Got a shot of my Mum's new motability car at the weekend.

It was as per the title though I don't know if it was the 95 or 115hp.And I think it was a Zetec with the city pack (folding mirrors and rear sensors).

Exterior - Well tbh I quite like the new Focus. I had a Mk1 which I thought was a great car and never should have sold it on. Never much liked the Mk2. It all seems finished well enough.

Interior. Not as much space as the Octy but not bad. Boot seems quite small but again I'm going to compare to my VRS. Fit and finish seems fine. Not so keen on the styling. It seems like Ford is trying a bit too hard to be different and edgy and instead it looks a bit tacky. Materials are not as good as my 4yr old Octy but there is soft touch plastic on the top of the dash but the rest is pretty brittle feeling. It is all well laid out and I like the cool blue illumination on the dash.

Seats are comfortable, seating position is good. Steering wheel has very prominent 'thumb notches' (not sure what you'd call them) I found them a bit awkward but it's something you'd maybe get used to. Lots of controls on the wheel, maybe a few too many.

On the road - Very good, impressively good. My Mk1 was a nice drive and the new one is top drawer. The car feels very solid on teh road with good feedback through the wheel and seat. At the same time it soaked up bumps that the VRS would have crashed over. The 1.6 derv lump was also impressive. I assume it was the 115, it pulled strongly in town from low revs and got up to speed easily. It's also quiet. Ok it's French and it'll break but I was pleasantly surprised how good it was. It's no rocket ship but plenty fast enough for everyday. I was getting 72mpg at 70mph and the engine is still tight.

I was driving pretty sedately it not being my motor so I'm not claiming to have tested it's handling on the edge. I did warn the old man he'll have to go for a fast run every so often or he'll have DPF problems.

So a very good drive let down a little bit by a tacky interior.

I spent a long time yesterday in a Focus Titanium 1.6 / 125ps and here are my thoughts…

I’m not a fan of the bloated Fiesta looks but it’s not offensive to look at, was running on those many, many spoked standard 16†alloys. Inside it was a very nice place to be. Very comfortable and lots of kit, cruise, dimming mirror, h’free kit, dual zone climate, auto lights, heated screen, dark window tints. Overall it was very nice. The ride was smooth and comfortable, quiet and pretty refined. The drive was, as expected, excellent. That part of the package was, from what I remember as good as, if not better than a mk VI Golf.

So you’re thinking very good? Well, not quite. The 1.6 petrol engine and 5 speed transmission in this car were, to be polite, asthmatic. This isn’t a comment from someone who drives a grunty diesel or a roar-ty gti. Day in, day out I drive a similar sized, 1.6 petrol engined car with 5 speed transmission. In fact it is a variant of the 1.6 Duratec engine in the mk 2 Focus.

This Focus is fine for pootling about or cruising on the motorway but show it a winding B-road or, God forbid, a hill and there was nothing there. In these situations, my car needs to be dropped a gear to find some pull but in the same situations, the Focus needed dropping 2 gears! I started out thinking this feels like a 6 speed box missing 4th gear, but then 3rd was found lacking in grunt so I thought, no its missing 3rd gear but we got to a stage where, whilst moving, 2nd gear wasn’t strong enough and 1st was needed. I think the prognosis is that the gearing is too long, demonstrated by getting well over 65 before the limiter started in 2nd and the otherwise low revs/mph ratios I saw for a 1.6 petrol.

I can only assume this is done in the interests of economy. The engine is supposed to be 125ps whilst only emitting 136g/km CO2 compared to mine which is claimed to be 105ps and emits 162g/km. The short gearing in my car tries to make the most of the little performance it has at the expense of economy. The gearing in the Focus is the opposite and to be honest I don’t think you would hit those claimed economy levels in the real world unless it was very, very, very light loading. My co-driver and I got a claimed 42mpg compared to the real 38mpg I usually get in my own car on exactly the same route although, to be fair, the Focus has only done 3k miles.

Other comments are that I thought the tints were too dark and I couldn’t see too well out the back and… I’m not sure if this is standard across the hire car industry but my employer insists all supplied cars have a spare wheel, not a can of gunk like when the space ship Civic started appearing. Anyway, to fit what looked like a full size spare into the Focus boot meant losing approx 5-6†inches of boot height! It ended up looking smaller than a Polo (car not mint) sized boot.

So in summary, the mk 3 Focus is a very, very nice car but the 1.6 (125ps) engine and 5 speed tranny are not, in my book, a combination for enjoyable driving. I would like to try it with the 1.6 diesel or a more powerful (possibly turbo) petrol. Whilst I prefer the Focus in many ways, I would still choose a 1.4TSI Golf instead if it came down to the 1.6 engine.

Ok it's French and it'll break but I was pleasantly surprised how good it was.

The Ford Focus French?!?! Did your mum perhaps buy a Renault Megane?!

The Focus is built in Germany so it is a German car!

The Ford Focus French?!?! Did your mum perhaps buy a Renault Megane?!

The Focus is built in Germany so it is a German car!

May be referring to the engine (PSA- Ford joint venture built in France and the UK.)

May be referring to the engine (PSA- Ford joint venture built in France and the UK.)

Ah indeed!!! That explains it a bit better! Doh on my part for reading it the wrong way.