far, and the car has earned plenty of praise. I was recently thinking about what I like most about our ST.
1) The turbocharged 2.0-liter engine. Ford is dropping this engine into a lot of its vehicles right now. But this mill is really the star of the show in the Focus ST. The 252 horsepower and 270 lb-ft of torque are quite strong for this 3,251-pound car, and it results in impressive off-the-line acceleration and easy highway passing.
2) Everyday practicality. It's got four doors, which makes it practical for taking along extra people. Then there's the hatchback body style, which is ideal for hauling cargo. For somebody with a small family (like me!), this is really quite appealing.
3) Affordable price. The Focus ST starts at $23,700 (without destination). Considering the performance you're getting and the respectable collection of features that come standard, I find that to be quite appealing.
4) Capable handling without a stiff ride quality. As you'd hope for a hot hatch, the Focus is agile and sticky when you're driving around turns. But those qualities don't severely impact comfort. The ST doesn't beat you up.
5) It's from a domestic automaker. The best cars in this segment have typically come from Germany or Japan. But here's Ford showing up with what I'd say is the new benchmark for a hot hatch. That's pretty cool.
Our 2013 Ford Focus ST has good pedal placement for heel-and-toe downshifting. The gas pedal is a little bit too far away from the brake and it could stand to be a little larger, but with some adjustment of your foot, it works out pretty well.
According to various forums online, there are some modifications you can make to raise the gas pedal up from the floor. If I owned a Ford Focus ST, I'd likely spend my first Saturday with it adjusting the pedals to match my preferences. Heel-toe downshifting in the ST isn't as easy as it is in our Subaru BRZ, but it's just as fun.
Our 2013 Ford Focus ST's backseat is roomier than you'd expect. Even with the front passengers in comfortably reclined positions, there's plenty of space in the rear and details like the unusual location of the rear cupholders factor into it.
You can't fit much more than an 8-ounce water bottle in this slot next to the rear seat, but it's thoughtful placement. I wouldn't put anything with an open top there but if there's a choice between this location and the cupholders digging into my shins, I choose here. I imagine someone using the lower, smaller pocket near the floor for a wallet, phone or maybe some of those really short golf pencils.
Recently, I loaded up my family (wife, two small children) for a 600-mile weekend adventure to attend a wedding shower.
Actually, I didn't attend the shower. My wife did. And originally, I didn't think I had to make the trip at all, instead thinking I'd get a free weekend. Silly me. I was "volunteered" to go at the last minute, and therefore along with me and my wheel-man skills came the Ford Focus ST.
Similar to the experiences Associate Editor Travis Langness had in the ST with his trip to Yosemite National Park, my weekend blitz was an interesting test of our long-term Focus ST.
I've often felt that the Focus ST is a best¬-of-both-worlds hot hatchback, which is to say it offers the performance equal to the Mazdaspeed 3 but with the refinement similar to that of the Volkswagen GTI. To a large extent, this trip upheld that belief.
The ST's turbocharged engine is sweet, especially when climbing grades, passing slow-moving vehicles or, my favorite, slow-moving vehicles on grades. Overall, I saw about 27 mpg overall. The ride quality is also passable for family road trip duty as it's never really jarring. At times I felt like I was making a lot of tiny steering corrections on the highway, which was distracting, but it's hard to say if it's really the car or I just happened to be noticing it.
In terms of space, the Focus worked out all right. I had a fair amount of stuff to carry, so I ended up taking out the cargo cover ahead of time so that I could load up as much as possible. I really dislike stacking gear high as it blocks the view out the rear and is somewhat of a safety issue, but sometimes that's just the way it goes. Plus, with the seats up, Ford lists a luggage capacity of 23.8 cubic feet, which is more than you'll get from the trunk of a typical small sedan.
Certainly there are way better vehicle choices (more comfortable, roomier and so forth) for a family road trip. But if a Focus ST is your only car, I think it will fill the role nicely.
Ford hasn't added the 2014 Ford Focus ST to its Web site yet, but we've got the info on the car. Not much about the car changes, actually, and that's just fine given how great the 2013 car is already.
The 2014 Focus ST gets a new option for gray-painted wheels, and going this route also gets you red-painted brake calipers. This is a $375 option.
You can also get black racing stripes for the '14 car. Ford's priced this at $495.
The base MSRP (not including destination) for the Focus ST rises slightly to $24,115, a $415 increase from 2013.
Continue reading for a couple more photos of the 2014 car.
With the 2013 Ford Focus ST, you get the nifty, center-exit exhaust tip instead of the regular Focus's largely hidden (passenger-side) exhaust tip. But with this design you also get a fair amount of visible soot buildup with this ST exhaust, too.
To show our long-term ST a little love, I decided to clean up the tip and bring back that shiny, lustrous look.
I've used Eagle One Nevr-Dull polish in the past, and it seemed to be the way to go here. With a bit of cleaning I got our exhaust tip to look like this:
See, back to its chrome-y goodness!
Actually, it still needs a bit more work to get it to truly pristine status, but I'll give it a final round of polishing next time I wash the car.
I have a small thing to admit: There are times when I get a little down on our Ford Focus ST. If I'm driving it enthusiastically, for instance, I've occasionally thought how I prefer the more elemental and communicative nature of our Scion FR-S and Subaru BR-Z long-termers. And during my recent family road trip, it occurred to me that it would have been a lot easier of a trip if I had something like our Honda CR-V to drive.
But when I mentally step back out of the immediate moment and think about all the Focus ST can do, the car quickly moves back into my good graces.
It's the dual-purpose nature of our Focus ST that makes it so appealing. If I owned an FR-S, I'd love it but there are a lot of daily life things I could never do with it (say, make trips to my storage unit, a favorite pastime of mine pictured above). In contrast, a CR-V would be quite useful but not at all entertaining to drive. The Focus? It's pretty good in both aspects.
If you can own just one car and need it to serve two masters, the 2013 Focus ST shines.
Ford introduced its first "Easy Fuel" cap-less fuel filler back in 2008. We've tested a lot of Ford vehicles with it since, including our long-term 2009 Ford Flex, 2010 Ford Mustang GT and 2011 Ford Explorer. Our 2013 Focus ST is the latest.
This Ford-exclusive feature won't change your world, but I still like the convenience of it. There's no cap to unscrew or hang while fueling. Just insert in the gas pump nozzle and start fueling.
The one possible downside to the Easy Fill design is that it won't accept typical gas can nozzles (for when you've run out of gas on the side of the road). But there is a special funnel that's included with the car (in the spare tire compartment) to allow you to use a gas can.
Out of nowhere, my 12-year-old daughter asked, "This is a Ford?"
"Yes," I answered. "Why do you sound so surprised?"
"It's just not what I picture when I think of Ford," she responded.
"Well, what do you picture?" I asked.
"Trucks. Big trucks. Or SUVs. Not sporty little zippy cars," she answered.
"Well, who makes sporty little zippy cars?" I asked.
"Hyundai. Or Kia. Maybe Honda," she said.
Now, if we lived in Michigan instead of Southern California, her answers would likely be very different.
Last week I wrote a quick post about our 2013 Dodge Dart's trunk lid. Basically said how easy it was to lift the hatch after popping the trunk open with the remote button.
This weekend I found our 2013 Ford Focus ST to be the complete opposite. The photo above shows how far the hatch lid pops open after pressing the remote button. It's barely wide enough to slide your fingernail into the "gap," let alone an entire hand. Plus, a full hatch door with a spoiler makes it inherently much heavier to lift.
Of course, not everyone is concerned about convenient cargo access. But if you have your hands full of stuff more often than not, you'll notice this issue real quick.
During a 120-mile round trip drive, I was intently following the route I had entered into our 2013 Ford Focus ST's navigation system. Going through five freeway interchanges in 30 miles, I was especially attentive to my location, lest I miss a change and subject myself to an inconvenient exit turnaround.
While cruising along a nice stretch along the final freeway, the nav voice started to insist that I move to the far left and enter the "express" lane. Luckily, I knew enough about where I was and the toll roads involved to realize that the nav was directing me into a prepaid "fast track" with no cash or credit card option. If you didn't have an account with a sensor fixed to your windshield, you were going to pay a hefty fine by the time you excised your car from the express lane.
Instead, I merely paralleled the toll lane, shaking my finger at the nav for its naughty, and potentially costly, suggestion.
It's well-known that the 2015 Ford Mustang will have a turbocharged four-cylinder Ecoboost engine. In fact, I first reported on it back in September of 2011.
Those of you thinking the 2015 Mustang's Ecoboost engine will simply take the 2013 Ford Focus ST's engine, turn it ninety degrees and overbore it are mistaken. Here are some more details on the 'Stang's four-banger ("four-'Stanger?") recently overheard from inside sources.
The 2.3-liter Ecoboost four in the Mustang will generate in the neighborhood of 330 horsepower, plus or minus a few. It will slot above the base V6 and beneath the V8 in the Mustang's pecking order (e.g., price). As its peak power number will not be drastically higher than the V6's current 305 hp, the four-cylinder's worth will likely be in a larger, broader torque output and better fuel economy than the V6.
Interestingly enough, the 2.3 Ecoboost's unique head casting integrates the exhaust manifold into the head, so the turbo simply bolts directly to a flange on the head. Though this type of manifold integration is in production on other cars, this will be the first time it has been accomplished with a twin scroll turbo, which by design groups the exhaust ports of cylinders #1 and #4 together, isolated from those of cylinders #2 and #3. That's one tricky head to cast, I bet!
During June, we put 1,417 miles on our 2013 Ford Focus ST, and we're closing in on the 15,000 milestone. We took it on a 600-mile family road trip and averaged 27 mpg, then used it mostly in and around town. Over 7 tanks, we averaged 25.7 mpg. That squares pretty well with the EPA's 26 mpg combined rating.
On our worst tank, we averaged 21.3 mpg. But our best tank fell just short of our current record. We averaged 30.1 mpg around the middle of the month, just one-tenth shy of our current best. Not bad. The ST seems like a thirsty machine, but the numbers prove it not unreasonable considering what you get.
Worst Fill MPG: 13.3
Best Fill MPG: 30.2
Average Lifetime MPG: 22.6
EPA MPG Rating (City/Highway/Combined): 23/32/26
Best Range: 339.3
Current Odometer: 14,345
I hadn't been near our long-term 2013 Ford Focus ST in a couple months, and I was reminded how good this car is when I drove it this week.
It's quick enough to be exciting during routine passing maneuvers. And it likes to change direction quickly whether you're on some cool road or just pulling into the grocery store parking lot. Plus, the Recaro seats, while not comfortable for everyone, fit me to a T. If you're 5-foot-10 and in the neighborhood of 150 pounds, you will probably dig the driver seat in our Focus ST.
One thing that stood out this time is how quiet Ford's hot hatchback is on the highway.
I don't expect a car like this to be quiet. The GTI is pretty serene, granted, but Mazdaspeed 3 sure wasn't, nor are the Toyobarus.
Twice this week, I forgot to upshift to 6th gear while driving the Focus ST home from work on wide-open freeway (read: no traffic). The turbocharged 2.0-liter engine doesn't drone on or whine or make any kind of noise really unless you're hard on the throttle. I probably would have made the whole trip in 5th gear if I hadn't glanced down at the shifter.
The reality, of course, is that the gear ratios are pretty close together, and the difference in engine speed is minimal. At 70 mph, the engine is at 3,200 rpm in 5th gear and 2,700 in the 6th. Either way, the decibel level is comfortably low.
I try, and I try, and I try and I try. But I just can't get comfortable in the Focus ST. It's more than the seats. We've already hammered on that. Some of us like them, some of us don't. Most of us think they're a little one-dimensional. Great if you're hanging it out on a curvy road, but lousy for retrieving some Thai take-out.
So the seats are a part of it. But it's also the way the instrument panel rises from the depths and swells toward you with its weird waterfalling Transformers design. It's slightly claustrophobic, but everything's easy to reach. Except the touchscreen, which is angled up and away. That, combined with the menu-diving and precision tapping required for most operations, de-motivates you from, say, adjusting existing bass and treble settings while driving. What works for Sinatra works for Slayer, in other words.
I also keep trying to break the non-sliding armrest. And aside from their comfort value or lack thereof, the yellow fabric seat inserts hurt the eyes. Even the steering wheel feels a little like twisting a caved-in speaker dome, but the rim is the right diameter and the two bottom spokes are nice, if unintentional, thumb rests.
I dwell on this only because I don't remember other cars within the ST's field of play that ask this much compromise in seating comfort. The Mazda3/Speed 3, as I recall, struck a good balance on its performance/utility axis. The Scion FR-S, while a little low-slung and with seats bolstered almost as aggressively as the ST's, offers a warmer welcome when sliding in behind the wheel.
And the BMW M3, well, the M3 excels at the serpentine and suburban in equal measure. Now, the ST is no M3. But it aspires to be the Everyman's M3. And from a dynamic angle, there's no disagreement. The ST is bonkers attitude, a front-driver that has no business oversteering in corners, yet oversteer and tail-slide it will do.
That alone might be worth dealing with the seats and cabin compression. But sometimes you just want an uneventful drive for some basil noodles.
My parents recently bought a car with MyFord Touch and as luck would have it, I was visiting when they took delivery. This gave me the opportunity to give my folks, and especially my mom, an Intro to MyFord Touch lesson. It's the most likely feature to cause headaches and although they bought a 2013 Escape 2.0 SEL and not a Focus ST, the experience would've been the same.
Thankfully, my mother doesn't have a Bluetooth cell phone and doesn't use her iPod in the car thus eliminating two of the more complicated functions. Instead, it was just a matter of explaining how MyFord Touch basically works, and specifically the four home screen quadrants that correspond to different functions.
She was especially happy to find the compass located in the spot where the navigation system would be in so-equipped cars like our Focus. Really, the main goal was teaching her how to find a radio station (the tune button or the Direct Tune function in the touchscreen) and then how to program it into presets ("just press down on the touch button until it acknowledges being saved, just like in your CR-V").
My father does have an iPhone, however, which he needed to pair (and figure out how to sync his music to, but that's an entirely different story). I will say this about MyFord Touch: it makes pairing a phone a lot easier than it was in Sync V1.0 found in my dad's old Fusion Sport. The full-size touchscreen makes a big difference. As he's rented cars with MyFord Touch before, he had already figured out the basics I showed mom. He's a tad more technologically inclined, but I still managed to show him features he didn't know about like Direct Tune and Bluetooth Audio.
So far I've heard nothing but rave reviews about their new Escape. My mom hasn't reported any headaches in using that mean old MyFord Touch system (sarcasm), which is good because I was fully prepared for comments along the lines of "This isn't as easy to use as my Honda."
To me, this says two things. First, MyFord Touch isn't that bad, especially when you have limited experience with other high-tech interfaces. Second, a really thorough tutorial about your new car is invaluable and is something few people get. A friend of mine went four years before realizing that her driver seat was height adjustable. We recommend going back to the dealership after two or three days to have such a tutorial done since you'll likely have questions and with some of the initial new-car excitement worn off, you're in a better mindset to learn than you'd be right at delivery.
Or you could just have your auto journalist son pop over.
Recently, a group of Edmunds employees (including me) traveled to the Zappos.com offices in Henderson, Nevada. Zappos is renowned for its strong company culture and unorthodox office space, so we Edmundsians took a tour, hoping to gain some inspiration. Since I prefer driving to flying and Las Vegas is just a couple hundred miles away, I seized the opportunity to drive there.
After packing the night before, I got up before the sun and set off in our long-term 2013 Ford Focus ST for the Zappos headquarters, 273 miles away.
The drive from Southern California to Las Vegas on Interstate 15 can be boring, but I kept myself entertained with the usual mix of podcasts and excessively loud music.
Our Focus ST's 10-speaker Sony audio system (part of the $2,505 Group 201A option package) is great for rocking out until you twist the volume knob to about 75-percent capacity. After that, it loses bass and clarity and begins to distort. Three hours into the trip, I crossed the Nevada state line, and it was time for a brief stretch.
It was already well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit so I hopped back in the air-conditioned ST as quickly as possible. Less than an hour later I arrived at the Zappos.com offices in Henderson and joined my co-workers for the tour. Zappos does indeed have a very lively workplace with decorations everywhere.
The company even has a disco ball that it dares visitors to activate in the lobby. We didn't hesitate.
The executive cubicle area (named Monkey Row) is one of the more unique areas.
Zappos has no dress code other than ties. No ties are allowed, so here's the collection of ties that have been punitively cut off over the years.
Full of zeal, ideas and complimentary root beer floats, we departed Zappos and headed to lunch. I ferried fellow Edmunds employees Josh and Stephanie to a restaurant a few miles away. Stephanie commented that the air conditioning wasn't getting her cool fast enough and I reminded her we hadn't left the parking lot yet, and it was 116 degrees outside. Passenger complaints eventually subsided as the Focus ST began to cool down with relative haste (especially considering the conditions).
After eating and recapping our tour, most of our group headed back to Los Angeles on a plane. I hopped in the Focus and headed to the Las Vegas Strip. The ST was easy to drive around town and the satellite navigation guided me seamlessly to the hotel parking lot.
I won't dwell on the Recaro seats, as it's a topic I've covered before, but after my road trip experiences in this car, I'd never buy a Ford Focus ST with the optional Recaros.
My focus then shifted to the blackjack tables and the poker room. Wish me luck.
I took our 2013 Ford Focus ST on a long drive recently. I'm quite familiar with the car, having driven it extensively during the car's nine-month stay at Edmunds so far. Yet I'm finding myself liking our ST even more.
This doesn't always happen with our long-term cars.
Sometimes certain cars we've had over the years have been a letdown after initial hype, or maybe they had too many annoying quirks. But the Focus ST is staying strong. There's no single thing that stands out, so I think it has to do more with me appreciating what the ST offers. It's just such a great all-around vehicle with its strong power, balanced ride and handling, and pleasing utility.
From an ownership standpoint, I think this is important. Were the long-term Ford Focus ST my car, I'd still be really happy parking it in my garage every night.
We added about 2,800 miles to our 2013 Ford Focus ST during July. Contained within that was the typical commuting plus a couple of road trips within California and one to Las Vegas.
For the month, we averaged 25.8 mpg. That's very close to the EPA's 26 mpg estimate for combined driving.
That said, we are still below that EPA combined average in regards to lifetime fuel economy. Right now our Focus ST is showing 23.1 mpg through its 17,000 miles.
Worst Fill MPG: 13.3
Best Fill MPG: 30.2
Average Lifetime MPG: 23.1
EPA MPG Rating: 26 Combined (23 City / 32 Highway)
Best Range: 339 miles
Current Odometer: 17,107 miles
Earlier this week Ford officially rolled out the 2014 Fiesta ST which we drove for the first time in Europe back in March of this year. Now, however, we were allowed to drive in on U.S. roads.
The debut came in conjunction with the summer X games which feature these 600-hp, all-wheel-drive Fiesta rallycross cars that have virtually nothing (except their chassis) in common with the Fiesta ST.
Our brief drive of the 197-hp/202pound-foot Fiesta ST revealed its chassis balance and overall character to be very much like the Focus ST. That is, this little five-door is just as tail happy as its big brother, which makes it a full-on kick in the pants. Overall control might be marginally less than the Focus given the Fiesta's twist-beam rear axle, but like it does with the Mustang, Ford manages to make the axle matter little in most situations.
Developed on Ford's Lommel proving ground in Belgium, the Fiesta shares its European-tuned roots with the Focus in this regard. Possibly the biggest difference between the two cars is that the Fiesta's smaller size gives drivers more latitude to place it wherever they choose in a lane on our massive roads. Its steering on control are precise enough that this actually matters. And it's fun.
And though the rallycross Fiestas have nothing to do with the ST, they are fun to watch on ESPN.
Recently my wife had her 20th high school reunion in Orange County. Ideally, we could have gone to it in one of the flashy cars from the Edmunds long-term fleet, like the Porsche 911, Mercedes SLS AMG or Tesla Model S. But at the time I was signed up for the 2013 Ford Focus ST, so that's what we took.
Now, driving something "cool" to your 20th reunion, at least in my experience, is largely irrelevant. You drive to the event site (a hotel, mostly likely). You park your car (or valet it) and walk in. That's it. Few (if any) classmates that you know will see what you drive. And most likely, they don't care.
That said, the Focus ST does strike me as a better 10th reunion car than a 20th reunion car. Ten-year reunions are more about "look at me!" than the 20th. (And what better way to do that than a hot hatch with screaming yellow/orange-y paint and a monster front grille?) Plus, the ST is ideal for your late 20s. Odds are you don't have kids yet. Maybe you have a dog. Still, you're pretty carefree, but with an eye on the practical. That's the Focus ST.
In Part 1 of my road trip to Nevada, I drove our 2013 Ford Focus ST to Henderson, Nevada, to tour the Zappos.com offices. Then, I headed to Las Vegas for a few days of betting. After I got my fill of bright lights, buffets, slot machines, sweltering heat and all-nighters at the poker table, I tossed my bags in the back of our Ford and pointed it south.
Leaving Las Vegas on a Saturday morning is a lonely enterprise, but experience has taught me that it will save you from the nightmare that is Sunday traffic.
A thunderstorm had hit the desert the night before, but you wouldn't know it from the ST's exterior. One of the great things about the Tangerine Scream Yellow paint on our Focus is how easy it is to keep clean. It's also highly visible on the freeway, so I made sure to set the cruise control and keep my foot off the throttle. The Focus ST is fun to drive quickly, but this definitely isn't the right place.
About an hour outside of Las Vegas and across the California State line, I stopped in Baker. A gyro at the Mad Greek Cafe and a final gas stop prepped me for the three hours ahead.
I stretched my back and actually dreaded getting back in to the ST. Even with a short time in Vegas, I had walked quite a bit and I had done it in the wrong shoes. My back wasn't thanking me and the Recaro seats in the Focus ST were not what I needed for the next 200 miles.
There wasn't much of note along the largely uninhabited desert miles, but I did spot a few nice trailer-queens. First was the Focus ST's great, great grandfather: a Ford Model A.
Next I spotted an AMC AMX, a rare muscle car, even in car-culture-friendly areas like California.
Back home, I parked the Focus ST next to my roommate's first-generation Ford Focus. Our Focus ST is sleeker, more angular and more stylish (as well as significantly faster), but Ford has stuck with much the same formula on the new car: simple, fuel-efficient and relatively good on cargo space.
This was my second road trip in the Focus ST in just three months, and I'm convinced that swapping in the seats from our long-term Subaru BRZ would make this a perfect sub-30K hot hatch. Apart from the seat issue, I can see myself recommending this car to a lot of friends on a budget.
As far as hot hatchbacks are concerned, I consider the 2013 Ford Focus ST to be the best of the bunch. Competitors each have their own claim to fame: the Mazdaspeed 3 for pure performance, the Subaru WRX for all-wheel-drive traction, and the Volkswagen GTI for interior refinement and comfort. But none combine everything as well as the Focus ST in my opinion.
But that's for 2013. What about 2014? Or 2015?
The next couple of years will bring about redesigned competition in this segment. The 2015 GTI will be more powerful and promises sharper handling while still likely holding on to its European flair. A performance diesel, the GTD, should be coming, too.
Subaru hasn't said much about its new WRX, but we expect greater turbocharged power from a 2.0-liter engine and couple-like styling for 2014. Even less is known about a new Mazdaspeed 3. But the redesigned regular model of the Mazda 3 is already a top choice in its class, so things are promising for the MS3.
Meanwhile, there's nothing keeping Ford from upping its game with the ST to stay competitive.
If I were buying a hot hatch today, it'd be the Focus ST. But if my car purchase was six months to a year from now, the picture is much less clear.
Here's one thing I really like about our 2013 Ford Focus ST: I don't see myself coming and going on the road. The past few months, I've only seen one other Focus ST on the road (a blue one).
Meanwhile, the Tesla Model S, an electric car that can be three to four times as expensive as the ST, seems like it's the new Prius of Southern California. You seem them everywhere. Even the Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ twins are popping up more.
I'm sure over time I'll start seeing more Focus STs, just like the Mazdaspeed 3 that's been around since 2007. But even then, it's going to be rare. Like the MS3, the manual-only transmission will always limit the car's appeal. I know if I owned an ST, I'd appreciate having something that you just don't see very often.
I'd like to claim that I've spent plenty of time behind the wheel of our 2013 Ford Focus ST attending track days and autocrosses and zipping along scenic back-country roads. That would be nice, wouldn't it? But the reality is that the majority of time I've just been using our ST for unexciting things like commuting, errands and taking my family on weekend road trips.
But I do think this lends strong support to the idea that the ST is a car you can drive every day and still have fun doing it.
I really do love our long-term Scion FR-S and Subaru BR-Z, but there's no way I could utilize them the way I have with our ST. They really are just too impractical in comparison.
Yet there are still little moments with the ST that justify it compared to just a regular Focus. It's the way I can easily sweep by dawdling cars on the freeway, or quickly snap through turns, even if they are just city streets near my house. It's also the way the car looks, with its more aggressive styling, big wheels and tires, and big brakes.
The Focus ST is pretty cool.
One of the first times I drove our long-term 2013 Ford Focus ST was back in January. It was early in the morning, and the outside temps were fairly cold, maybe mid/high 30s Fahrenheit. At the time, I wasn't really thinking how the car's Goodyear Eagle F1 summer tires lose a lot of their grip in such conditions. (Something that I've since discovered is actually mentioned in the owner's manual.) I was just driving around a city street corner at a modest speed when I was quite surprised to find the Focus ST back end coming around until the stability control kicked in a moment later.
What the heck? Oversteer in a front-wheel-drive car? Yep.
It doesn't come up often in our Focus ST coverage, but there are little details here and there about the car's handling balance. In our track test, driver Josh Jacquot noted that in the skid pad it "readily rotates off throttle, which allows complete freedom of line adjustment here." On the slalom: "Eagerness to rotate on the skid pad hurts this car in the slalom. Still, its manners are superb if you're willing to drive it hard."
Then there's this text from Kurt Niebuhr's autocrossing time with the Focus ST:
"The ST is a little complex. It' essentially a front-wheel-drive muscle car, so the power must be used judiciously or you'll just spin the tires, which just overheats them. The trick differential is also a little bit of an unknown to me. It works well enough, it's just not as predictable as a mechanical unit.
"And then there's the rear end. The car pivots very, very well. It's not often you drive a front-wheel-drive car capable of being set up for the exit of the corner before you get to the corner, but the ST lets you do it. The catch, naturally, is it responds quite a bit to very minor changes in throttle at higher speeds...Cool, but tricky."
Basically, if you've driven a lot of front-wheel-drive cars before, like Civics or GTIs, the Focus ST's overall demeanor and handling balance will likely come as a surprise. Well, at least for me it's taken some time to get used to the car. The steering is very quick right off center, but it also makes the car seem twitchy and hard to place right on apexes. Driving enthusiastically mid-corner, I've taken to adding in a bit of extra throttle to balance the chassis more to my liking. Then there is the corner exit, where there's still some torque steer to deal with as the car pulls side-to-side when I nail the gas.
I feel like I have to pay extra attention and really drive our Focus ST if I want to go quickly. It's not a car that you finesse, like the Scion FR-S. You really do have to drive it hard to get the rewards and know how the car works.
It's taken some time for me to appreciate this, but for a hot hatch, it is indeed pretty cool quality.
I think it's somehow appropriate for an otherwise under-the-radar car like the Focus ST to be painted Tangerine Scream. I'd certainly pick it in lieu of yet another black, white or gray car.
Now, yellow is obviously not everyone's cup of Earl Grey, but people do buy them, and there seems to be two general shades of yellow applied to cars. One, like Tangerine Scream, is a darker shade I shall refer to as "Big Bird." The other, seen here on a Porsche 911, is more akin to a lemon meringue pie.
I usually prefer the latter, but if you were to buy a yellow car, would you fancy Big Bird or lemon meringue?
I recently took a quick jaunt up to San Francisco and back in our long-term 2013 Ford Focus ST. Unfortunately this was a fairly quick turnaround trip, making it a freeway blast with no time to explore back roads. Bew.
Up until this point I'd not done such a trip in the yolk-hued hatch. It turns out it's suited just fine for long slogs on the superslab given its agility elsewhere. Sure, the ride's firm, but not choppy, so you don't feel beat up when you clamber out from the depths of the heavily-bolstered driver seat.
And the torque from the turbo engine is more than adequate to dispatch the hordes of left-lane campers that infest Interstate 5. In fact, I'd say that having a surfeit of thrust awaiting underfoot is a must for managing environments like this. Otherwise you spend the trip mired in frustration, a prisoner to the brain-dead left-lane trains.
This is a really solid all-rounder, this Focus ST.
So, this happened (again) in our long-term 2013 Ford Focus ST during my San Francisco road trip. Apologies for the blurry pic.
On the plus side, this full shutdown-and-reboot of Sync occurs far less frequently in the Focus than it did in our long-term Explorer .
But it's still annoying.
My 710-mile road trip to San Francisco and back to L.A. in our long-term 2013 Ford Focus ST was accomplished at, erm, a brisk pace.
Because of this, plus frequent excursions of the right pedal to manage this route's characteristic obnoxious traffic pattern, it completed the trek with an overall 25.1 mpg result.
This is a smidge below its combined EPA rating of 26 mpg (and far from its 32 mpg highway score), but to be honest I expected this trip to return even worse fuel economy than it did. You gotta pay to play.
During the month of August, we put 1,030 miles on our long-term 2013 Ford Focus ST in limited driving. Honestly, I can't explain why we didn't drive this car more. Every time I get into our Focus ST, I'm astonished by how good it is. Quick steering, a comfy ride, a real manual gearbox and Recaro seats all under one roof? Sign me up.
We averaged 24.2 mpg over those 1,000 miles, and that's a point higher than our lifetime average of 23.2 mpg. It's also quite a bit short of the Focus ST's 26 mpg EPA combined rating.
If you're keeping score at home, you'll recall that our long-term 2010 Volkswagen GTI averaged 24.7 during its 24,000 miles in our fleet, while our 2010 Mazdaspeed 3 averaged 22.1 mpg. Those totals are commensurate with driving pleasure, I'd say. The Mazda made more power and torque than the others and was, for me, the most fun on a back road. Still, the Focus is a close second in the fun-to-drive department and arguably a better pick overall, what with those Recaros (which I really like) and its turbocharged 2.0-liter engine's more usable power band (the MS3's turbo 2.3-liter has peaks and valleys).
If you obsess about cruising range, though, the Ford is perhaps not the one you want. It only has a 12.1-gallon gas tank compared to 14.5 gallons in the GTI and 15.9 in the Mazdaspeed 3. The upshot is that we've recorded very few 300-mile tanks in the Focus ST. Our longest tank so far spanned 339.3 miles, while our longest tank in August was just 296.5 miles.
Worst Fill MPG: 13.3
Best Fill MPG: 30.2
Average Lifetime MPG: 23.2
EPA MPG Rating (City/Highway Combined): 26 Combined (23 City / 32 Highway)
Best Range: 339.3 miles
Current Odometer: 18,257 miles
Recently, my husband and I uninstalled a perfectly good toilet from one of the bathrooms in our new old house. As this perfectly good toilet was destined for another tour of duty, we decided to deliver it to the new owner using the long-term 2013 Ford Focus ST.
Let it be known that I'd shopvac'd the toilet and wiped it down before we loaded it into the Focus ST. Fitting it into the hatch was really no big deal at all. If we'd taken the extra step of separating the tank from the bowl, we wouldn't even have had to fold the rear seats.
This was yet another reminder that four-door hatchbacks are incredibly practical, though the Focus would be more useful if you got a flat cargo floor when you folded the rear seats. As it is, the folded seats are situated on a higher plane than the main cargo floor.
During my recent toilet hauling trip in our long-term 2013 Ford Focus ST, I had to remove the cargo cover from the hatch area.
During reinstallation of the cover, I noticed that the cover's attachment points are especially well designed.
I don't know how much you remember of about our long-term 2010 Volkswagen GTI, but in the VW, there were little pegs mounted on the hatch itself and the strings on the cargo cover hung on those strings. During our year with the car, we found this design less than desirable, as one of the pegs broke off and necessitated a parts order at our local dealership.
In the Ford Focus ST, said pegs are attached directly to the cargo cover's strings. Then, you just slide them into a recessed slot on either side of the hatch. As in the GTI, it's a simple design, but it provides better day-to-day protection for the plastic bits, so they should last quite a bit longer.
Because we're not suckers, when we ordered our 2013 Ford Focus ST, we checked the box for the $2,505 Group 201A option pack and got our car equipped with slick Recaro seats. They're grippy, supportive enough for even extremely vigorous driving and Mark Takahashi doesn't fit in them. Win-win-win.
Unfortunately, they have a fatal flaw that makes me hate them.
The first shot you see here is the seatback adjuster in its normal state. As is, it's not very usable. It's an awkward shape at an awkward angle in a tight car and the seatback doesn't have enough spring-power.
The second shot you see is how the seatback adjuster looks when you're driving it. Yep, the seatbelt goes directly over the control lever.
Now, this might not be a primary complaint for a lot of people, but I adjust my seatback at least once an hour, sometimes more. I'm fidgety. I'm okay with it. It's a minor complaint, really, but it's something that would bug me every single day of ownership.
On the drivability front, our 2013 Ford Focus ST has a problem.
On its own, the clutch is fine. Good even. It's got enough travel not to be jumpy and it's got some resistance without being terribly heavy. It is, however, slightly heavy and instantly effective. The clutch isn't the problem.
The throttle isn't specifically the problem either. It's light, progressive and predictable. Fine.
The problem is that these pedals belong to the same car.
One of the things that separate good cars from great cars is a sense of balance and cohesion and, as equipped, the Focus lacks that. The multi-weighted pedals mean that when your left foot is trying to be delicate and hyper-precise, your right foot is kicking at the gas like you're trying to squish a scary bug. It's a recipe for stalling the first couple of times and for being kind of annoying for the rest of life.
Thankfully, this can be fixed with something as simple as a Sport button. A sport button would serve to, without affecting the car's EPA rating, let Ford adjust the throttle to be responsive and immediate, just like the clutch is. Long time readers will remember we had similar feelings about our (awesome) BMW M3 Sedan. In normal mode, the clutch/gas relationship was a recipe for annoyment, hit the M button and all was very, very right. Sure, they're different cars at different price ranges, but a solution is a solution and this one seems very doable.
Some months ago I picked on our long-term 2013 Ford Focus ST for its lack of cargo space. At the time I was surprised, and a bit disappointed, that I had to fold down the hot hatch's rear seat to fit my daughter's rather small 16-inch BMX bike. Today, my tune is a different one. I'm here to praise the cargo hauling capacity of this little hatchback.
This time, knowing I had a couple of longer items to transport, I searched out the keys to the Focus. And as I had hoped, the front grille and bumper from my 1969 Chevy Camaro project car fit perfectly in the little Ford after I dropped its rear seat. A Holley carburetor, too.
As our long-term test of this turbocharged Focus is nearing its end, my affection for it, sans it odd color, continues to grow. Cool little car.
Looking over the fuel log, it was interesting to see that most tanks used by our 2014 Ford Focus ST delivered well below the combined EPA rating of 26 mpg. After driving the ST, it's clear why. It's just so much fun to drive. To merely go from point A to point B seems like a waste of a good ride. It's impossible not to engage with this car.
We drove our Focus 2,034 miles in September and, while the average for the month was 21.1 mpg, there was some good fuel economy news. We did have one tank where we got 33 mpg. But that hardly moved the needle on our lifetime average of 23.3 mpg.
This photo of my dog Mya in the back of our 2013 Ford Focus ST during a road trip was one of the rare times she looked relaxed. And it probably was just because I was sitting in the back with her. But on the long drive up to San Francisco, a trip where she's usually passed out from boredom, she was awake in the Ford.
No, sir, Mya didn't appreciate the loud engine of the Focus or its sportiness. And the fact that there aren't any air vents in the backseat made her extra pant-y and prone to overheating. But we tried to help by pointing all vents on the dash toward her.
For storage, there is a pocket behind the front seat for flat dog paraphernalia like a collapsible dog bowl, and the door had a little cubby to store her collars. And we can't forget that slot by the door for holding the doggy water bottle.
The backseat is covered in a combination of cloth and leather so at least SOME of it is easy to clean off in the case of dog hair.
Not the most comfortable car for a dog but it'll suffice if it's all you have. At least the backseat is equipped with seatbelt fasteners that protrude from the cushion for quick and easy buckling of the harnessed hound.
The odo has clocked 20,000 miles in our 2013 Ford Focus ST but it still seems like it's just getting broken in.
This pocket rocket has been remarkably maintenance-free with long intervals between oil changes. But being so much fun to drive has its downside. Back in January we opted to get new tires following a lot of enthusiastic driving at an autocross event.
The ST has been a popular member of our fleet. We're still below the one-year mark and we had no trouble passing our mileage goal.
Shortly after we bought our long-term 2013 Ford Focus ST, I came to the conclusion that it was probably the car I would buy if I didn't do what I do. It would officially be replacing the Volkswagen GTI as the car I'd spend my hard-earned hypothetical dollars on.
One year later, though, I've reverted to my previous choice.
Now, I wouldn't say that I would've regretted my decision had I actually purchased a Focus ST a year ago. It's still a great car that presents a good balance between sport and practicality. However, there are things about it I've experienced since then that have put me back again in Camp GTI.
Chiefly, I think that despite its balanced nature, the Focus ST nevertheless skews a little too far into the frenetic side of the hot hatch equation to be my ideal daily driver. The power is a tad over the top leading to torque steer, the steering is a tad too sharp when cruising along on the highway and those Recaro seats I love so much for driving are just too confining when I've been a passenger. The manual transmission also isn't as pleasant to use as the GTI's.
Note I'm using words like "tad" a lot. I'm not looking for a Cadillac Fleetwood here (that would be Magrath, literally) but turning the sport dial to the left a tad (there it is again) would be more my cup of Orange Pekoe. And indeed, the car that would do that is the Volkswagen GTI. Sure, I couldn't get fun colors like Tangerine Scream or Performance Blue, but the seats are plaid and for a lad with Scottish grandmothers, that counts for a lot.
Our long-term 2013 Ford Focus ST has an oil life monitoring system. It prompted the service light to come on at about 10,000 miles after our last oil change.
I took a quick look at the owner's manual to see what the recommendations were for 20,000 miles. It called for an oil change, tire rotation, air and cabin filter change and the usual host of inspections.
I requested exactly that from our local Ford dealership's service department. A few hours later, I received a call that the car was done.
Days out of service: Zero
Total Cost: $161.61
Our year with the long-term 2013 Ford Focus ST has come to an end, which means it was time to sell it and move on. I took it to CarMax to test the price waters. Before you hit the jump, take a guess as to how much we were offered. For reference, we paid $29,065 when we bought the car last year. Edmunds trade-in TMV is $19,972.
CarMax offered us $19,000. That's nearly a ten grand drop from our purchase price. The Focus's 35-percent depreciation really stings, given that our fleet average is about 22 percent. Turns out the CarMax offer was in the ballpark.
Some of you might be wondering why we didn't put it up for sale on AutoTrader. I scoped out the other cars for sale and quickly realized that our Focus would be facing some stiff competition if we were to offer it on the private-party market. Only 14 miles away was a nearly identical Focus ST with 17,000 fewer miles and an asking price of $22,900. And if our hypothetical Focus ST buyer was willing to drive about 250 miles out of the city, there was another Tangerine Scream Focus with only 349 miles on the odometer. It had an asking price of $24,999.
There was no way I was going to beat CarMax's $19,000 offer with that kind of competition. Sometimes the time and effort of selling a car yourself isn't worth it. The following day, I brought the car back to CarMax and accepted the offer.
And so the Focus ST leaves the fleet. I wasn't a fan of the color, but I loved the way the car drove. And judging by the miles we put on it, many other editors agreed.
Final Odometer: 20,780
Our long-term 2013 Ford Focus ST is now gone, but just before it left I managed to squeak in a dyno test at MD Automotive's Dynojet chassis dyno.
You can see the results and read the details here. The surprising bit was how inconsistent and increasingly knock-prone it was on the dyno. This characteristic was in stark contrast to the uncannily robust Fiesta ST that I dyno'd immediately prior. If I had to guess (and I do) I would say that the two cars' powertrains were integrated and calibrated by completely different groups.
Wrap-Up
What We Got
The 2013 Ford Focus ST offered just one powertrain configuration. All STs had the same turbocharged, direct-injected 2.0-liter engine rated to deliver 252 horsepower and 270 pound-feet of torque. All that power was routed through a standard six-speed manual gearbox and an electronic limited-slip differential.
We added a handful of interior options to the standard cruise control, tilt-and-telescopic steering wheel and Sync voice-control system. Equipment Group 201A ($2,505) included Recaro seats, dual-zone climate control, an upgraded 10-speaker Sony audio system and MyFord Touch. The moonroof ($895), navigation system ($795) and Tangerine Scream paint job ($495) increased the price a bit more. We paid a total of $29,065 for the Focus in October of 2012.
Our Impressions
"I'm a rear-wheel-drive guy, so it takes a damned good front-wheel-drive car to win me over. I have a short list of FWD cars I truly enjoy: Integra Type R, Mazdaspeed 3. Not many others leap to mind. Our Focus ST is now securely on that list. It's refined, turns in like a shark, sounds great and is way punchier than I expected. It's rewarding to drive without being over the top in any way. Much as I enjoy the Speed3, it doesn't have this car's cohesiveness. And unlike the GTI (the car that inevitably ends up being compared to the Focus), you can turn the ST's stability control off…. The Focus ST is real, it's good, and you owe it to yourself to drive one." — Jason Kavanagh
"I like [our Focus ST] a bunch, even as a commuter car…. These seats are supremely comfortable. They remind me of seats in just about any Porsche 911 for their ability to support my whole frame without any hot spots. I'm rarely squirming to find a comfy position…. The clutch feel and action are outstanding, even in stop-and-go traffic. There's just enough feel to know where the engagement point is and plenty of torque from the engine if you still manage to get it wrong. There's so much torque, in fact, that as long as the car is rolling, it'll happily pull its way along in 2nd gear…. The same can be said of both the brake and throttle pedals: sufficient feel, intuitive action and predictable response. It is remarkable how often and how wrong many manufacturers get these simple things." — Chris Walton
"I realized I was looking at this car as though it was nothing more than a really nice Focus with a little more power. It's just that easy to live with every day…but it's more than a commuter car…. On these roads the ST's willingness to change attitude in the middle of a corner, or wherever, combined with its big, useful wad of midrange torque makes it absolutely addictive. I like the steering, too. Another thing I noticed is that as deftly as the Focus tucks into turns, its suspension calibration feels softer and less aggressive than the setup on our old 2010 Mazdaspeed 3. Yet on these public roads, with traffic, I'm guessing I was keeping the same pace. Plus, the Ford has a better ride quality on pretty much any type of pavement." — Erin Riches
"Given the excellent handling capabilities of the Focus ST, you might assume that there's a tradeoff in terms of ride quality. Well, compared to a regular Focus, I suppose there is. But given how well the ST goes around corners, I'm pretty impressed by the way it takes on bumps and rough pavement. There's a nice compliance in the suspension that complements the all-around usability of this car. It's rarely stiff or jarring. In terms of ride quality, ST is a performance car that I wouldn't have any problems using for daily urban commuting or long-distance freeway trips." — Brent Romans
"We interrupt our gushing over Ford's hot hatch to mention that the Focus, ST or otherwise, lacks storage space. The armrest bin can fit your iWhatever plus maybe some sunglasses and that's it. The little bin west of the shifter is essentially useless. The door bins aren't especially large and the cupholders are only sufficient. The glovebox is on the large side but no glovebox can only be so helpful, considering its location relative to the driver…. It's certainly not a deal breaker, but I did find myself running out of places to store the relatively few things I keep in the car." — James Riswick
"Last week, I wrote a post about our 2013 Dodge Dart's trunk lid. Basically said how easy it was to lift the hatch after popping the trunk open with the remote button. This weekend I found our Focus ST to be the complete opposite…after pressing the remote button… it's barely wide enough to slide your fingernail into the gap, let alone an entire hand. Plus, a full hatch door with a spoiler makes it inherently much heavier to lift." — Kelly Hellwig
"In terms of space, the Focus worked out all right. I had a fair amount of stuff to carry, so I ended up taking out the cargo cover ahead of time so that I could load up as much as possible. I really dislike stacking gear high as it blocks the view out the rear and is somewhat of a safety issue, but sometimes that's just the way it goes. Plus, with the seats up, Ford lists a luggage capacity of 23.8 cubic feet, which is more than you'll get from the trunk of a typical small sedan. Certainly there are better vehicle choices for a family road trip. But if a Focus ST is your only car, I think it will fill the role nicely." — Brent Romans
"Not easy to launch, but not as hard as some FWD cars. Doesn't want to bog or coil like Mazdaspeed 3, but also doesn't leave as hard. It needs about 3,500 rpm and quick clutch engagement for best launch. Wheels spin partway through 1st and then hook. When executed properly, the shift to 2nd doesn't bog. Shifter is vague for this kind of use. Probably fine during daily driving (or even road course use), but not direct enough for drag-style shifting." — Josh Jacquot
"Readily rotates off throttle, which allows complete freedom of line adjustment here. This car would be brilliant on a road course. Communicative and lively. Fun. Stability-off yields best numbers here. Eagerness to rotate on the skid pad hurts this car in the slalom. Still, its manners are superb if you're willing to drive it hard. Best time in 'Sport' mode. Tuned to rotate so don't bother turning ESC off. Stability control and suspension engineers tuned this car for drivers who understand." — Josh Jacquot
"Sync happens. So this happened, again, in our long-term Ford Focus ST during my San Francisco road trip…. On the plus side, this full shutdown-and-reboot of Sync occurs far less frequently in the Focus than it did in our long-term Explorer. But it's still annoying." — Jason Kavanagh
"The Focus ST is the best sport compact sold today. It might not be the most powerful, but its refinement and high-level handling are a potent combination. This is not a beginner's car, but it will reward experienced drivers like few other front drivers. Also, it's a genuine five-door hatch, which gives it real utility." — Editors at Edmunds.com
Maintenance & Repairs
Regular Maintenance:
The Focus ST requested routine service at 5-, 10- and 20,000 miles. Each interval was comprised of oil and filter changes, tire rotations and in the case of the 20K visit, we also asked to have the cabin air filter replaced. All told, we spent about $250 in maintenance.
Service Campaigns:
No recalls or technical service bulletins were issued during our test.
Fuel Economy and Resale Value
Observed Fuel Economy:
The EPA prepared us for fuel economy along the lines of 26 mpg combined and 23 city/32 highway. We averaged 23 mpg, with our best single tank at 30 mpg. One primarily-highway road trip stretched 339 miles between fill-ups.
Resale and Depreciation:
We drove our Focus ST 20,780 miles. According to Edmunds TMV Calculator, the private party value was $20,172. This was a far cry from the $29,065 we paid a year earlier. Local used-Focus competition led us to Carmax, which offered us a fair $19,000. We accepted. This equated to disappointing 35-percent depreciation.
Summing Up
Pros: One of the sharpest handling front-wheel-drive cars on the road today, performance-oriented suspension still comfortable enough for daily driver duty, very supportive seats, hatchback utility, ample torque makes it easy to drive in any situation.
Cons: Limited interior cargo space, did not deliver EPA mileage estimates, high level of depreciation after one year, Sync system still required occasional reboots.
Bottom Line: The 2013 Ford Focus ST is one of the best front-wheel-drive performance cars you can buy. If you can live with the lack of storage space and thirsty engine, it will reward you with performance that few hatchbacks can touch.
| Total Body Repair Costs: | None |
| Total Routine Maintenance Costs: | $247.39 (over 12 months) |
| Additional Maintenance Costs: | None |
| Warranty Repairs: | None |
| Non-Warranty Repairs: | None |
| Scheduled Dealer Visits: | 3 |
| Unscheduled Dealer Visits: | None |
| Days Out of Service: | None |
| Breakdowns Stranding Driver: | None |
| Best Fuel Economy: | 30.2 mpg |
| Worst Fuel Economy: | 13.3 mpg |
| Average Fuel Economy: | 23.3 mpg |
| True Market Value at service end: | $20,172 (private party sale) |
| What It Sold for: | $19,000 |
| Depreciation: | $10,065 (or 35% of paid price or original MSRP) |
| Final Odometer Reading: | 20,780 miles |
Edmunds purchased this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.