2017 Ford Focus RS Review

With its strong emphasis on performance, the 2017 Ford Focus RS isn't for everybody. But for the few who are willing to sacrifice some comfort and refinement for thrills, this is the new "it" car.

Hit the gas and the turbo-four makes enough power to get that "gut-punch" feel on launch, and a booming engine sound immediately reverberates throughout the cabin. Back off the gas, and a few raucous pops and crackles emanate from the exhaust. To anyone with aspirations of being a racer, this is pure joy.

On public roads, you feel every flaw in the pavement, including painted crosswalk lines. Over concrete seams on a highway, the repeated jolts make you feel as if you're in a paint shaker at Home Depot. For fledgling rally racers, this is just a necessary evil to achieve such entertaining handling characteristics.

It's ridiculously rewarding to drive the Focus RS on a winding mountain pass, and it's ready to run in a track day with no modifications. The brakes are up to the task of continual abuse.

When cornering, the taut suspension gives the driver a very good sense of what the car can do, and it executes with precision and confidence. The same can be said of the steering, which relays the right amount of feedback to the driver, giving a clear indication of how much grip there is from the front tires.

By contrast, selecting Drift mode makes the car feel unsettled and unpredictable. It may help less talented drivers show off, but we consider it an unnecessary novelty. Selecting the Normal drive mode softens the suspension and dulls the engine response a bit to make it somewhat more livable. Somewhat. For drivers who crave the kind of performance the Focus RS delivers, it's worth every penny and shock to their spine. We get it, and we love it.

The 2017 Ford Focus RS shares most of its interior with the Focus ST. The cabin is well put together, with the proper controls within reach and soft surfaces for your elbows to rest on, but it doesn't feel as classy as the price tag might suggest. Rivals such as the Golf R and S3 look and feel significantly more upscale.

As with the ST, the Focus RS has heavily bolstered Recaro bucket seats that offer considerable lateral restraint in hard cornering. Bigger drivers will definitely want to have an extended test drive in these seats if they can, as the bolsters can become uncomfortable depending on body type. The rear seat has enough headroom for tall adults, but legroom is a bit limited, a common occurrence in this class. Most of the RS' competitors have more legroom, but only by an inch or two. With 19.9 cubic feet of cargo space behind the rear seats, the Focus RS falls behind the Golf R (22.8 cubes) but has much more than the sedan-only WRX STI (12 cubes).

For infotainment purposes, the RS has Ford's Sync 3 system, which uses an 8-inch touchscreen in the center console. The screen is designed to operate like a smartphone with gestures such as swiping or pinching to zoom. The menu structure is simple and the layout, with its white background and bottom row of buttons, will be recognizable to those who use Apple iOS devices. Anyone who remembers the Focus' previous MyFord Touch system will be happy to know that this newer software is much quicker to respond and much easier to use.