2012 ford focus

[Arragonis]

The Cruze Diesel is a decent drive - very close to TDI - fit and finish not quite as good though.

[ChazInMT]

Just got back from Europe after renting a 2012 Focus Wagon for 3 weeks and driving it all over Poland, here's my take on it.

Engine, Epic Fail...Anemic as heck, Gasoline engine, I swear the thing had no guts whatsoever, it had almost no torque up to 2300 rpm, then it only barely started to get out of its own way, and instead of pulling harder as the rpm's climbed it just stayed flat till 5500 rpm, then it pittered away. So it was slow.

Fuel economy wise, for something that had such a small engine, pretty much sucked too, I got 7L/100Km for average, but at it's best, it was still only 6.3L/100km. 33-37 MPG. Awful for something I was hoping to get in the low 40's with. Gas was $7 per gallon in Poland and $9 gallon in Germany.

The car was pretty from the outside, black, very nice looking.

We used the wagon feature to haul home a bicycle, it was fairly roomy as a wagon. The seats were comfortable, and finishes were nice. The driver & front passenger seats were cramped sort of, it seemed like they wanted to fill as much space as possible with the dash and center consul as possible. I don't know what the reason for this could be other than safety, but it just didn't feel airy, you felt very enclosed.

It had a Garmin nav system on a stalk attached to the bottom of the a pillar, it was too low to allow the Garmin to be horizontally positioned, so it was always sort of tilted on the dash. I got sick of trying to deal with the thing at the end of the trip because the touch screen was awful. If you pushed the zoom buttons, unless you were really, really, careful, it would think you touched the map behind and wanted to zoom in on it, and if you touched an object it knew about, it put up this "dialog box" that told you about it, that when you touched it, it would go to yet another screen. Also when you tried to pan the screen around using your finger, it would get a mind of its own and zoom past what you wanted to see and just keep going, or it would unnervingly go in some odd direction or even backwards from your finger slide, it was darn near useless. I had my own navaid that I used at the end, it's a Garmin as well, but night & day difference in usability.
Sorry, that's more of a Garmin rip. Not really focus related.

Ride & Handling were amazing, it really cornered well and smoothed out the bumps great, perfect balance here on these points. The brakes were a bit grabby at times, it went from medium braking power to full lock in a very small amount of pedal travel, so any kind of "panic" tap on the brakes were really abrupt.

So, if this had a better diesel engine with 42 mpg at least and more power, this car would have been great, as it was, I did not like it.

[Arragonis]

What was the engine size ? The 1.6 and (slightly less so) the 1.8 in the Focus are pretty poor. The older ones even came with a 1.4. They have zero torque below about 4K and only a little more above that.

The Diesels (even the 1.6) are effortless cruising machines...

[Daox]

Which engine did yours have in it? There are three different gasoline engines to choose from over in Europe.

I was just talking to the guy here at work who has one in the SFE trim. He is getting about 36 mpg over the past few tanks. He drives mostly highway, some city.

My wife also drives one as her work car. She says according to the OEM display shes getting 34 mpg. She has no way of checking mileage since she fills up at work and there is no gallon readout on the pump. She drives a mix of highway and city and normally gets above EPA rating in the cars she drives.

[ChazInMT]

I don't know what engine it had, I looked at it a few times but didn't see any obvious label on the valve cover or anything. I kept meaning to look at the fine print labels but didn't. 4 cyl gasoline is all I know. Had a 5 speed BTW and was geared to be at 3400 rpm at 70mph....(cue loud sucking sound).

[Arragonis]

Hire cars tend to be the smaller engined ones so it could have been a 1.6 which would also explain the low-ish gearing too. The hire paperwork should state the engine or the output (may be a figure with PS after it).

[ChazInMT]

Just looked at the paper work, not really any info about the car other than Model & Lic Plate. I can also report that when we first got back into Germany, my 11yo son & I wanted to "See what she could do", ya know, Autobahn thing, well it was 113 mph (GPS) 184 Kph Speedo. Smokin.

[RH77]

I just rented a 2012 Focus SEL 5-Door and liked it quite a lot. It was a great semi-luxo compact with leather and lots of extras. The biggest thing to report was one love/hate relationship that could not be avoided: the 6-Speed Automatic Transmission.



Love: It kept the engine at optimum FE range (1500 RPM was the city-cruise target). 55 RPM = 2000 RPM. The vehicle was driven for 1 hour, 10 minutes over 26 miles through the urban streets of St. Louis, with a fillup of 0.528 gallons. This is tremendous FE at a conservative estimate of 48 mpg (taking into account the previous renter's fuel consumption).

Argh Moments: From the first moment of taking my foot off of the brake while in Drive, the transmission shuddered while just at idle. I figured it might be a high-idle problem on cold-start, but it continued.

1st gear has some real problems in average everyday operation. The shuddering continued when starting from a stop, in "D", after releasing the brake. Further, it felt like slipping and shuddering with heavy acceleration from a start -- until it shifted to 2nd. It only had 3200 miles on the odometer, so I chalked it up to "Rental Abuse" -- that was, until I read some owner forums. This is a big problem, and it's common.

VERY common and quite big. How could the engineers let this happen, and make it to the final product??? In my estimation, it's a gigantic design flaw that could sour buyers, owners, and the image of small, fuel-efficient vehicles.

The transmission is VERY busy when accelerating from a start (shift, after shift, after early shift). Again, this is great for FE, but just seems like a real annoyance and prevents smooth operation. The 2-Litre's torque was called upon constantly to pull. Another oddity I noticed, is what I call "Impala TC Effect" -- In full torque converter lockup, in top gear, it will rhythmically lock/unlock while under constant load. It just can't decide what to do. Plus, asking it to downshift to accelerate takes an act of Congress.

I would recommend a 2nd gear start unless the "Sport" mode was selected, or full-throttle downshifts required it (oddly, you couldn't select 2nd to start, in manu-matic mode). Perhaps the ECU can determine inclines on start and perhaps 2nd gear takeoff load until the doors are opened (essentially calculated the number of passengers/cargo and their weight -- which would argue for a 1st gear start).

Speaking of manu-matic, forget downshifting to slow the vehicle -- it just doesn't seem to have the compression to slow it down.

As for the rest of the car -- I love it! This segment needs the injection of design and functionality that this car brings to the market. It is a completely new car inside and out, but carries the "Focus" moniker. Upscale items like auto climate control, leather seating, MS Sync, Bluetooth, multiple steering wheel controls, rear backup sensors, and a whole host of goodies make it competitive and desirable. Those looking for less expensive options can have a base Focus 5-door for $18,500 or the Sedan for $16K.

The 5-door design lended modest cargo space, but plenty of room for passengers. The ride was pretty stiff, especially over bumpy streets, but the reward is taut handling. Controls are easily reached and are intuitive. The radio and multi-function display can get complicated at first, but do quite a lot. There is a slight learning curve with how everything works.

Steering feel and throttle response are both quite numb. American and Canadian drivers may feel that the performance is lackluster (but EM enthusiasts know why). Ford put FE before most other design cues, but retained a chiseled, edgy look.

But there are quality issues at stake. My particular model had the transmission issue and a Windshield Wiper electrical gremlin. The wipers did what they wanted, despite a particular setting on intermittent. Some vehicles alter this with speed of the car, but this happened while stopped.

Overall, it's a great start, with some room for improvement. I would rent it again, simply for the great drive and good FE. I just worry about that transmission...

-RH77

[suspectnumber961]

Originally Posted by Arragonis

Just a quick question.

VW, Audi, Mercedes and BMW sell Diesels in the US, a restricted few only though I think?

GM (Opel / Vauxhall) and Ford both make Diesels in the EU. These meet the same emissions limits as the those models above do.

So do Chevrolet EU (aka Daewoo), Kia, Hyundai and even Honda and Toyota.

So why not in the US ?

If nobody wanted them, VW, Audi, Mercedes and BMW wouldn't bother.

Or am I missing something obvious ?

EDIT - BTW those GM and Ford diesels are really quite good, as good as the TDIs really.

Europe uses the Brent Light Crude (a lighter easier to refine oil) which allows better fuel standards.....while the US uses cruder crude?

[Arragonis]

Originally Posted by suspectnumber961

Europe uses the Brent Light Crude (a lighter easier to refine oil) which allows better fuel standards.....while the US uses cruder crude?

I think the quality of the source fuel has been mentioned. But that doesn't address the question as to why GM/Ford don't sell their Diesel models in the US.

The only rationale I can come up with is that they also make Hybrids and can charge a premium for them, and much of the marketing introducing the idea of a Hybrid has been done for them by Toyota and Honda. Maybe they feel that a premium cannot be charged for a Diesel even though it is by the others.

GM's Diesel engines used to come from Isuzu, and both Honda and Toyota make diesels for sale here.