Dear agony aunt.

Well I went out for a test drive and I liked it but I am shocked at the second hand prices and how well they are holding up. For

erm i do a 500 mile round trip every weekend york to scotland and its great its quite compared to most on all except the roughest of road surfaces as fo wind noise its very good hardly noticed it over the weekend. the dash is fine functional and thats good seats i dont hve a problem with except a bit of chocolate i got on them yesterday :(

Compared with other cars, as stated the road noise can be unbearable, but havn't noticed any wind noise. Have looked around for " quiet" tyres and am about to try a set of Dunlop Sports to see if the noise reduces.

Engine noise is well suppressed inside.

Hmmmm you "like" Ford interiors???......compared to whats in the vRS there is no competition as regards quality of materials used. I have always found Fords to be one of the worst manufacturers for using cheap brittle childs toy plastics in thier cars. They may look nice, but at the end of the day i go for quality.

In general I would agree about Ford interiors but the Focus (especially the Ghia) does have a quality feel and I have never had anything break. It is just the acres of black plastic in the VRS but now having looked around other modern cars it is the norm.

Forget the totally personal issue of interior designs I have one reply saying road noise is low and one saying is it "unbearable". No car is good on the horrible concrete motorways but on the average tarmac motorway/A road are we saying better than most, average or poor. I put the Focus as poor as I did the trip in my parents 1.3 Fiesta last weekend and I thought it was better than the Focus for road noise (only).

Looking for peoples general experiences / opinions.

I will take the VRS out for a longer test drive once I have a little more information and go back with my cheque book (just in case).

Been looking through and people were getting new Magic black examples for

We've just sold SWMBO's Smart and I can assure you the noise in the Fabia is a lot less.

I'm not sure where you are based but our local dealer has a few new VRs in stock and they are fairly agressivley priced I think.

We got a Brand New Black Magic with Cruise and Cd Changer for

I do 80 mile round trip on Motorway.( just going for 20k service) It is the M20, just over half the journey is the cr3p concrete, 1 third is tarmac, the rest is the new ultra quiet water repelant tarmac.

Conclusion:

Need quieter tyres for the concrete section, other than that road noise is not intrusive, it is better than most other cars i have been in ( despite it being a Diesel). Wind Noise virtually non existant. ( i defy ANY car to not have wind noise with the current gales ) .

The std radio has the feature ( can be turned off ) where as the interior niose increases, so does the radio volume. On my journeys, because of the changing road surfaces, the vol was up and down :(.

For motorway's, well my son did a 300 mile drive @ 70 mph, he said " it drives itself, & it needed cruise for that type of journey". ( that was from a Roadsetr owner ).

You would not regret changing

Steve

Dear agony aunt.

Well I went out for a test drive and I liked it but I am shocked at the second hand prices and how well they are holding up. For

Dear agony aunt.

Well I went out for a test drive and I liked it but I am shocked at the second hand prices and how well they are holding up. For

In general I would agree about Ford interiors but the Focus (especially the Ghia) does have a quality feel and I have never had anything break. It is just the acres of black plastic in the VRS but now having looked around other modern cars it is the norm.

Forget the totally personal issue of interior designs I have one reply saying road noise is low and one saying is it "unbearable". No car is good on the horrible concrete motorways but on the average tarmac motorway/A road are we saying better than most, average or poor. I put the Focus as poor as I did the trip in my parents 1.3 Fiesta last weekend and I thought it was better than the Focus for road noise (only).

Looking for peoples general experiences / opinions.

I will take the VRS out for a longer test drive once I have a little more information and go back with my cheque book (just in case).

Been looking through and people were getting new Magic black examples for

How is the VRS for wind and road noise on a motorway / a road run?. I do a 400 mile round trip every month or so from Reading to S****horpe M40/A43/M1/M18.

I travel along the M180 on a regular basis and the vrs can be quite noisy on the parts of the motorway which still has a concrete surface. This could be down to the Michelin Primacy tyres.

Will have to get it chiped but otherwise intend to leave standard. Maybe de-badge (VRS)

I would give the standard car a try before getting it chipped... we briefly had a Focus ESP and the Fabia has go far more go than that Focus.

Hmmmm you "like" Ford interiors???......compared to whats in the vRS there is no competition as regards quality of materials used. I have always found Fords to be one of the worst manufacturers for using cheap brittle childs toy plastics in thier cars. They may look nice, but at the end of the day i go for quality.

Yep, my mates got a Focus 1.8 Zetec 16v, which is a "sporty" trim and its interior is nowhere near as good as the Furby.

Edited to add the Furby will also feel way quicker than the Focus as standard, never mind chipped.

If it means anything, I test drove a Vrs on sunday. I thought it felt very solid and firm footed. It was pouring down when I drove it. I had driven an Ibiza that morning, and to be honest I cant believe those cars are built on the same platform.

The Ibiza felt harsh and the interior was as plastic as you could get. I like to change my cars a lot, and hence try a lot out. I can honestly say, I have never been that impressed with a car on my initial test drive.

IMHO...Focus vs Vrs....no comparison

Regards

Up to 80mph, there is negligible wind noise and if you get some decent tyres, road noise is also minimal, except on concrete roads where most similar sized cars would suffer the same.

Chris

Thanks everyone.

I think the second visit with the cheque book is in order later this week.

I must have a special one off dashboard in my Focus as the sq inches of plain plastic expanse from the instruments across the car does not compared to the VRS. Focus very few VRS,Seat, etc acres.

Need a change and some fun now I have given up motorcycling hence VRS or Cupra (150DTI). Subaru's just to expensive for what you get and where you can use it to its full on the roads these days ( local supermarket car park excepted!!!!).. Plus I sit in the passenger seat of a Rally car 10 times a year so I do not need that buzz every day.