2008 Ford Focus: What's It Like to Live With?
Read the latest updates in our long-term road test of the 2008 Ford Focus as our editors live with this car for a year.
What do you want to know about?
- Introduction
- Junk in the Trunk
- Getting Sync-ed Up
- Meet Our MPGs
- New Versus Old
- Interior Missteps
- Long Distance Drive
- Down With Quarter Panel Vents
- Where'd You Go?
- How Low Can You Go?
- Joan Rivers and a Sable Wagon
- Leaning on the Door
- On the Freeway
- A Sight for Sore Eyes
- Back from Smacking Down
- Pull my Handle
- Handle Problem Fixed!
- Focus on the Little Things
- Aye, There's the Rub
- Let The Light Shine In
- Keyless Remote Confirmation
- Compact Blues
- Fuel Economy Update
- Gas Pedal Gauge
- I Want the ZX3 Back
- Is It Really That Bad?
- Her Hearing Not So Good
- Sync Doesn't Know Its '80s Rock
- Recommended?
- The Obligatory iPod Gripe Post
- Right Is Left
- Lady's Too Loud
- Oops...It Did It Again
- Not Getting a Charge From It
- On Steering
- Try Harder
- Rock All Night Long
- The Long-Awaited Sync Video
- Trunk Open?
- Fuel Economy Update
- Vibe Up, Focus Down
- It's Fine, I Guess
- Well, Checking the Oil Is Easy
- How About a Hatchback?
- The Detroit That Might Have Been
- Feeling Blue
- Mystery Vents
- Less is More
- Key Fob Battery Bites the Dust
- Tin Lizzie?
- Fuel Economy Update
- Trunk Has a Big Mouth
- A Little Bit of Jessica...
- Whiner
- Early Maintenance
- Cabin Still Looks Good
- In Sync at the Car Wash
- Killing Time
- Plug-In for Non-Syncable Items
- Drive Me Buggy
- Our Favorite Caption
- You Write the Caption
- Fake Vents are Nothing New
- L
- Bumpers Protect Your Budget
- Drum Brakes. Seriously.
- Welcome to Death Valley
- Aim High
- IIHS Frontal-Offset, Side-Impact Crash Tests
- You Asked For It
- A Lot Going For It
- Let Go of My iPod
- Only I Didn't Say "Fudge"
- Open Thread
- Would I Make Room in My Own Garage?
- 25,000 Miles and Counting
- Turning Radius Feels Big
- 25,000 Mile Service Conclusion
- Can't Take Throttle Response for Granted
- Our Favorite Caption Part Two
- Time for the 25K Service
- You Write the Caption Part Two
- Why I Like Sync
- Range
- How Many Bluetooth Devices Can Sync Store?
- Parting Shots
- Wrap-Up
Introduction
It's no secret that the 2008 Ford Focus seems like it has overstayed its welcome. But when the Focus was introduced, it was big news, winning 1999 European Car of the Year and 2000 North American Car of the Year. It's been a sound, fun-to-drive car that just happened to be small. Edmunds even added a 2000 Ford Focus ZX3 hatchback to our long-term fleet when it was new. So why, eight years later with no significant changes, have we bought another one?
Sync. Yes, Sync. Ford's multimedia melding of hands-free goodies that make the 2008 Focus relevant again to the youth market pushed it headlong into our garage for a 12-month, 20,000-mile long-term test. The latest sales trends indicate a substantial swing toward affordable entry-level cars, and the 2008 Ford Focus SES will give us insight into the consequences of making such a decision.
What We Bought
Gone are the Focus hatchback and the wagon. For 2008 the only available body styles for the Ford Focus are the sedan and coupe. We have enough sedans in our garage already, and the new 2008 styling treatment — especially the character line that begins at the ersatz appliqué vent — looks less forced on the two-door. With this Focus coupe, the target is the youth market, so it was a no-brainer to opt for the cooler-looking, albeit less practical, model and also save 400 bucks in the bargain.
Next up for our consideration was trim package. The base S model comes with steel wheels and wheel covers. No thanks. Moving up to the SE package adds a few nice touches like 15-inch cast-aluminum wheels, power windows, power mirrors and remote door locks. Better, but not by enough.
The SES package held our attention from the first words we read on Ford's Web site: "The Focus for the Driver." Cool. European-inspired suspension, 16-inch alloy rims and a rear spoiler give this car some kind of edginess. Most important, the SES is the only package that has Sync, Ford's newest gizmo, as standard equipment.
The Sync is, after all, the reason we have this car. There are a handful of small two-doors in this price range that stack up well against the aging Focus. But none of them have an audio system that gives you voice-activated control over your MP3 player, or reads text messages back to you. Since the Sync system is a priority for us, we decided to make the stereo a priority as well and upgraded from the standard unit to Ford's $645 Audiophile package. The package adds four coaxial speakers and an 8-inch subwoofer. Sirius Satellite Radio cost us an additional $195.
Once we decided what we wanted, dealer stock proved to be limited. The only Focus to be had with the goodies we wanted also had the expensive ambient interior lighting option — some $295 for color-changing LED lights in the footwells and cupholders. Oh well.
At the price of $385, ABS was well worth the added expense for this Focus, which is only available with front discs and rear drums. We checked off the box for the four-speed automatic transmission, an $815 decision. The five-speed manual would have been more fun, but the automatic is the far more popular choice of real-world Focus buyers.
When we entered the market for this car, the Focus was already available with rebates. Our buyer received $500 customer cash and, armed with the Edmunds True Market Value (TMV®), received another $500 in discounts. The MSRP of our new Focus was $19,030; pre-tax, we paid $17,977.68. Add tax and fees to the equation and we walked away $19,707.13 poorer. There are more rebates available now (if only we'd waited).
Why We Bought It
While we're still kicking and screaming for Ford to bring over the high-strung European Focus ST, the Focus available to us is still essentially the same car that brought raves from consumers and enthusiasts alike. It's been tweaked and redesigned and tweaked some more, but the essentials are still the same. Trouble is, the competition isn't. A lot has changed in the last eight years, and more than a refresh and some tinkering is required.
But the real reason we bought the Focus lies in the middle of the instrument panel. Can Sync's voice-activated convenience transform the audio entertainment experience? Can it make a cheap car seem expensive?
Over the next 12 months the predominant question to be answered is: Is an eight-year-old platform still viable in today's market? Or is it misleading to think of the Focus as a consumer car at all, and instead is the Focus still the driver's car in urban clothing we remember? Stay tuned to our long-term blogs for updates.
Current Odometer: 1,502 miles
Best Fuel Economy: 27.8 mpg
Worst Fuel Economy: 21.4 mpg
Average Fuel Economy (over the life of the vehicle): 24.6 mpg
Edmunds purchased this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.
I recently left our Ford Focus at the airport as I took a quick trip to Chicago. The trunk space was just about right and could have held much more - seems about perfect for a weekend trip for two. Our SES Coupe has the audiophile sound system and that means a subwoofer. As you can see, that eats up a little space...
The box that houses that sub is a little flimsy but it does the job.
Getting Sync-ed Up
When shopping for our 2008 Ford Focus Coupe SES I found a new wrinkle in the buying process.
A big part of the reason we bought the Focus was to test the new Sync system which ties together BlueTooth phone systems with MP3 players using a voice activation system. When I arrived at Santa Monica Ford to pickup the car I met Dean Schneider, the fleet manager. He told me I'd be getting a tour of the sync system from Todd Shak, their product consultant. Dean climbed in the back of the Focus while Shak took the driver's seat.
"Your phone?" Shak said, getting down to business right away. I handed over my Motorola Razor. "I'll get the Bluetooth working for you." When I hesitated he said, "You do have Bluetooth, right?"
I'm in and out of cars that are Bluetooth-enabled but, I'm sorry to admitt, I've never taken the time to learn how to use it.
"You do have Bluetooth?" he asked again, incredulous.
"I- I- I'm not sure," I stammered. His hands flew over the controls alternating between the phone and the car's Sync system. "Yeah, you have Bluetooth," he muttered, working intently.
"Want your phone book downloaded?" he asked, and before I could think it over I saw "Dad" "Home" "Pete" appearing on the headsup display. Finally, Shak relaxed. "Okay," he said. "Here's how it works." He went on to use the voice activation to call himself on his phone. Then he called and answered using voice activation and called himself using the car's Sync system. He even showed how text messages can be received on the heads up display. There are prewritten answers in the system to keep you from "chipmunking" (punching in text messages) while you're driving.
As I got out I shook my head in wonder. "How does he know all this?" I asked Dean as we walked in to sign the contract. "He's twenty three years old," Dean said, as if that answered everything.
Driving the new car home I tested it out. After one failed try my call went through and soon I had a disembodied voice in the car with me. Amazing. I think I'm going to like Syncing while I'm driving.
You've probably seen or heard Ford's "Where MPGs meet MP3s" ad campaign for the Ford Focus. The MP3 part would refer to Ford's new Sync system, and MPG boasts about the Focus' respectable fuel economy.
It's not all hype, either. With an EPA-estimated rating of 24 mpg city and 35 mpg highway, the Ford Focus is one of the most fuel efficient small cars you can buy...
You can see how well it ranks using the federal government's fuel economy website.
With the automatic transmission, the Focus' EPA estimate drops a little to 24/33 mpg, with a combined average of 28 mpg. So far, with 3,000 miles on the odometer, our long-term 2008 Focus SES is a bit behind with a lifetime 25.8 mpg. Our best tank so far was 31 mpg.
There are a few of us here at the office who have been around long enough to remember Edmunds' first long-term Focus, a 2000 ZX3 hatchback. In our September, 2000, update for the car, I was quoted as saying:
"The ZX3 has all the typical versatility of a small hatchback ... you know, haul the groceries, park at the mall to see a movie, stuff like that. But what you don't expect is how Ford has made the car fun to drive. [The] steering is quick and responsive and the suspension does an excellent job of providing a comfortable ride and sticky handling."
Here's the thing about our new 2008 Focus SES coupe: to me, it's less versatile and seemingly less fun to drive.
Ford discontinued the hatchback body style in 2007. And while it's been a long time since I drove an earlier Focus, I distinctly remember our first Focus being more fun to drive than the current car. Another long-time editor agreed with this observation.
Ford says that it revised the suspension tuning for 2008, giving the car softer springs and a bigger front antiroll bar. So it likely rides better and is more stable, but in terms of steering and handling response the new model feels heavier and less eager.
The 2008 Focus is certainly a better car overall, but in regards to handling and driving enjoyment that old orange ZX3 will be more fondly remembered.
Having been driving our 2008 Ford Focus for two weeks now, I've noticed two main interior design missteps that I find annoying on a daily basis. The first is the too-far-forward placement of the door hand grips. They just don't provide much leverage to aid the front passengers in pulling the doors closed, and there are no secondary grips in the armrest. As such, our coupe's doors feel heavier than need be, like they came off a Ford Torino or something.
The other annoyance is the design of the gauges... Need an example of form over function? Here ya go. Someone at Ford thought these would look cool. And in the picture I took, they look to be OK. But on the road they're just imprecise to read because of the big speedo increments and the odd choice to have the number font wrap around in a circle instead of staying level.
Out of curiosity and maybe a bit of masochism, I stuffed my wife and 8-month-old daughter into the Ford Focus coupe this weekend for a 600-mile roundtrip drive to visit the in-laws. It was a good opportunity to put some highway miles on the car and test out Sync.
In almost every aspect, the Focus was wholly adequate for the long-distance drive. The trunk held most of our stuff. I put our rear-facing child seat behind the driver seat and didn't need to make radical changes in driver positioning. For me, front seat comfort was average, and there was decent storage space for cell phone/MP3 player detritus.
We hooked up my iPod to the Ford Sync MP3/cellphone system for the first time; it's a very cool feature and better than most other factory iPod adapters, though its errors in voice recognition went from amusing to mild annoyance the more we used it. For more detail on Sync, I will defer to staffer Mike, who's rumored to have a detailed post about Sync waiting in the wings.
There were minor disappointments. The car lacks a telescoping steering wheel (the original Focus had one) so I wasn't able to get an ideal driving position. When tending the little one in back, my wife complained about the lack or rear head restraints. The car can be noisy at times in regards to wind and road noise, and the four-speed automatic transmission is a bit of a throwback in today's economy-car world of five-speeds and CVTs.
Still, the Focus was an OK companion, and I'd pick it again over some other small cars we have or have had in the fleet (the Compass and Versa come to mind). OK, so maybe that's not the greatest compliment. But it got decent economy — about 31 mpg for the trip — and its Sync system is a pretty desirable feature to have in a small car.
And now, the award for the most overused styling detail of 2008 goes to — the chrome quarter panel vent. Yes, from the $80,000 Jaguar XJ all the way down to our $18,000 Ford Focus, no new car is complete without a glimmering chunk of chrome pop riveted to its flanks. Our Focus cheapens the idea even further by not even bothering to have an actual vent. Instead, there's merely a piece of not-very-convincing black plastic...
C'mon people, punch a hole already, we don't care if it actually goes anywhere.
Sometimes we get so many cars in our editorial test fleet that we run out of places to park them in our reserved section of the garage (not pictured above). And it's times like that when it's great to have a car that flashes its lights and/or beeps when you press the unlock button on the key fob because you never know where the previous driver of the car parked it.
However, last night when I went down searching for our 2008 Ford Focus it wasn't located in our usual spots so I pressed the unlock button on the key fob as I usually do. Um, no response...
I pointed it east, west, north, south and still no response. I started to wonder if the previous driver had ended up parking it on a different level or a different section altogether. Then I tried pressing the lock button and sure enough I spotted some lights flashing a little ways down.
When I got closer to the car and pressed the unlock button again just out of curiousity, I saw that it actually just turned on the dome light inside the car which isn't especially bright. There's no way I could have seen that from where I was originally standing.
A few weeks ago when I was looking for our Tundra in the garage, its high-pitched "beep, beep" led me to it parked around the corner and out of sight from the original parking spots. See? THAT was handy.
I'm sure owners of the Focus would just adapt accordingly (read: press the lock button instead of unlock to locate their car) but I just wondered why the signals were set up like that.
It bothers me that there are no numbered gears on Ford's shifters. What ever happened to selecting a specific gear for climbing a hill or for engine braking? Call me old fashioned, but I Iiked it when I had options other than "Low." I guess the days of choosing your gear in a Ford went the way of the throttle cable. It's too bad, cause I liked those too...
Shorty after our long-term Ford Focus arrived a few months ago, Magrath and I had the following conversation regarding the Focus keys sitting on my desk (pictured).
Magrath: "Hey, have you seen the keys to the Focus?"
Me: "Yeah, they're right here."
Magrath: "Oh god. I was hoping those were to your Mom's '86 Sable wagon."
Do they open the doors? Yes, and I suppose that's all they need to do...
But this antiquated key and fob are indicative of an entire car created by the Joan Rivers school of automotive design. Unfortunately, a major facelift and some plastic chrome botox can't mask an aging car that screams in a raspy engine note: "I cut corners!"
I'd be the first to admit that we automotive journalists are a persnickety bunch. We wail and fuss and moan about the slightest of missteps when it comes to automotive design and performance, because, well, that's our job. The truth of it is, a large percentage of these missteps are anthills, not mountains, likely to escape the attention of all but the most discerning and demanding buyers.
However, the Ford Focus bears a design misstep that I'm fairly certain would be noticed by pretty much everyone: It lacks a useful interior door handle...
The one handle that exists is too awkwardly placed to serve any real purpose, and there's no secondary handle to grab on to when opening and closing the door. Brent pointed this out in an earlier blog post, but I'm so bemused by this oversight that I felt the need to call it out again. It's not the end of the world, of course. This weekend, I got used to sort of using my shoulder to nudge the door open, in lieu of grabbing a handle. But it's still an oddly glaring oversight in an otherwise quite satisfactory little coupe.
In some ways, car-journalist world is like a funhouse-mirror version of the real world where aspects are exaggerated and what's opposite is true. In the real world, I'd gulp and squirm at the thought of putting too many miles on my daily driver. However, in car-journalist world, putting some miles on a test car leaves me with sense of real accomplishment, like a newly potty-trained toddler surveying his first porcelain-bound number two.
I had to make a couple of treks to a distant land called Orange County this weekend, and in the process, put about 200 miles on the 2008 Ford Focus...
It goes without saying that with just 140 horsepower and 136 pound-feet of torque, the Focus sometimes feels a bit out of breath in high-speed passing situations on the freeway. Still, in other ways, it was a pleasant enough companion. If I'd actually plunked down money to buy the car, I'd pat myself on the back for having selected a ride that offers a great sound system and decent driving dynamics for not a lot of coin.
I got the keys to our 2008 Ford Focus SES on Thursday evening and immediately zeroed out the fuel economy meter. By Monday morning I had driven about 100 miles, about 60 percent of which was on the highway. As you can see Ford lived up to its 30+ mpg promise.
True, there are a lot of things the Focus doesn't have...
And as this blog has pointed out over the past months there is a certain cheese factor to the styling. But it is capable of good gas mileage and the higher fuel prices go the more valuable that is. Funny how this car even looks better when you know it's saving you dough.
The Focus will soon be part of a fuel economy cage match we're calling the "Gas Sipper Smackdown." It will compete against the Toyota Prius, 2005 VW Jetta TDI and the smart fortwo. Which car can get to Vegas and back on the least amount of fuel? Stay tuned for in-your-face coverage of this important automotive event.
Back from Smacking Down
The Focus is back and all spick and span from our two-day fuel-sipper smackdown to, from and around Las Vegas. I logged about 200 miles in the Focus, including about 130 miles of aimless wondering around the greater Las Vegas area for city mileage testing. After covering that distance, I have mitigated my stance that the Focus is an unmitigated crap can. It's still a class bottom dweller to be sure and a complete half-cocked effort on Ford's part, but there are bits and pieces that work well enough.
Although old, the Focus platform is still perfectly capable. The engine isn't particularly powerful, but in our mundane driving, it was certainly sufficient and as our testing showed, very fuel efficient. The seats are pretty comfy and offer decent space for a small car, however, its lack of a telescoping steering column is inexcusable. True, many small cars don't offer this feature, but the Focus used to have one. That's not design retardation (as much of the car exhibits), it's design regression.
Oppositely, the center stack is very well designed and a step forward. I love how the climate and audio controls are well separated, logically placed and clearly marked. The cool blue lighting is nice, too. I'm also a big fan of the direct tuning stereo function. Sync certainly has its flaws, but it works well — especially when you consider that it's the first version of a new technology.
After so many miles, the Focus is still a disappointing car — even when I block from my mind the European Focus II. Ford could have done better.
Stay tuned for more coverage of our "Fuel-Sipper Smackdown" featuring our Focus, our Jetta TDI, a Smart ForTwo and a Toyota Prius.
Pull my Handle
We've blogged before about the poorly placed door pulls on our Focus Coupe. They are located too far forward and subsequently don't provide enough leverage to easily close the door. This is not only a problem for weak-armed folks, but for the handle itself, as the passenger side one now comes out every time you try to pull the door closed. As the below video shows, it doesn't take a lot of force to do it.
This is simply a design flaw and a curious one given the previous Focus' handles were placed at least six inches aft of their present location. We'll try to get the handle fixed at our next appointment, but there's no getting around the faulty positioning. I'm curious to know if other Focus buyers (sedan and especially coupe) have had their handles pop out. In the mean time, I'll just keep closing the driver side using the plastic trim piece lip at the base of the window.
Handle Problem Fixed!
We're an enterprising sort around here. With the Focus' faulty door handle placement, we thought it wouldn't be too hard to correct this problem without the need for millions of dollars worth of R&D. So DiPietro and myself took a trip out to J.W. Higgins Auto Yard in Crenshaw to search for our solution...
Within minutes, we spotted a '71 Cadillac Eldorado with a suprisingly well-preserved red leather interior. With little effort, we crowbarred off the chrome and wood applique that held what we were looking for. Ten minutes and a whole heap of industrial glue later, voila. We'll see if our door handle design lasts longer than Ford's.
If you focus on the Big Things when evaluating our long-term 2008 Ford Focus you get all caught up in the whole ancient chassis thing. But if you focus on the little things it doesn't get much better. For instance, immediately after getting behind the wheel several weeks ago I confirmed that the "new" Focus doesn't have a telescoping steering wheel. This is doubly disappointing because it used to have a telescoping wheel, so while the Focus' chassis dates from the Clinton Administration, this "little thing" has gotten worse.
Add to this "little things" list the seat design, which I just noticed yesterday. If you want to use the rear seat in our coupe you, obviously, have to move the front seat forward. But if you flip the front passenger seatback forward, slide the entire seat forward, and then try to put it back in place it stops at the forward-most position in the seat's travel. If you've driven a VW Golf or Beetle from the last decade you know that the front seats will reset to their original location after moving them all-the-way forward for rear-seat entry. The Focus doesn't do this.
As for the driver's seat, I could get it to move at all with the side levers. Maybe I was doing something wrong, but most levers are pretty simple — you pull them and they do something.
Maybe I should go back to focusing on the big things...
Aye, There's the Rub
It's almost getting too easy to pick on our 2008 Ford Focus, what with that passenger side door handle falling off, the way the headlights (and horn) don't activate when you hit "unlock" on the keyfob, and such. (Though it's possible that the Focus can be reprogrammed for the lights to flash when you press "unlock," how many people will take the trouble to figure that out?) I'd like to add one more gripe, but, to be fair, counter that with a compliment or two.
First, the gripe: I hate the way the coupe's shoulder belt anchor is positioned. Granted, this is a coupe, so I guess it's not that unusual to have to reach all the way behind you to the b-pillar to grab the belt...
But then the anchor doesn't adjust up or down either, and the result is that the belt rubs my neck, and not in a good way. Perhaps this situation could be ameliorated by moving the seat, but only if the steering telescoped, which, of course, it doesn't . Both the wheel and the belt anchor are big issues for shorter drivers. So bottom line is. I'm not comfortable in the driver's seat — and I'm 5'6".
On the plus side, I really like the way the cup holders illuminate with the cool blue lighting. It makes it easier to see what's in there at night, when you're fumbling around for your keys, your cell phone, whatever. I'm always throwing stuff in the cupholders or console, and it's handy to have a little light.
Then there is the more important issue of fuel economy. I can't yet release the numbers from our "Gas-Sipper Smackdown," which publishes next week, but suffice it to say that the Focus is worth a look just for that reason.
Is the trade-off worth it? I'm looking forward to the debate.
I drove the I-5 this past weekend. If you haven't been on it at night, it's like any other long interstate in the middle of nowhere. Basically if you closed your eyes for a couple of hours you'd see more than I did during my drive through the Central Valley.
My girlfriend was asleep in the passenger seat so the music was turned off, it was near midnight with another couple hundred miles to go and I was bored out of my mind...
Thankfully the Focus had something for me to keep some brain function going, a selectable color light array. About every ten minutes I pushed the button to get another color. Dumb? Yes. Pretty? Yes. I had nothing better to do other than arrive safely at my relatives house.
Yeah the colored lights are cheap thrills. But even the little stuff can make an otherwise boring drive fun.
I'm one of those people who checks the alarm clock setting three times before I'm satisfied that yes, indeed, the alarm is all set to wake me at the chosen hour. When I lock or unlock a car's doors, it's the same deal, I like some sort of confirmation, either visual (flash the lights say once to confirm it's locked and twice to show it's unlocked) or audible (brief horn chirp, not a loud honk). Or even both.
When you thumb the lock button on the Focus' key fob, it let's you know by flashing the lights once. And if you have OCD and hit it a second time within 3 seconds, it will also give you a brief horn beep (too loud, however, I'd rather a chirp like some other cars). Ok, so that works. But when you hit the unlock button, there's no double flashing of lights, so as you walk to the car you hit the button again to discover that yes, the doors had unlocked and if it were nighttime, you would've noticed that it also turned on the interior lights.
In dire need of a more noticeable daytime confirmation that the doors unlock when you hit the button, I pulled out the manual, only to discover that the circa 1988-style remote keyless system doesn't allow you confirmation options. All kidding aside, it's not a big deal, and again, if it's dark enough outside you'll see the the interior light come on when you hit the unlock button. Should you want to get a light flash and horn beep to locate the car in a crowded garage, just hit the lock button twice within 3 seconds.
I'm not sure why, but whenever I mention the Ford Focus, most people wrinkle their noses and make "eeeww" noises. Why is this? If they'd only drive it, they'd find it to be a well-balanced car that steers and handles much better than a lot of the compact competition. It's a kinder, gentler tune of a Mazda3-ish chassis that some find too performance-oriented. Sure beats the heck out of the Corolla's road manners. And our 2008 Ford Focus SES has a PZEV engine that is green and clean and gets high 30's mpg on the highway — only an MPG or two behind a Corolla or Civic.
OK, I'm pretty sure why: it has to be the styling, inside and out. The original one looked a bit spacy (but tolerable as a 3-door hatchback), but the assymetric interior was a horrid festival of plastic. Outside, this new US-spec coupe is a step backwards, or at least sideways; it looks like a old Daewoo, or something. Meanwhile the interior, while a lot easier to look at than before, still seems dated and made of low-rent materials.
Why didn't we get the cool European Ford Focus they sold a couple of years ago? After all, I'm told the chassis is over 95% the same. A year ago someone at Ford told me the Euro Focus cost too much to build. Higher European fuel prices meant that many folks actually preferred compacts over there, but they wanted them well-trimmed with a lot of feature content. As a result, Ford felt they could put more money into the body and interior on the Eurpoean models. It's a more upmarket sort of compact.
Not here. A lot of people here wanted a real (read: big) car or an SUV. Anyone who bought a compact was simply someone who couldn't afford anything more substantial, or so the thinking went.
And then gasoline broke $3 per gallon. Then $4. And it'll probably be $5 before the summer is out. Sure, buying a new car and taking on a payment just to save gas money doesn't make sense in some cases, but a lot of people are doing so anyway. Suddenly the large SUV has fallen out of fashion. Folks who can afford to buy a $45,000 SUV are looking for something that can get 30 or 35 mpg on the highway.
Personally, I've always liked compacts. But since I'm not hurting for cash I've always gravitated towards those with good design, fit and finish. I do not see a compact car as a consolation prize. I think a lot of other folks are suddenly starting to look at this segment the same way, too. Too bad Ford doesn't have their somewhat more upmarket European Ford Focus ready to go in US trim right about now...
Fuel Economy Update
As gas prices climb higher and higher, fuel-efficient cars like our Ford Focus look more and more attractive. Let's take a look at the latest numbers:
Current mileage: 9,491 miles
Best over life of test: 37.4 mpg
Worst over life of test: 21.4 mpg
Overall average: 27.2 mpg
Official EPA estimate: 24 mpg city, 33 mpg highway
With gas prices the way they are, you would think we'd appreciate anything that would seemingly help one achieve more fuel efficiency. And we would, if it made sense.
Our Focus has an instantaneous fuel economy indicator, as some other cars, such as various BMW's, do. In short, these things are an intake manifold vacuum gauge, essentially just showing whether you're on the gas or off. They "work" like this:
— Accelerate normally and the needle (or in this case bar graph) swings towards the low end. Shame on you, you're guzzling gas!
— Let up and cruise, and the needle/graph moves around toward the middle.
— Lift off the gas and wow! You're getting excellent cell phone reception! I mean great mileage. Well, for a few seconds, anyway.
The trouble with these "indicators" is that because it's an instantaneous status, the needle or bar graph is constantly moving to and fro. A useless gimmick that is distracting at best. C'mon guys, we all know that going gently on the gas — avoiding jack-rabbit starts from lights and stop signs, cruising at a relatively steady speed on the interstate — will optimize mileage. Fortunately, this function is part of a trip computer's menu that also includes an average fuel economy indicator, the kind you can typically reset whenever you want.
The more time I spend with our 2008 Ford Focus coupe, the more worried I feel about Ford's future. Not only is this refreshed Focus a far cry from the second-gen, European-market Focus TdCi I drove a couple years ago, I feel it's a couple steps back from the 1.0 version of the Focus sold from 2000-2007.
I'm not just talking about de-contenting (goodbye, telescoping steering wheel), nor the needless complexity Ford added to the interior (yes, there's Sync, but there are also about 3 times as many buttons and lights). I'm talking about the driving experience, and this one just doesn't measure up. The old car had a terrific freeway ride, yet despite its soft-tuned suspension, it felt light and tossable, and had great steering feel — and you didn't have to take it on a back road to appreciate its athleticism. I feel almost none of that in this 2008 Focus SES. The highway ride is harsher, yet the old playfulness is gone. The car feels heavy and the steering has about half as much feedback as before.
I had fun with every single one of the old Focuses I drove, including a beater, Euro-spec ZX5 with a weakling 1.6-liter engine I rented once. But driving this one is only a step up from drudgery and I can't even work up the resolve to pair my cell phone and iPod with its Sync interface. Not even those ST knock-off wheels can change my mind.
I know this Focus is selling well right now, but I think it has little to do with the car itself. Instead, it's about Sync and a general feeling of desperation over high gas prices.
For those who enjoy driving, our long-term 2008 Ford Focus SES — despite its "upgraded tires...as well as...front and rear stabilizer bars for improved handling," in the words of our model review — is only slightly more pulse-quickening than a dump truck. On second thought, the edge might go to the dump truck; I've never driven one, so I'll have to reserve judgment. Yet there are evidently plenty of non-enthusiasts who like the Focus just fine, judging by the car's 28% sales spike through June. Could it be that our blue bullet isn't so bad after all?
Nah. Like Erin, I think those sales numbers are more indicative of a general state of panic in the face of rising gas costs. Consumers are understandably trying to maximize their MPGs, and that's causing them to overlook what might otherwise be deal-breaking shortcomings — such as the foul styling, raucous engine and joyless chassis that come standard on every Focus.
What kills me about our Focus is that Ford can obviously do a lot better — look no further than its global C1 platform, which underpins the stylish and dynamically excellent Mazda 3 as well as the Volvo C30 and the European Focus. However, the Mazda can't match the Focus' fuel economy, and the C30's both thirstier and more expensive. That's why it's kind of exciting that the European Focus is coming our way in 2010. If it matches or exceeds the fuel economy of the current Focus while providing Mazda-like driving dynamics, it could be a real tide-turner for Ford.
I admit that the reason I chose our 2008 Ford Focus as my car for this past weekend was that I wanted to play with its Sync system. It worked great with my phone and I had so much fun asking it to play certain songs and artists even if I didn't really want to hear those songs or artists. "Play this, play that" I said as I sat in the car in my driveway and then would giggle when the voice repeated back what I just said and then do what I told it to do. Neat!
But I noticed that when I was driving on the freeway, with windows up mind you, that its hearing wasn't so great. "Play artist Radiohead," I said. "Playing artist Madness," she replied. "Noooo," I whined. "Play artist RAY-DEE-OH-HED," I repeated. "Playing artist Madness," she replied again. Arrghh. I also tried yelling out my commands while annunciating but she'd still come back at me with something totally different or with four other possible options, none of which were close to what I requested. Finally, I just gave up and put on Sirius.
I like Ford's Sync so much it has me happily driving our long-term Ford Focus on days when I'm more concerned with hands-free phone operation and/or iPhone music libraries than I am with corner apexs and stoplight getaways.
But during my most recent Sync session I discovered a rather troubling trait — Sync's voice recognition software can't tell the difference between "Tesla" and "Def Leppard." No matter how many times I asked for "Play Artist — Tesla" in as clear of voice as I could muster I got the response, "Playing Artist — Def Leppard."
It would be interesting to remove all the Def Leppard songs from my iPhone to see if it then recognized "Tesla" requests. But who knows, maybe it would just start playing "Jethro Tull" files instead.
I suppose the other fix would be to stop wanting to listen to Tesla, but at that point I might as well just get out and walk, right?
A friend of mine is in the market for an economy car. She saw me in the Focus this weekend and
cornered me for a relentless 45-minute interrogation
She wanted to know if I'd recommend the Focus. I told her that the car has its strengths, but whether it's a match for her would depend on her priorities. She said that fuel efficiency is important, but that what she really wants is a car that's "kinda fun" — something that "doesn't feel too cheap." She really likes luxury cars and wishes she could get an Audi A4, but it's not in her budget right now.
"Take a look at the Volkswagen Rabbit," I said. True, its fuel economy isn't as impressive as that of the Focus, but it offers a more engaging driving experience and impressive luxury for a vehicle in that price range. Just like an Audi, it feels well-planted and Germanic on the road, and its cabin is remarkably polished.
I also told her to take a look at the Mazda 3 and the Honda Fit. Still, if she'd said that fuel efficiency was the only item of her list of must-haves, the conversation would have been different.
Everyone in this office is fond of saying how great the Microsoft Sync system is in our 2008 Ford Focus, and they're mostly right. But I''ve got a new 80Gb iPod and I'm falling out synch with sync.
Just about every iPod-ist I know keeps their's in a protective case. So do I. Every case has a little slot designed to allow the standard white iPod sychronization cord to fit through and connect, so the case can stay on with the cable plugged into a PC.
So what's with the massive blob of plastic that is the Ford Sync's sync cable? It is so ginormous that I simply cannot get the cable properly seated — it won't fit through the port in my case. My iPod case isn't easy to remove and reinstall, and even if it was I shouldn't have to do that EVERY SINGLE TIME I get into a car.
The iPod came first. Cases came soon after. Those who build true iPod connections in their cars can't develop them in a vacuum. They need to make them work with the existing products out there. And the best way to do that is to make your in-car sync cable EXACTLY the same size and shape as the original Apple part — the white one on the right.
What did I do? I carry a plain-Jane Aux cable. I bypassed the iPod connection entirely and hooked-in old school.
Ever have that kind of day when it seems like everything is going wrong? Like when you mistakenly get off the wrong floor from the elevator or you dribble coffee on your newly cleaned white shirt? Well, operating our 2008 Ford Focus made me feel like that.
Last night, without fail, every time I got in the car and went to turn on the headlights, I would end up activating the windshield wipers. OK, I'm just an airhead. For some reason I didn't get it that the windshield wiper stalk is located on the left side, not the right...in THIS car.
We get into so many different cars, a different car every night so I know this is not going to be an issue for someone who lives with the Focus on a daily basis. And maybe it's a dumb gripe. But I just wondered why Ford put the windshield wiper on the left instead of on the right. Left is usually lights/high beams/turn signal — all lights. See how that works? Here, the stalk functions as both windshield wiper AND turn signal. Thus my confusion.
And since I'm on a griping roll, why does the display have to block out the odometer/trip reading with "Emergency Brake On" when I'm parked, the doors are closed...and I want to take a picture of the tripmeter? Frickin frackin! This is in addition to the red brake warning light that already appears on the display.
As Karl and I have both stated in the past, we don't mind taking the Focus during the work week. When you're resigned to traveling 5-20 mph all the way home on L.A.'s infamous 10 "trapped-way" as I am (thankfully I'm only 6 miles from the office), things like the Focus' handy Sync system count for a lot more than class-leading 0-to-60 mph or slalom times.
Though I love Sync, it has one very annoying characteristic — it greets you in a rather rude fashion.
After you hop in the car and then call it into action (via the steering wheel-mounted controls) it lets you know it's ready with a "ding"-like sound followed by a synthesized woman's voice. Fine, except the default volume for that is set at an AC/DC concert level. As that jarring blast of decibels hits my ears, I frantically thumb the volume button down. Makes me wonder if someone in Ford's vehicle electronics department has an evil sense of humor.
And yes, I've checked the manual and saw no way to change its default setting, though you can silence the voice prompts altogether.
This weekend was my second time in the Ford Focus. The first time I only moved it from one parking spot to another. This time I had it for the whole weekend.
My initial impressions: I think the Focus is attractive in our particular shade of blue. It was fine to drive around in. The interior has a lot of plastic and the seats are hard. But it's perky. No trouble merging onto the freeway. It's relatively inexpensive. I did some grocery shopping and found the trunk was nice and deep. Sync didn't seem to like my iTouch. Too many leftover Napster tracks it didn't want to play. It said something about not being able to recognize them. I can't remember the exact words the loud lady used. But she played my store-bought music without complaining.
Then my passenger got in and said, "this door pull is broken."
Argh! Didn't we have that fixed once already? It's not as bad as when James reported it the first time it happened. But it is indeed separating from the door. Nice.
This weekend, to enliven the boring errand-running I had to do in our 2008 Ford Focus, I hooked up my iPod to find the perfect soundtrack to picking up moving boxes five miles away. (Hmm, maybe '80s New Wave? Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf"?) Since my iPod basically lives in my purse and its "Hold" button doesn't work, I knew it would be dead by the time I pulled it out. And sure enough it was but I figured hooking it up to the Sync system would recharge the battery.
Even the Sync Web site's FAQ section notes that, with most music players, the battery will start charging up anytime it's connected to the system's USB port while the car is running. However, when I hooked up my iPod...nothing. I pressed buttons on my Preciousss and its screen remained blank. I fidgeted with the wires, making sure they were plugged in and still got no response. I have used Sync with my iPod before but since it's been awhile, I don't recall if it charged my player when I used it. So either this doesn't work for iPods or it's not working in general. Later when I got home, I plugged my iPod to a charger and it worked just fine, so at least that means my iPod isn't broken.
Despite the weird styling, cheap-ish materials or the fact that Europe gets, what is by all accounts, a pretty bitchin' new Focus, our Focus does drive pretty well. There's plenty of feedback from the steering and the suspension seems well sorted. It's a little sporty and that reminds me of the original Focus, which is a good thing.
Unfortunately, you'll find it difficult to get much out of the Focus in handling department because of the steering wheel. Looking at the picture above, the Focus has what is essentially a three spoke steering wheel. That part is good. The bad parts are the two spokes at 9 and 3. In order to accommodate all those buttons, the designers/stylists have put in two of the biggest steering wheel spokes I've seen in decades. The size of the spokes (more or less 4 fingers high!) effectively prevents you from wrapping your hands around the steering wheel. People who prefer putting their hands at 10 and 2 might not even notice, but for me (a die-hard 9 and 3 guy) it all but writes off the Focus as being fun to drive.
Normally, I consider things like panel gaps and such to be a very minor concern - it just doesn't matter to me all that often. But this plastic cover in the rear seat of the Focus is obviously very poorly constructed. What really bugs is that I have to see the popped out cover each timeI look back tocheck on mydaughter. I triedpressingthe cover back into place but no go.
I genuinely like the Focus andtruly believe it's better than many small cars including theToyota Corolla and Hyundai Accent. But this business with plasticpanels is very irritating - too badI can't use Sync "Plasticcover; pop back into place."
I like the variable lights. They are pretty. It's like driving around in a rock show.
I don't care if you think this is the dumbest blog entry ever, it's the truth.
We basically bought the Focus to try out the Sync system and we've mostly been impressed with it. While we've blogged about using Sync a few times, no one has actually got around to demonstrating how to use it. Oh, Magrath and I had big plans of doing a fancy video done by our crack video staff, but we never got around it. So when I got the keys last night, I figured I'd finally do the long-awaited Sync how-to video. So here, enjoy.
And I only had one take with this and no way to edit, so don't give me any crap. But I think my few missteps show some of the system's limitations.
That Flight of the Conchords song is actually just called "Bowie," but that didn't work either. Only brought up "Bones" by the Killers. The Conchords' "Leggy Blonde" brought up "We Belong" and "Move Along." Their song "Mutha'Uckas" was a no-go.
Again, not perfect, but Sync offers something nobody else does. The phone works pretty well too, expect that video sometime next June.
Whenever I walk up behind the Ford Focus, I always think the trunk is popped open. The shadow across the bottom and the wide seams near the taillights make an optical illusion.
At least I think so. Scott thinks I'm nuts. Do you see it?
We're nearing the 14,000 mile mark on our Ford Focus. Our average fuel mileage to date is 26.4 mpg.
Our worst tank was a couple of weeks ago at 16.6 mpg. But that was really only about a half tank before someone filled it up. The next worst tank was 21.4.
In May, we drove our best tank at 37.4 mpg.
With many calling October 2008 the worst industry sales month since the dark days of World War II, it's no surprise that Ford Focus sales have taken a nosedive. Last month, Focus sales plummeted 18.2 percent relative to October of 2007. Guess it takes more than Sync and decent mileage to ward off the bad ju-ju when the economy tanks.
The numbers were bad for most models, but not for all. The Pontiac Vibe actually saw a sales increase last month, up 6 percent. Having spent time in the Vibe, I can say it's a superior choice — it's got a more versatile interior, and is more fun to drive (especially in the GT trim). Sometimes fear and panic cause people to make poor decisions, but in this case, I'd say buyers are on to something.
I've spent the better part of four days in our long-term 2008 Ford Focus SES coupe. It was my daily driver to the LA Auto Show and accompanied me to the Beverly Wilshire Hotel for the Mini E event . If you're wondering, yes, the Focus was the least expensive car to pull into the hotel's valet drive, but no, no one made fun of it.
Still, the Focus is not a favorite of mine and hasn't been since Ford mucked up the steering feel, ride quality, driving position and even the styling — by trying to turn a fine looking hatchback into a lumpy looking coupe.
Still, even I have to admit that our Focus coupe's 2.0-liter inline-4, rated at 140 hp and 136 lb-ft, has a pretty nice mid-range. It doesn't sound great, nor does our car's four-speed automatic provide a terribly efficient or enjoyable means of getting at the power. But this engine is scrappy enough to accommodate decisive driving in heavy traffic.
Trouble is, I could say this about almost every engine in almost every current compact car, so I don't know if I'd call this an advantage. The best I can say is that our Focus got me where I needed to go and didn't do much to bother me in the process.
I landed our long-term 2008 Ford Focus for the weekend.
I again enjoyed its respectable point-and-shoot power on the freeway while simultaneously feeling annoyed at its four-speed automatic transmission. It seems antiquated next to most five-speed autos. The space between gear ratios is too wide for comfort, and the delay on downshifts is, well, a delay. It occurred to me that it might be fun to take the Focus on a back road on Sunday afternoon, but the transmission talked me out of it.
This morning I opened the hood to check the oil. It's not pretty in here, but the dipstick is right there at the edge, and the tube is nice and straight, so I didn't get even a smudge of grease on my hands. The oil level registered smack in the middle of the range on the dipstick.
Americans by and large prefer a coupe or sedan body style to a hatchback. Though the latter are more practical (easier to load and more capacity) and popular in less image-concerned Europe, our dear citizens equate hatchback with "cheap, entry-level car". Even prestige brands can be dissed — remember the BMW 318ti and the Mercedes-Benz C230 Kompressor "Sport Coupe"?
Yet to provide the best of both worlds, hatchback functionality with more upscale coupe or sedan styling, a few car makers have disguised hatches quite well. The 2008 Mazda 6 five-door hatchback is a good example.
As I recently struggled a bit to squeeze my laundry basket through the Focus' small trunk opening, it struck me that Ford could've made the Focus coupe a more user-friendly hatchback without changing the body style. In fairness, however, the Focus coupe does provide a split/folding rear seat which increases cargo capacity considerably.
Rumor has it that the next generation of the Focus (2010 or 2011) will largely be the same as the much more respected Euro-version, as the company switches to a global platform for this car. That means hatchback body styles as well as a more entertaining drive. There's also supposed to be a turbocharged ("Ecoboost") engine offering.
Every time I see this Focus in the parking garage, I'm reminded of what might have been. It's drowning in bad design now, covered up with lazy sheetmetal flourishes and embarrassing chrome devices, transformed into some kind of shrunken Mercury Marquis. But once the Focus represented the leading edge of thinking at Ford, and all the best engineers and stylists worked on the project.
You can still sense a little personality here, even though the car has been dumbed down over the years to suit a dumbed-down audience. It feels poised on its long-travel suspension and steers with an instinct for an apex. This is not the rally-bred Focus SVT that we remember, but it drives far better than most of its competition in the cheap-and-cheerful market segment, balancing a comfortable ride with alert handling in a sophisticated way.
It's fashionable to blame Detroit for its current predicament. Not the right kind of cars for the modern world, the pundits say. But the truth is, Detroit has been making the right kind of cars for the modern world for decades. But the trouble is, no one would buy them.
The Ford Focus is a perfect example. Partly its failure was the fault of the cars themselves, as anyone who can remember the quality issues of the first year's production of the made-in-Mexico Focus can attest. Partly this was the fault of the buyers, who looked toward import brands for fuel-efficient small cars as a matter of experience and prejudice. Partly this was the fault of Wall Street analysts, who have been forcing Detroit to compromise quality for profits for decades and couldn't understand the idea of a great small car.
So now we're left with the Ford Focus SES. It's been selling surprisingly well in the wake of last summer's spike in fuel prices, and it offers more car for less money than much of the competition. But it's still only a pale reminder of what might have been, a world-class small car with a Ford label. Let's hope the Ford Fiesta will do better once it gets here in 2010.
A lot of budget-priced cars look chintzy after dark, thanks to gauge/instrument panel illumination that has about as much cohesiveness as a Kmart clearance bin. However, cohesiveness is the name of the game in our Ford Focus, thanks to gauges and controls that are illuminated mostly in a single shade of blue. This consistency makes things look more upmarket than they would have otherwise, and it extends even to the auxiliary controls on the car's steering wheel.
The cabin feels pretty soothing when the gauges are lit up — not surprising, since blue is known for being a tranquil color. Ford's designers may have chosen this particular shade for its high-end associations — known as Tiffany blue, it shares its hue with the boxes used by the famous jeweler. If this color choice was part of some grand scheme cooked up by the car's designers to trigger a favorable subconscious response, then well done, Ford. Oh, and as we've mentioned before, the variable interior lighting is pretty cool as well. If only the same level of thoughtfulness had gone into other aspects of the cabin...
Mystery Vents
When it's raining, and you're stuck behind a driver who insists on crawling at 5 mph as if this were the Storm of the Century instead of just a light drizzle, you find yourself pondering life's mysteries in a desperate effort to pass the time. Why do water bottles have a "best if used by" date? Why is "Dancing with the Stars" such a big hit? And why do some cars — like our Ford Focus — have those utterly non-functional vents, located by the A-pillars?
They don't blow air like the HVAC vents. Why are they there? What does it all mean? Has it stopped raining yet?
I'll be the first to admit I love technology. As a self-admitted early adopter, I'm pretty fearless when it comes to embracing the latest, greatest whatever. If there's one thing I like most about our Focus, it's Ford's Sync. Seriously folks, it's not very often that the technology fantasies of our youth come true in a production car. But the one thing that really irked me from the get-go was the center stack control layout.
Too many buttons! Is there really a need for 40-plus buttons? The audio controls didn't really become an issue, thanks in large part to Sync, but the climate control area could use some simplification. I don't think I'm alone in saying that the traditional three-dial climate control layout is as intuitive as you'll find. One knob each for temperature, fan speed and direction. Maybe a button or two for A/C and recirculation. But 10 buttons and two dials?
The directional control for the air could've been wrapped into one simple dial. Instead, it's a bunch of small buttons that require the driver to take his/her eyes off the road in order to switch from defrost to vents. Was this layout designed just for the sake of being different, or was there a consensus that it actually simplifies the process?
Over the weekend, the battery in the key fob of our 2008 Ford Focus said farewell to this sometimes cruel world. Its demise seemed a bit sudden, considering the car is only 11 or so months old.
Anyway, the situation called for a new battery. The car's owner's manual provided the relevant details and instructions.
First, I made a quick trip to the drugstore to purchase the replacement battery — a CR 2032 that was about the size of a coin. The store only had that battery in a two-pack, which ran just over 8 bucks.
Next, I used a penny to pry the key fob apart. It came undone pretty easily.
I removed the old battery, slid in the replacement, snapped the fob back together and I was good to go. The entire replacement process took about 3 minutes.
The story doesn't end there. All batteries — even lithium batteries as tiny as this one — are considered hazardous waste under California law, and must be disposed of appropriately. Via a visit to earth911.com, I generated a list of nearby drop-off locations that accept lithium batteries.
The dead battery's final resting place will be the UCLA S.A.F.E. Collection Center, located about 5 miles from where I live. It hasn't quite made it there yet; the center is open only on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and I didn't begin this undertaking until yesterday. But when the weekend rolls around, the battery (along with a broken DVD player that I need to recycle) will be placed in the caring hands of the folks at the collection center.
There is lots of talk these days about a turn to basic transportation, simple automobiles meant to serve a generation of practical consumers. But as you can see from this picture of Henry Ford with a 1921 Ford Model T, this is not exactly new thinking.
Ford just celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Model T. This car first rolled off the assembly line on September 27, 1908 and didn't stop until May 26, 1927, by which time more than 15 million had been made. It changed a bit over the intervening years, but not much. As Henry Ford said, "I will build a car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one - and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God's great open spaces."
Plenty of people will tell you that some kind of adventurous new thinking is required to build a modern cheap car, a cross between the NASA space program and the cheap computer club that led to the Apple personal computer. The trouble is, this sort of thinking results in a lot of effort to make things cheap rather than good, and the result is bad little transportation pods that can't pass safety or air emissions regulations. Really, the Tata Nano isn't a good model for the basic car of the future.
But why not the Ford Focus? Though this platform for Ford's world car is two generations old, the newer designs differ more in tuning than in specification. Inside this soggy, unpleasantly styled little coupe there's a Mazda 3 or a Ford Fiesta yearning to breathe free. All it needs is a little tuning. As BMW has proven over the decades, sticking with the same fundamental platform over a long period of time gives you the opportunity to develop it, and development not innovation is really the secret to affordable goodness.
Of course, we're going to be getting our version of the Ford Fiesta fairly soon, so there's not much point in pursuing this. But if I were looking to create a basic car, I'd be thinking twice about something new that's actually crummier and cheaper than something old.
Our blue 2008 Focus SES coupe has been dutifully snaking through L.A. traffic for just over a year now. Here's a snapshot of the 140-horsepower coupe's fuel economy numbers while in our hands:
Best tank: 37.4 mpg
Worst tank: 16.6 mpg
Average over 16,000 miles: 26.3 mpg
The EPA rates the 5-speed manual-equipped 2008 Ford Focus Coupe SES at 24/35 city/highway. Our car has the optional four-speed automatic.
I've complained high and low that our 2008 Ford Focus SES Coupe represents an unsightly transformation from a useful hatchback (ZX3) to a much less useful coupe. But even I have to admit it has a nice big trunk for a coupe — 13.8 cubic feet. And this morning when I loaded my expanded, overpacked rollaboard carry-on, I realized I could throw it in there at any angle I wanted thanks to the Ford's huge trunk opening.
It still doesn't make up for the 140-horsepower, 2.0-liter inline four-cylinder engine's excessive noise and vibration under light throttle, but it's something.
I don't usually carry my iPod with me, but happened to have it in my purse last night when I signed out the 2008 Ford Focus Coupe for the drive home.
Finally, I thought, a chance to check out the SYNC system while alone in the car.
Maybe it's the Focus' noisy cabin at speed, or perhaps it's my nasally Midwestern accent, I don't know, but no matter how many different "Play Artist" and "Play Track" commands I confidently issued, SYNC always provided Lou Bega's Mambo No. 5 as either my first or only option.
I've never been that fond of the song to begin with, but today I hit the delete button on both Lou Bega and SYNC.
I've spent a lot of time in our Focus — so much so that I've pretty much tuned out its shortcomings. Poorly designed interior door handle? No problem — I barely notice any more, since I've gotten used to nudging the door open with my elbow. Engine too whiny? No big deal — I just crank up the stereo.
But the Focus was pretty new to the friends I ferried to the movies this weekend. One of them felt compelled to diss the car's rackety engine note as it struggled to pass an SUV on the freeway. Always nice to get a fresh perspective, I guess. And hmm — guess the engine wasn't the only thing whining in the Focus that evening. On a more positive note, though, everyone was pretty impressed with SYNC.
Our Ford Focus just got its 20,000-mile routine maintenance ahead of schedule. We took it in at just over 17,000 miles because it had its last appointment early.
We took our little blue guy to Ford of Santa Monica for a routine oil and filter change, tire rotation, and brake inspection. Everything checked out A-OK. The total for this visit was $43.43 with a special coupon.
Looking back through our posts on the Focus, it seems we never blogged about the previous appointments. We must have been too busy rattling on about the Sync system.
Here's the history:
At around 13,500 miles we had the 15,000-mile service. I don't remember why we did it early. I think it was just a scheduling issue. This was the big one with a multi-point inspection of the brake lines, cooling system, drive shaft, steering, suspension, etc. etc. etc. Total cost for parts and labor was $126.99.
At 10,000 and 5,000 miles, we had the normal oil and filter change and tire rotation. Both appointments were $58.12.
I shouldn't say this out loud because I don't want to jinx it, but outside of a loose passenger door handle, we've had good luck with our Ford.
We've certainly had our gripes with the cabin of our Ford Focus. Crappy ergonomics. Loose door handle.
Still, you have to give credit where credit is due, and this weekend I was pretty struck by how pristine the car's interior looks. It's been in our care for over a year now, and has over 17,000 miles on the odo. We're not exactly known for having a kid-glove approach when it comes to our test cars, yet our Ford's cabin still looks pretty much the same as it did when the car first rolled into our garage.
Also, as mentioned in a previous post, it hasn't needed any major repairs. Durability is important in this segment, and thus far, the Focus is going strong.
Just looking for an interesting picture to show you. I'm sure you're tired of seeing close-ups of the information screen.
I find myself choosing the Ford Focus a lot lately. I lost my Aux cable and until I get a new one, I can't play my iPod in all of the cars unless they have a direct connection. I can't stand listening to the radio, even satellite.
When you finally learn the words that Sync likes to hear, it's easy to operate, and the sound quality is pretty good. So I've finally learned to plug in the iPod, Sync tells me "Line In", I tell it "USB" and we're ready to go. I've had no problems with voice recognition lately. It even understood French names.
Over this past weekend, I headed out of town with our 2008 Ford Focus. The plan was to put about 300 miles on the clock for a trip up into our local mountains. My initial reaction was, "7000 feet elevation and a wheezy four-banger under the hood? Ugh!"
All was not lost though. While I was stuck behind slower drivers making the climb into thinner air, I practiced carving the perfect racing line and left-foot braking in anticipation of an upcoming karting event with my cohorts. It turns out, that practicing racing technique at lower speeds is both useful for developing a better touch as well as killing the time between passing lanes. The Focus, with its fairly low power output, makes you realize how important conserving momentum is to weaker cars.
Besides being a decent Karting tutor, the Focus ably swallowed-up all of our cargo for a four-day excursion — firewood, camera gear, luggage and groceries. The SYNC system is still one of my favorites and a good example of how voice-activation should work. Where the Focus lacked was the rather prominent road noise and previously documented buzzy engine drone. Also, my passenger noted the lack of a grab handle in the curves. All in all, the Focus never limited us in our adventures, but we were certainly glad the cabin was less than 90 minutes away.
Our Ford Focus has been praised quite rightly for its Sync system. I too, enjoy the easy connections made with my iPod and cell phone.
However, despite this advanced electronics system, Ford was nice enough to include a traditional auxiliary audio jack in addition to the fancier USB port. This allows me to plug in my Samsung Helix portable XM radio and MP3 player. Yes, the Focus has Sirius, however, I own my XM player solely for the MLB play-by-play channels — the only feature that didn't transfer over to Sirius in the satellite radio merger. And in case you're wondering, Sync is capable of controlling my Helix's MP3 files, but its XM stream is beyond Sync's comprehension.
Many cars with USB ports and iPod interfaces leave out the traditional auxiliary audio jack (Mercedes for example). But some provide both (Hyundai), or leave the regular aux jack behind to boost sound quality and iPod control via a dedicated double iPod cord. BMW, Ford Sync and the Cadillac CTS would be examples of this.
Either way, this baseball fan is thankful.
The arrival of spring and summer means more than just the final bell of the school year. It's bug time. And this weekend's 950-mile roundtrip drive on I-5 cut through California's central valley farmland, a haven for all sorts of grille-loving insects.
With 37-plus mpg from the Ford Focus, we breezed past fuel stations, skipping the typical road-trip windshield and bumper washings, which got me thinking: What's your favorite tried-and-true method of cleaning splattered insectual roadkill off your car's front end?
Thanks to gjupp for this week's favorite.
There were a lot of good entries this week, some a little naughty, some more than a little silly.
Here are the honorable mentions:
This Ford takes a licking and keeps on ticking (toye)
Your car clean...lickity spit! (rick8365)
Even Santa is feeling the economy pinch! (e10rice)
Ask about our Musk carpet treatment! (bkapps)
It's not clean until it's STAGWOW clean! (ergsum)
Cleans everything but the Sync (mnorm1)
Ask about our special Beaver waxing. (ergsum)
Today's Special: Free Turtle Wax (actualsize)
This one by ergsum was way too long but I liked the effort:
Deer Inside Line,
Hoofing fawn racking up the miles. Got a wash, only two bucks, so little doe. Locals drooled over my ride. Thought it was a MuskStag.
Bambi
What was your favorite?
Our associate editor Mark Takahashi took this photo of the Ford Focus at a very unique establishment.
I suggest "Spit Shine"
What's your caption?
We'll post our favorite at 4:00 PM Santa Monica time.
As noted before , our Focus' fake quarter panel vent is cheesy as Cheeto nachos. But I realized this weekend that fake vents go way back — at least half a century back without even looking further.
In the case of a classic Thunderbird, the hash mark "vents" were certainly a stylistic accent to fill-in an otherwise featureless expanse, but most aficionados agree it's not terribly offensive. Why then, does our Focus' vent draw the ire of the motoring public?
Quite simply, because it's ugly. It seems to have nothing in common with the rest of the car and serves no purpose. In a previous incarnation, I went to art school to study transportation design, and a professor commented on such needless accents with a simple and wise adage that sticks with me to this day. "A pretty woman doesn't need a lot of jewelry." Translation: if you have a pleasing overall form, don't clutter it with superfluous junk (he was speaking of the newly released Mitsubishi 3000GT)
Looking around the parking garage this morning, I quickly found several examples of vent fakery, but these examples aren't nearly as wince-inducing as our 2008 Focus. No surprise that Ford killed off the vent in favor of a cleaner look for the 2009.
So I figured out what the L in PRNDL does. It sucks, that's what it does.
The 'gear' (according to the manual, which I really did read) is designed for enhanced engine braking on long descents and holding a gear going up long, steep grades. I figured it might be good for sluggish freeway traffic. Wrong-o. It is, in fact, good for nothing. While the D 'gear' is too concerned with fuel economy to shift properly, the L 'gear' is too concerned with grenading the motor, shifting poorly and generally making your commute terrible to be of any use.
It holds onto each gear for an impossibly long time. Only when the motor sounds like a thousand blenders being blended by a giant, evil blender, does it slam itself into the next highest gear where it repeats the gear holding, engine blending process all over again. Downshifts are similarly no good and lack any refinement or grace. I even used it on a long downhill only to find the gears to be so far apart that there seemed to be no sweet spot where the car ever felt comfortable or smooth. The engine was either ready to puke its guts out and slowing down too much or the transmission would not relinquish the higher gear and in fact caused me to ride the brakes to hold a steady speed, completely defeating the purpose of the L 'gear'.
Was there something wrong with the PRND321 setup?
Its pretty clear that the biggest draw of the Ford Focus is its affordability. As I tooled around town in the coupe this weekend, I mused for the thousandth time, "This car is the opposite of exciting, but it delivers lots of features for very little coin."
I came across a news story that pointed out that the Focus can save you money in accident situations, as well. In recent crash tests, IIHS concluded that the Focus had the lowest repair costs of the 20 compact cars tested. The Focus sustained two-thirds less damage than the Toyota Prius and the Volkswagen Rabbit, which both logged more than $4,000 worth of damage in a single crash test. IIHS credits the Focus' bumpers for this achievement, saying that they do a great job of protecting sheet metal and other expensive parts from damage.
Manufacturers use drum brakes for one reason: They're cheap. And guess what? It shows. Especially behind alloy wheels. Here's a shot of one of the Focus's rear drums.
Aside from the many performance reasons to use disc brakes, I'd argue that simply looking at brake drums through alloy wheel spokes is among the biggest incentives to avoid them. I'll pay extra, thanks. Am I crazy?
Last week I put the air-conditioning of our long-term Ford Focus to a serious performance test by driving the little blue coupe through Death Valley, California, one of the hottest places on the face of the Earth.
The temps were pushing 123-degrees in the shade, but the Ford's air conditioning was up to the task, easily keeping the Focus cool and comfortable. The air continued to blow cold even when climbing the long, steep grade just outside of Stovepipe Wells, and the engine's water temperature gage remained pegged right in the middle, with no signs of overheating.
Way to go Focus.
Wecome to Death Valley.
You can knock this runabout all you like, but the more I drive our Focus, the more I appreciate how it aspires to be more car than it appears, or maybe is. The underrated dot-matrix display is actually a pretty powerful display tool, prodding and guiding you through the myriad of Sync functionality, sort of an early-80s face on new-century tech. Sure it's a bunch of dots, but it aims high (perhaps impossibly so) each time you start the car with this "Ford Focus Audiophile" message. You'd probably laugh all the way home until it automatically syncs with your phone then offers you Bluetooth audio streaming. "Jeezus Dottie, slow down there..."
For a daily commuter, Ford's got a tech ringer with a Sync equipped Focus, but little touches such as the fat outside mirrors, and meaty shifter sourced from Ford's ever more upscale parts bin also provide constant reminders that on some level, the Focus is at least trying. The bar is pretty low in this class, but Ford seems to be aware of critical touch points. What's the last feature that surprised you in the econobuck class?
Side-impact crash protection was never a strong point of the earlier ZX3 hatchback version of the Focus. It was no surprise, really. Side airbags weren't standard and awareness of what might happen if a small SUV came at you from the side wasn't as high as it is today. It's little wonder that the respawned 2008 Ford Focus coupe has bigger, heavier doors than the ZX3.
The IIHS is just getting around to testing the Focus coupe, but other than the lack of fake fender vents, this 2009 Focus coupe is just like ours. And it earned top "Good" ratings in both the side-impact and frontal-offset crash tests.
So even if I don't want to admit it, our 2008 Ford Focus is a better, safer car than the Focus ZX3 that still tugs at my heartstrings. More photos of the bashed Focus after the jump.
Here's the blue Focus coupe before the test. Maybe we should remove the fender "vents" from our long-term car.
And after.
And the dummy.
And here are all the photos from the 40-mph frontal-offset crash test.
When we said we were skipping the Ford Focus as car of the week, you insisted we give it a go.
It's nothing personal against the Focus. The car has just been with us for over a year and we figured you already knew all about it.
So, before we part with our blue devil, we'll give it a chance as car of the week.
See, we do listen to you sometimes.
It may not be luxurious, but it's far from cheap.
Some of you seem to think the 2008 Ford Focus Coupe is nothing by a pile of plastic. Let's explore its good and bad points.
Its engine doesn't sound great but gets adequate power out of its 140 horses. It feels better to me than the Suzuki SX4.
As always, I'm obsessed with good, strong air conditioning and the Focus certainly has that.
Its roomy 13.8-cu-ft trunk had no problem swallowing the giant vacuum cleaner I bought this weekend. The trunk's mouth opening makes it easy to stuff full. I would prefer a hatchback, but I have a thing for hatchbacks.
I like the sporty white gauges and cool interior lighting.
I also like the windshield wipers. The washer fluid sprays out evenly and the wipers give you an extra wipe a few seconds after clearing the glass.
Sync is fun when it works properly.
The seats are cloth but they are holding up well and keep you supported.
Good bumpers, a rarity in modern cars, keep body repair costs down.
We're averaging more than 26 mpg in enthusiastic mixed driving.
We've had no major repairs or problems. There are some interior quality issues with things like panel gaps and the misplaced door handles.
Even though its looks are somewhat outdated, it still has a spark of personality.
It's made for some good caption contest Fridays.
Want to add anything?
What's wrong with this picture? From where I sit, I see an iPod and a persistent lack of 2008 Ford Focus SES Coupe.
Said iPod was unusable because it still thought it was synched to SYNC, a state that renders the iPod's own controls utterly useless. This is consistent with the screen reading "connected" at the top and "OK to disconnect" at the bottom.
"But it is disconnected," I stammered.
The only way to de-synch the SYNC was to plug the iPod back in to the cable in the Ford Focus and try again, and again...and again, until it finally let go.
Was this glitch an iPod/Apple problem or a Sync/Microsoft problem? Who knows? Personally, I'm hoping the iPod is innocent, 'cuz it's out of warranty.
When Sync works, it's fun and easy and cool. When it doesn't, it's infuriating.
Funny how the voice command system doesn't recognize #%$?%!
I've never had my iPod disconnect in any other car. You plug it in, you're good to go. But for some reason, when I use Sync in the Ford Focus, even though the cord doesn't come loose, Sync suddenly thinks I've disconnected my iPod. "USB" removed, it says, "Line In."
I press the media button. Sync says "Line In, please say a command."
I say, "USB."
Sync says, "Bluetooth"
I press the media button. Sync says "Line In, please say a command."
I say, "USB."
Sync, "USB." Then, nothing happens.
OK, I try again. I get a few seconds of music, then disconnect.
I press the media button. Sync says "Line In, please say a command."
You can imagine the rest.
What do you want to know about the 2008 Ford Focus SES Coupe?
Have you driven one? Write a review in the comments section.
In today's COTW open thread for our 2008 Ford Focus SES Coupe, the discussion centers on whether the Focus is a decent buy (or lease) if you absolutely have to have a new car and aren't overly concerned about engine refinement or steering feel.
"What do you guys think about leasing one for say 4 years?" fuhteng writes. "You don't care about the depreciation, and you aren't paying much for a car that will always be under warranty. My girlfriend is looking something newer than her old Accord, and these threads have got me thinking about the Focus. She is also looking at the new (smiley-faced) Mazda3."
I think if the deal was right (read: very affordable), I could get behind someone leasing a Focus. Mind you, it's true I don't like the 2008-2009 Focus anywhere near as much as the 2000-2007 models because of changes to the chassis tuning and styling. But I'd still take this car over any of the other American- and Korean-brand offerings in this price range, not to mention the Nissan Sentra, the Toyota Yaris and (probably) the Corolla.
But there are some cars I would take over the Focus if I could come anywhere close on price. Maybe I couldn't, but here they are. And, oh, by the way, I like sedans. My Focus would be a sedan.
Honda Civic EX (no drum brakes, dammit!)
Honda Fit (oh, wait, I do like drum brakes)
Mazda 3
Mitsubishi Lancer
Subaru Impreza 2.5i
It happens a lot more often than I'd have thought: a Car-of-the-Week hits a significant mileage milestone during its time in the spotlight. I can think of three times when this happened while I was driving including, now, the 2008 Ford Focus SES Coupe.
I saw it coming yesterday afternoon, but it looked like it was going to happen during this morning's bleary-eyed freeway commute. That wasn't going to work, so I volunteered to get some milk last night so I could shoot the shot on deserted suburban streets instead of the freeway.
Over these 25 kilomiles our Focus has averaged 26.8 mpg, just a hair under than EPA's combined fuel economy rating of 28 mpg.
Our best recorded fuel economy was 40.6 mpg, but that was over a short 96.5-mile stretch, not a full tank. The best extended drive performance was 37.4 mpg, and that came during our Gas Sipper Smackdown on the return leg of from Las Vegas to LA on the I-15 freeway at a steady 70 mph on cruise control.
That was no fluke, because the outbound leg of that same trip returned 36.8 mpg over 326 miles of two-land back roads through the desert, including several long up and downhill grades on the way through Death Valley. We drove at a tourist's pace, but we weren't exactly hypermiling.
Those numbers are pretty impressive when you consider that the EPA highway rating for this machine is 33 mpg. The Focus can be quite frugal if you drive accordingly.
That's what I thought as I flipped a u-turn on the way home last night. It was a standard width street, yet I barely had enough room to clear one of the cars already parked on the curb. I wondered how a compact coupe could make a street feel narrow, I mean it doesn't really get much smaller than this Focus right?
I decided to check the numbers to see how the Focus stacks up in the turning radius department. Turns out I was wrong, or imagining things, or not turning to full lock quickly enough.
According to Edmunds.com statistics, the turning radius of the Focus coupe is a very admirable 34.2 feet. Compare that to the Honda Fit (34.4 ft.) or Honda Civic coupe (35.4 ft.), and the Focus cuts a pretty tight circle. The only car I could find off hand with a tighter circle is the Chevrolet Cobalt coupe at 33.5 feet. And if it's between those two, I'd take the Focus.
So this morning we dropped our 2008 Ford Focus SES Coupe off at Santa Monica Ford for an oil change and a tire rotation. They quoted us, after some debate, a price of $55.99 before tax. Too late, you alerted us to a printable coupon that could've gotten us this service for $39.95. Being Santa Monica, they certainly offered us no such deal without our prior knowledge. Welcome to the West Side.
At the end of the day we walked out with fresh oil and rotated tires (I secretly and permanently marked the wheels, they were rotated front-to-back) and were charged $59.85. The cashier was on the slow and careless side and the valet took forever: Ford of Santa Monica gets a C for this effort.
When I left work last night, I needed to make a quick stop off at the grocery store to get a few things for dinner. I was hurried and our long-term 2008 Ford Focus didn't seem to mind that.
You're undoubtedly aware that an electronic throttle ("drive-by-wire") replaced the throttle cable in the partial 2008 redesign. Yet, off-the-line response is still quite good in our long-termer — certainly by economy car standards and certainly compared to some of the newer cars I've driven that are calibrated to scrimp on fuel to an excessive degree.
I've complained mightily about the four-speed automatic transmission in our Focus, but even that deserves some credit. It's more decisive with shifts than many of the easily befuddled six-speed automatics I've sampled recently.
Thanks to lowmilelude for this week's favorite caption. That's his second week in a row. Woohoo!
These are the others that made us smile:
The Focus on the set of "The Past and the Curious" (ergsum)
To compete with BMW's "iDrive", Ford offers "uHaul" (ergsum)
Restored, ignored, a Ford and no cord. (ergsum)
Well, I guess I'll take the focus...(jshhuber)
Is there any room on that truck for me?...the fiesta's coming. (vwthing1)
Eenie meenie minie NO (stpawyfrmdonut)
Pahrump concours d'elegance (stpawyfrmdonut)
Clear that ramp! I'm going to jump the laundromat! (actualsize)
What was your favorite?
Bonus Round: The little red wedge is a Citicar. I don't know about the other two, that's why I was asking you.
Service still comes every 5,000 miles if you own a 2008 Ford Focus. We've just hit the 25,000-mile mark, so our blue coupe is due for an oil change and tire rotation.
It wasn't busy at Santa Monica Ford today, so I pulled into the service drive without an appointment, and within 30 seconds, a service advisor came out to greet me. After jotting down the mileage, he invited me inside and I told him I wanted an oil change and tire rotation. I then noticed he'd typed "$75.99" in as the preliminary estimate.
"$76 seems high for just an oil change and a tire rotation," I said.
"It's a minor service," he replied.
"Well, how much for just an oil change?"
"$35."
"So it's more than double that just to pull the wheels off for a tire rotation?" I asked.
"Well, it includes other inspections, including a brake inspection."
"Well, we don't need a brake inspection," I said. "How much just to change the oil and rotate the tires?"
That brought the estimate down to $55.99, and our service advisor was nice about it. The printout I signed actually included both figures, but he was willing to "X" out the $75.99 and put his initials next to it, so I'm 99 percent confident that $55.99 plus tax is what we'll eventually pay.
While waiting for a ride back to work, I lingered in the dealership's outdoor waiting area. There are chairs indoors, too, but this shady spot is a nice place to be on a Santa Monica summer day.
Then, I noticed this poster on the door. Hmm, just about 2-3 years out of date.
Vehicle Testing Manager Mike Schmidt took this picture of our Ford Focus with these fellow coupes.
Dig that 1970s-era electric car and those two classic coupes circa 1940s.
We offer: Focus on Modern Style
What is your caption?
We'll post our favorite at 4:00 PM California time.
Bonus question: Can you identify the make and model of the cars in the background?
*** Just added a closer shot of the mystery coupes, click through to view ***
...Because it saves me from having to find my way through this mess of buttons. Thanks, Sync.
I rarely drive a car until the "low fuel" indicator comes on, mostly because I don't like to gamble with my ability to get out of town when the zombie threat finally becomes too much to fend off. But this weekend, I got lazy and the fuel light blinked on. Got me to thinking about the Focus' range. This tank only got us to 258 miles, but we've managed 344 a couple of times. Additionally, the most we've ever had to put in the 13.5 gallon tank was 11.784 gallons.
How does that compare to your car's fuel log?
I LOVE being able to chat on the phone through our 2008 Ford Focus' Sync but since I hadn't driven it in awhile seemed someone deleted my phone from the list of Bluetooth devices stored. I didn't know this until I had gotten in the car and it didn't automatically connect to my phone like it did previous times. Aww, boo. This had always made me feel special as if the car remembered me out of the other bazillion editors who drive it more regularly.
So I tried to add it but the lady prompted me to first delete a device from the list since it was all filled up. Apparently Sync can store up to eight different devices at a time. More than enough for most families but not enough for our "family" of editors. Oh well, buh-bye "Motorola Phone," hello, CpW580i. It's not too hard to reconnect your phone anyway so I didn't feel too guilty. I was able to do it without cracking open the Sync supplemental guide once. Yay.
After an extended tour of duty, our 2008 Ford Focus SES Coupe is gone. (Read the wrap-up here.) After some 25,000 miles of Sync, ambient LED lighting, fake vents and it not being a hatchback, we were more than willing to let it go. While no tears were shed, dozens and dozens of words were written for this installment of Parting Shots. Don't forget to leave yours after the jump
"Aside from Sync, all the good stuff dates from the original platform of eight years ago. Bring back the hatchback, keep the price cheap, and make it forever. It'll be the Ford Ranger of passenger cars." — Michael Jordan, Executive Editor Inside Line
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"The Focus gets the Hertz Award for Least Interesting Long-Term Car Ever. Given the choice, I always picked something else, Smart included." — Josh Sadlier, Associate Editor, Edmunds.com
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"Although it wasn't the Euro-market Focus RS I crave, our long-term Focus proved to be durable, comfortable, affordable and economical. For many that makes it the perfect car. I'd recommend it with a clear conscience." - Scott Oldham, Editor-in-Chief, Inside Line
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"While I don't think this Ford Focus is anything to get excited about, I also don't think it's all that bad. The interior is bland at best and the coupe body just doesn't work on this car. HOWEVER, the Sync system alone would be a deal maker for me if I was looking for a decent commuter car. The driving dynamics are also better than other compacts like the Toyota Corolla and Nissan Sentra. Ultimately the Focus is a car that's easy to forget and even easier to live with. It asks nothing of you - not even your attention, certainly not your passion or enthusiasm. You just point it straight and go to work, never thinking about it all day long, then point it straight to go home - for some, that's the perfect car." - Brian Moody, Automotive Editor
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"If they offered it to me at the rental counter, I would politely ask if something else were available." — Al Austria, Vehicle Evaluation Engineer
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"I rented a car in Massachusetts a few months back. Had the option of a Sync-equipped Focus (same blue as ours) or a base Altima. I picked the Syncmobile and never regretted it for a second." - Mike Magrath, Vehicle Testing Assistant
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"The Ford Focus is really quite impressive...at least as far as cars from the Clinton era go." Karl Brauer, Editor-in-Chief, Edmunds.com
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"Inexpensive A-to-B transportation, with some cool features thrown in — this is what the Focus meant to me. It wasn't much, but strangely, it was enough. Farewell, humble friend - I'll see you on the other side." - Warren Clarke, Automotive Content Editor
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"The poor Focus doesn't get the respect it deserves. If I were younger, I would definitely consider the Ford Focus as a starter car. I'm older now so I need more luxury features for my weary bones. But the Focus is perfectly adequate. I could see it as a college cruiser or the car you buy when you get your first job. And you get the added benefit of fighting with SYNC. It keeps you from having to go home and pick an argument with your husband/wife/roommate/parent/significant other." - Donna DeRosa, Managing Editor
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"Forget the Mk2 European-spec Focus. I never could get over my resentment that this car wasn't a ZX3 hatchback and didn't have that car's steering feel or even its telescoping steering wheel. Sync isn't enough." - Erin Riches, Senior Editor, Inside Line
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"I drove our Focus a lot. That should not be misinterpreted to mean I liked it. I clearly recall the first moment I plopped into that car, and instantly thought, "one and a half, maybe two generations behind the market." Steering feel, engine character, cornering attitude . . . just a little waffly and unrefined. Of course, the Focus was plenty cheap, and it did run reliably, and it had a front license plate so it didn't get a no-plate fix-it ticket when I left it in Lot B at LAX. So it served a certain beast-of-burden role just fine. I accept there's a need for beasts of burden, but that's about as glowing as my praise for the Focus can get." - Kevin Smith, Editorial Director
Wrap-Up
Why We Bought It
Durability
Performance and Fuel Economy
Retained Value
Summing Up
Why We Bought It
Our logic at the beginning of this yearlong road test of the newly redesigned 2008 Ford Focus SES Coupe was sound. Ford had been pimping Sync — its new Microsoft-developed multimedia user interface with voice command — with every breath and keystroke. Our in-boxes were flooded with press releases and our Tivos were filled with ads. Turns out, advertising does work. With a budget surplus and a few trial runs under our belts, we went for the cheapest and first model we could find with the New Best Thing Ever. It was a fun experiment in automotive infotainment until seven months later, when we bought a long-term Ford Flex Limited that backed up the Sync technology with a hard drive, navigation system and a large touchscreen.
At least we had the new styling vocabulary of the 2008 Focus to critique for the next few months. Well, we did until Ford, responding to unanimous disgust, changed the appearance of the 2009 Ford Focus to something a little less visually distinctive.
So we reached the end of our term with the Focus with an 8-year-old vehicle platform, outdated styling and a less-than-optimum version of the wondrous Sync. Sure, we could talk about our optional ABS, our optional automatic transmission or the ambient LED lighting, but chances were good that this car, slowly fading into obscurity, would spend its last few months in our test fleet parked at the airport while one editor or another flew away to an exotic destination, waiting patiently for his or her return.
But then the government got all sorts of involved in the auto business. It bailed out GM (which then went into bankruptcy). It bailed out Chrysler (bankruptcy again). And it started a fun little project to get rid of excess tax revenue: Cash for Clunkers. This program jump-started auto sales with a focus on small, fuel-efficient vehicles, so all of a sudden our road test of a small, fuel-efficient domestic coupe was highly relevant. Focus sales were up 44 percent and, it was reported, the car actually sold out.
Durability
"Like a Rock." It was the tagline for Chevy trucks but should probably get affixed to the Focus. Serious problems? None. A door handle popped off, but no drama there since it was replaced under warranty and we just drove the car around during the daylong wait for parts. Other than that, nothing. We put 25,000 miles on our 2008 Ford Focus and followed the maintenance schedule, so every 5,000 miles we paid Santa Monica Ford just under $60 for an oil change, tire rotation, fluid replacement and a general check-over. One time we had a coupon and paid $44.95. That was a banner day in the mechanical history of the Focus. "This is the sort of car you can buy for your kid," one editor was overheard saying. "It just goes down the road and then comes back. It's a workhorse."
Being a workhorse is one thing; being liked is something different altogether. Our 2008 Focus left us with 25,539 miles, which took more than 16 months to accumulate. Only the Smart Fortwo Passion and Jeep Compass had lower odometer readings.
Total Body Repair Costs: $0
Total Routine Maintenance Costs (over [16] months): $283.51
Additional Maintenance Costs: 0
Warranty Repairs: 1
Non-Warranty Repairs: 0
Scheduled Dealer Visits: 5
Unscheduled Dealer Visits: 0
Days Out of Service: 0
Breakdowns Stranding Driver: 0
Performance and Fuel Economy
It could be guessed from simply looking at the specifications sheet how few miles the Focus would accumulate. No navigation. Two doors. Only 140 horsepower. Four-speed automatic. These are not road trip numbers. These are perfectly fine A-to-B transportation numbers, but they do not beg for the thrills of the open road. And our Ford spent most of its time in the city, bringing us to work as any good workhorse would.
But that's not to say that the Focus stayed in L.A. the whole time. We forced one staffer to take it to Death Valley for some quick, hard miles. And we also used it during the inaugural Edmunds Gas-Sipper Smackdown. Unfortunately for the Focus, it scored last in virtually all the tests, but its inclusion tells you that we were nevertheless seeing some pretty impressive mpg numbers. Our best tank was a restrained 40.6 mpg, while our poorest was just 16.6 mpg, less than half the best. Lifetime average: 26.7 mpg.
As for performance, well, it's got 140 hp, so 60 mph comes up in just under 10 seconds (9.7 seconds, to be precise). Hold your foot down for another 7.7 seconds and the quarter-mile passes in 17.4 seconds at 80.6 mph. Thanks to ABS, braking is merely poor with the car's mpg-enhancing tires instead of awful, and we recorded a stopping distance of 132 feet. This car isn't made for performance, and performs accordingly. Performance isn't a negative here, but it's not a positive, either.
Final Odometer Reading: 25,539
Best Fuel Economy: 40.6 mpg
Worst Fuel Economy: 16.6 mpg
Average Fuel Economy: 26.7 mpg
Retained Value
The Cash for Clunkers program had a positive influence on the sale price and the volume of sales for the latest Focus, but since the program had been designed to stimulate new car sales, it had little effect on the resale value of our 2008 model. Maybe the increased attention on the Focus drove up its resale price a little, but we doubt it, since it's more likely that those who might have been looking for a used car were taking advantage of the program and simply buying new.
We should have expected a lower-than-average resale when the dealer was so willing to negotiate the price when we bought it new. We got about a grand off the top with rebates and walked out paying $17,977.68 on a car that stickered for $19,030. When it came time to sell, Edmunds True Market Value (TMV®) had our Focus listed at $12,543 as equipped. Now, if you've been following the long-term blogs, you'll notice that we've just taken delivery of a new 2010 Chevy Camaro SS. Those things don't grow on trees and demand has pushed the price through the roof. We wanted ours fast and chose to sell the Focus quickly in order to get that Chevy into our garage more quickly. So we took an early offer from someone we knew (a parent of an intern) and let the Focus go for $10,500 — $6,487 less than the MSRP. Cash for Clunkers wouldn't have got you such a screaming deal on a dead-reliable car.
True Market Value at service end: $12,543
What it sold for: $10,500
Depreciation: $6,487 or 66% of original paid price ($19,030)
Final Odometer Reading: 25,539
Bringing It All Into Focus
We spent 16 months with our 2008 Ford Focus, during the last three of which the car existed almost exclusively as an airport trolley. A good utensil is the kind that integrates seamlessly with the user and then goes back into the drawer until it's needed again. The Focus is like that — never inspiring, but never offensive.
Maybe office gossip sums it up best. As Chief Road Test Editor Chris Walton said, "This Focus is a placeholder, and in our fleet it was like a metallic-blue bruise. It just sort of lingered. You'd forget about it and then, wham! you'd bump into it again. It just wouldn't go away."
True Market Value at service end: $12,543
What it sold for: $10,500
Depreciation: $6,487 or 44% of original paid price ($19,030)
Final Odometer Reading: 25,539
Best Fuel Economy: 40.6 mpg
Worst Fuel Economy: 16.6 mpg
Average Fuel Economy: 26.7 mpg
Total Body Repair Costs: $0
Total Routine Maintenance Costs (over 16 months): $283.51
Additional Maintenance Costs: 0
Warranty Repairs: 1
Non-Warranty Repairs: 0
Scheduled Dealer Visits: 5
Unscheduled Dealer Visits: 0
Days Out of Service: 0
Breakdowns Stranding Driver: 0
Edmunds purchased this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.