2023 FORD FOCUS ST _ REVIEW on AUTOBAHN by AutoTopNL

**A Personal Review of the Ford Focus**

I have to say that I'm really impressed with my new car, the Ford Focus. The sound system is just annoying, it's got fake sounds in both normal and turbo modes, and it's not very nice. I think it's a big mistake by Ford to include such an annoying feature. When you're driving on the highway, all you want is quiet and torquey performance, but this car does both those things and then some - but with that annoying bassy sound in the background.

Despite my initial reservations about the sound system, I really do think I could buy this car. The estate version is perfect for me, and the 10-speed automatic gearbox is a nice touch. However, I would not recommend it unless you're willing to spend some extra time behind the wheel, because let's be honest, Ford's "Stelligent" mode isn't all it's cracked up to be. It's meant to make the car feel like a high-performance model, but in reality, it's just a way for Ford to pretend they're still a major player in the racing world. The numbers don't lie, though - this thing is fast.

**The Ultrabond: A Character-Building Engine**

One of my favorite things about the Focus is its ultrabond engine. It's where the character of the engine is really amplified on the autobahn, and it will pick up and deliver big torque all the time. 420 newton meters of it, to be exact - that's a lot for a car like this. The fact that it's a front-wheel drive model means that there's less drivetrain loss than in some other cars I've tested, which makes it feel even more responsive.

But what really sets the Focus apart is its braking system. The pedals are marvelous, and flat foot shifting is a dream to use. The suspension has been tweaked slightly since the brief facelift, but it's still an amazing car on the autobahn. The handling is perfect, and the speed stability is spot-on.

**A Top Speed Run**

I decided to take the Focus out for a spin and see how fast I could get it to go. First things first, I had to check that my GPS was working properly - I'd heard rumors of some issues with the system on this model. After a few checks, I was ready to hit the road. The speed limit at our test site was 250 km/h (155 mph), but I knew I'd need to be careful not to get caught speeding by the authorities.

As I accelerated down the autobahn, I felt the Focus come alive beneath me. The engine was pulling strongly all the way up to its redline, and the acceleration was smooth and seamless. When I finally reached 250 km/h, I knew I'd made it - but just barely. The speedo read 251 GPS, which is a full 9 km/h faster than the speed limit.

**Conclusion**

All in all, I'm thoroughly impressed with my new Ford Focus. It's an amazing car that really delivers on its promises. The sound system may not be perfect, and the "Stelligent" mode may be overhyped - but the rest of the car makes up for it tenfold. Whether you're a speed demon or just someone who wants to enjoy every drive, this is a car that's sure to put a smile on your face.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's up ladies and gentlemen welcome to this pov review by auto top panel my name is martin and today i am taking a look at what might be the best whole hatch you can buy the new facelifted version of the ford focus st now this one is green and it's not a gray color for this car i have to say i think ford is going for like a gt3 look with very aggressive colors and this green is the most aggressive spec you can have but i think it's a bit of a miss i love these st models in blue this apple td green i really really don't like it what i do like is this wheel design dedicated focus st wheel 19 inch with pirelli p zeros with a bespoke tire for ford because there is a little logo fb that's like for performance so you really notice the difference because normally i don't like these p0's like the universal p0 i really don't like but these fp ones i really really do like and they also do that for the bmw m3 for instance it's also a bespoke tire and these bespoke ones i really like now the exterior of the car hasn't changed that much we have two exhaust no fake stuff going on so good job by ford the downside of this car is that it doesn't even look like an st yes there is an sd badge right there it has the dual exhaust but that's it basically yeah the wheels but a little spoiler it doesn't look that much better than a normal focus with an st line uh pack which is both a good and a bad thing it's a bad thing because i like my whole hatch to look like a special thing like a cleo v6 great example with a wide body same goes for the new renault megane rs that's also really great ford have decided to spend their money elsewhere and for the focus sd they have used this 2.3 ecoboost engine so it's basically a detune mark 3 focus rs engine 280 horsepower 420 newton meters of torque and it's a torquey engine because of the extra 0.3 of a liter compared to all the 2 liter competitors or even a 1.8 for renault so you can really feel that you have displacement so you wouldn't say this is a facelift i know the headlights and the taillights look a bit different different bumper pieces but if you're not like a ford guy you won't even notice if you compare this to the pre-facelift now on the interior however ford have ditched recaro as a partner and they've started to make their own seats let me turn this off and the recaros were absolutely gorgeous but ford have outdone themselves these seats are ridiculously good there are four performance seats and as you can see they are really really snug great bucket seat and they really remind me of the bucket seats in my m3 seating position support wise it really is that good they have done an amazing amazing job with these seats and it's all leather even this piece is leather this is a very soft material that your kids can kick into so they have really thought of everything when it comes to the seats they absolutely nailed it so we were really sad to hear that they ditched their partnership with recaro but it turns out it's great news actually electrically adjustable seats seating position absolutely perfect the steering wheel nice shape nice size it's very nice to adjust so it comes towards you quite a lot and i really really like it little flat bottom it's really a nice steering wheel to hold it's actually nicer than the one you find in an m3 for instance so a lot of good news on the interior there's also bad news this is fake carbon fiber and it's super super fake it looks like it's from the leftovers from aliexpress even aliexpress didn't like this so they gave it to four i think jesus christ that's really really ugly okay so let's start the 2.3 liter ecoboost engine now that is the big news we have a new infotainment system which is this massive massive screen it's 13.2 inch that's really really large and i just love it it works like a charm and it of course has apple carplay which i always use and it's so convenient you can even run two satmas systems at the same time how cool is that don't know why you would do that but it's cool that you can right okay let's get driving i have a very nice road for you guys today so let's start in we have different driving modes in normal mode so we have normal sport what is that and track which looks like i'm playing freaking mario kart that that could have been a bit better right there we go back to normal mode now the sc models let's start with the fiesta sd the three cylinder i really really like that as a proposition small small hatchback with a nice three cylinder with a lot of character then you have the puma st it's a bit bigger it's a bit taller also really really love that car and this focus st uh it's the bigger brother with an extra cylinder it's a four cylinder now the fiesta and the puma have one thing in common they both are the best cars in their class now the focus sd has a bit more competition so the mega and rs trophy the golf gti club sport the uni i30 and all great great cars now let's find out if this is also as great or even greater so in normal mode it already has a great great balance to it it is such an amazing car to drive the suspension setup is just perfect so we have an adaptive suspension in normal mode it's already really sporty and in track mode it's just rock solid and quite hard which isn't a bad thing i mean that's what track mode's for but this normal mode for like street driving is the best so the drive train we have a six-speed manual gearbox which is lovely as always with the st models a lot of feel on the pedal both the clutch and the brake pedal and the shift is also really nice you never miss a shift and it's always crisp and just perfect so let's put it into sport mode so the fake sound changes you get auto rev matching for the gearbox and it's all just a little more aggressive now i think this mode is the nicest for a road like this because it's still compliant but it's as hard and as sporty as it can be on a normal street so this really is a chalky engine it's not really rev-happy but that's because of the displacement it's a 2.3 liter so it has more to offer without using its turbo so you can really feel that at like 5000 rpm you get max power five and a half of horsepower but the good news is that if you pull through to like six and a half it doesn't really die on you it like plateaus and gives you that 280 horsepower all the time so that's good news oh the steering is absolutely perfect they have really nailed it at four the suspension is this is such a nice car to drive i mean the compromise the the balance is just as good as it gets it's a lot better than with a renault megane rs which is a lot more directed towards sporty driving and track driving this is like 90 percent of the megan rs trophy and it's just a lot better on a daily basis now this new screen i absolutely love it i've been using this car as a daily for like three days now and i could honestly trade in my m3 for this car because it's just so nice and a lot of that is because of the screen because you know it's it's really nice to work with it's really really good you also have the bno play system so the like cheaper bag and olufsen version that ford tend to use and it's also really really good sound quality is perfect and man it's just a cracking cracking car so this is the manual which means we also have launch control ford always does this with their manual st models you get launch control which i will demonstrate in a moment when the road is a bit more straight and let's talk about track mode so this is where it gets a bit unsettled because of the irregularities of a normal street road now this would be the perfect setting for a track which is why it's called track mode but on a normal road it's a bit unsettled you don't get that much more in return it's just more unbalanced and it also disengages esp and if you use launch control you need esp because if you don't it's just wheelspin all over the place let me demonstrate should do 5.7 seconds in track mode though it's like seven because of that there we go so it's really busy and not all that nice so let's go back to sport mode and enjoy everything this car has to offer it's such an all-rounder without getting boring and unfocused like a golf gti so yeah there's also a golf gti club sport with 300 horsepower but for me this is so much more fun we have a manual perfect manual gearbox we have a very nice engine i really like it it's just very different compared to the two liter tsi which frankly i'm a bit done with and you do get some pops from the exhaust but of course this has been equipped with an opf particular filter so you know it's a bit filter and that's why ford decided to use fake sound through the speakers to like bump up the driving experience but it's just annoying i think it's a very very fake sound and it's not very nice and it even has fake sound in normal mode and i think this is a very big mistake because when you drive on the highway you just want it to be quiet and torquey right but it's both those things and a bit annoying because you get a bit of fake sound that's just you know i don't like this sound that bassy annoying sound yeah it's it's there like all the time um so i could honestly buy this car really i would really consider this you can also get it as an estate perfect perfect job by ford you can also get it with a 10 speed auto gearbox which you should not get because it's not really that nice stupid track mode yeah that's a little faster uh it's not as fast as ford says because they say it will do 5.7 seconds i did a 6.2 that was my fastest run and i cannot imagine shaving off another half a second but you know maybe if one of ford's pro drivers on a very hot day with cop2 tires maybe then but for a normal individual it's practically impossible but you know you just don't care you just don't care with this car it's not about acceleration it's not about being the fastest in the straight line it's really about enjoying every single drive every single day and that's the cars i really really like and that's why i really really like this ford so let's head over to the ultrabond because yeah you know we're allowed to stop an hell we have to do it and talk about the numbers it will do but what have they done with these p0s they are really really good so this is where the character of the engine is really amplified on the autobahn you can really feel that low down it will pick up and deliver you big torque 420 newton meters of it and it will keep delivering all the time which is really nice and in a straight line i'm i'm sure this is as fast as a ford focus rs mark 3 because that car was just way too heavy and with the all-wheel drive system it had a lot of drivetrain loss uh which this does this doesn't as a front-wheel drive car so brakes just had to brake a bit there they are really really good again really really good brake pedal feel is just marvelous performance is really really good they have just done an incredible job over at ford you can flat foot shift so when i shift into the next gear i leave it on throttle high speed stability absolutely perfect they have done little adjustments on the suspension compared to the brief facelift which was already an amazing car on the autobahn and it still is as amazing if not even a bit better because of those changes this really is a very impressive old hatch it did a 15.6 100 to 200 run which is a bit strange because the pre-facelift did a 47. jesus you cannot go into the left lane with 80. you stupid man jesus christ what an idiot thankfully i have these awesome breaks he just wanted me to demonstrate them i think so what was that yeah 15.7 102 200 and the pre-facelift did a 14-7 i i i just noticed that our delivery is a bit inconsistent so if you do a lot of runs the one run will be significantly faster than the other and that's that's a bit strange that's a bit of a downside but as i said before it's really not about the straight line performance it's about everything into one package awesome seats awesome engine awesome gearbox awesome brakes that screen it's just perfect it's now a reason for me to get this car instead of a reason not to get it like with the pre-facelift it's all good news i think well they should never have ditched the analog speedometer for this stupid digital one but that's basically it i wouldn't be surprised if at some point i would buy this car i really wouldn't so let's see if we can do a top speed run near to the border it's a bit busy today and you need a lot of space to do it it's 250 of course and it will do 251 gps i have tested it of course for you guys ah no don't think we're going to make it that's 250 on the speedo it will do 258 on the speedo come on ah there we have the awesome brakes again yeah they are getting old right now but they have taken a beating today and they can handle a lot they really really can so this might be it for you guys and for me that was it for today hope you enjoyed the review go check out this one and go check out the playlist and please guys subscribe it really really helps byewhat's up ladies and gentlemen welcome to this pov review by auto top panel my name is martin and today i am taking a look at what might be the best whole hatch you can buy the new facelifted version of the ford focus st now this one is green and it's not a gray color for this car i have to say i think ford is going for like a gt3 look with very aggressive colors and this green is the most aggressive spec you can have but i think it's a bit of a miss i love these st models in blue this apple td green i really really don't like it what i do like is this wheel design dedicated focus st wheel 19 inch with pirelli p zeros with a bespoke tire for ford because there is a little logo fb that's like for performance so you really notice the difference because normally i don't like these p0's like the universal p0 i really don't like but these fp ones i really really do like and they also do that for the bmw m3 for instance it's also a bespoke tire and these bespoke ones i really like now the exterior of the car hasn't changed that much we have two exhaust no fake stuff going on so good job by ford the downside of this car is that it doesn't even look like an st yes there is an sd badge right there it has the dual exhaust but that's it basically yeah the wheels but a little spoiler it doesn't look that much better than a normal focus with an st line uh pack which is both a good and a bad thing it's a bad thing because i like my whole hatch to look like a special thing like a cleo v6 great example with a wide body same goes for the new renault megane rs that's also really great ford have decided to spend their money elsewhere and for the focus sd they have used this 2.3 ecoboost engine so it's basically a detune mark 3 focus rs engine 280 horsepower 420 newton meters of torque and it's a torquey engine because of the extra 0.3 of a liter compared to all the 2 liter competitors or even a 1.8 for renault so you can really feel that you have displacement so you wouldn't say this is a facelift i know the headlights and the taillights look a bit different different bumper pieces but if you're not like a ford guy you won't even notice if you compare this to the pre-facelift now on the interior however ford have ditched recaro as a partner and they've started to make their own seats let me turn this off and the recaros were absolutely gorgeous but ford have outdone themselves these seats are ridiculously good there are four performance seats and as you can see they are really really snug great bucket seat and they really remind me of the bucket seats in my m3 seating position support wise it really is that good they have done an amazing amazing job with these seats and it's all leather even this piece is leather this is a very soft material that your kids can kick into so they have really thought of everything when it comes to the seats they absolutely nailed it so we were really sad to hear that they ditched their partnership with recaro but it turns out it's great news actually electrically adjustable seats seating position absolutely perfect the steering wheel nice shape nice size it's very nice to adjust so it comes towards you quite a lot and i really really like it little flat bottom it's really a nice steering wheel to hold it's actually nicer than the one you find in an m3 for instance so a lot of good news on the interior there's also bad news this is fake carbon fiber and it's super super fake it looks like it's from the leftovers from aliexpress even aliexpress didn't like this so they gave it to four i think jesus christ that's really really ugly okay so let's start the 2.3 liter ecoboost engine now that is the big news we have a new infotainment system which is this massive massive screen it's 13.2 inch that's really really large and i just love it it works like a charm and it of course has apple carplay which i always use and it's so convenient you can even run two satmas systems at the same time how cool is that don't know why you would do that but it's cool that you can right okay let's get driving i have a very nice road for you guys today so let's start in we have different driving modes in normal mode so we have normal sport what is that and track which looks like i'm playing freaking mario kart that that could have been a bit better right there we go back to normal mode now the sc models let's start with the fiesta sd the three cylinder i really really like that as a proposition small small hatchback with a nice three cylinder with a lot of character then you have the puma st it's a bit bigger it's a bit taller also really really love that car and this focus st uh it's the bigger brother with an extra cylinder it's a four cylinder now the fiesta and the puma have one thing in common they both are the best cars in their class now the focus sd has a bit more competition so the mega and rs trophy the golf gti club sport the uni i30 and all great great cars now let's find out if this is also as great or even greater so in normal mode it already has a great great balance to it it is such an amazing car to drive the suspension setup is just perfect so we have an adaptive suspension in normal mode it's already really sporty and in track mode it's just rock solid and quite hard which isn't a bad thing i mean that's what track mode's for but this normal mode for like street driving is the best so the drive train we have a six-speed manual gearbox which is lovely as always with the st models a lot of feel on the pedal both the clutch and the brake pedal and the shift is also really nice you never miss a shift and it's always crisp and just perfect so let's put it into sport mode so the fake sound changes you get auto rev matching for the gearbox and it's all just a little more aggressive now i think this mode is the nicest for a road like this because it's still compliant but it's as hard and as sporty as it can be on a normal street so this really is a chalky engine it's not really rev-happy but that's because of the displacement it's a 2.3 liter so it has more to offer without using its turbo so you can really feel that at like 5000 rpm you get max power five and a half of horsepower but the good news is that if you pull through to like six and a half it doesn't really die on you it like plateaus and gives you that 280 horsepower all the time so that's good news oh the steering is absolutely perfect they have really nailed it at four the suspension is this is such a nice car to drive i mean the compromise the the balance is just as good as it gets it's a lot better than with a renault megane rs which is a lot more directed towards sporty driving and track driving this is like 90 percent of the megan rs trophy and it's just a lot better on a daily basis now this new screen i absolutely love it i've been using this car as a daily for like three days now and i could honestly trade in my m3 for this car because it's just so nice and a lot of that is because of the screen because you know it's it's really nice to work with it's really really good you also have the bno play system so the like cheaper bag and olufsen version that ford tend to use and it's also really really good sound quality is perfect and man it's just a cracking cracking car so this is the manual which means we also have launch control ford always does this with their manual st models you get launch control which i will demonstrate in a moment when the road is a bit more straight and let's talk about track mode so this is where it gets a bit unsettled because of the irregularities of a normal street road now this would be the perfect setting for a track which is why it's called track mode but on a normal road it's a bit unsettled you don't get that much more in return it's just more unbalanced and it also disengages esp and if you use launch control you need esp because if you don't it's just wheelspin all over the place let me demonstrate should do 5.7 seconds in track mode though it's like seven because of that there we go so it's really busy and not all that nice so let's go back to sport mode and enjoy everything this car has to offer it's such an all-rounder without getting boring and unfocused like a golf gti so yeah there's also a golf gti club sport with 300 horsepower but for me this is so much more fun we have a manual perfect manual gearbox we have a very nice engine i really like it it's just very different compared to the two liter tsi which frankly i'm a bit done with and you do get some pops from the exhaust but of course this has been equipped with an opf particular filter so you know it's a bit filter and that's why ford decided to use fake sound through the speakers to like bump up the driving experience but it's just annoying i think it's a very very fake sound and it's not very nice and it even has fake sound in normal mode and i think this is a very big mistake because when you drive on the highway you just want it to be quiet and torquey right but it's both those things and a bit annoying because you get a bit of fake sound that's just you know i don't like this sound that bassy annoying sound yeah it's it's there like all the time um so i could honestly buy this car really i would really consider this you can also get it as an estate perfect perfect job by ford you can also get it with a 10 speed auto gearbox which you should not get because it's not really that nice stupid track mode yeah that's a little faster uh it's not as fast as ford says because they say it will do 5.7 seconds i did a 6.2 that was my fastest run and i cannot imagine shaving off another half a second but you know maybe if one of ford's pro drivers on a very hot day with cop2 tires maybe then but for a normal individual it's practically impossible but you know you just don't care you just don't care with this car it's not about acceleration it's not about being the fastest in the straight line it's really about enjoying every single drive every single day and that's the cars i really really like and that's why i really really like this ford so let's head over to the ultrabond because yeah you know we're allowed to stop an hell we have to do it and talk about the numbers it will do but what have they done with these p0s they are really really good so this is where the character of the engine is really amplified on the autobahn you can really feel that low down it will pick up and deliver you big torque 420 newton meters of it and it will keep delivering all the time which is really nice and in a straight line i'm i'm sure this is as fast as a ford focus rs mark 3 because that car was just way too heavy and with the all-wheel drive system it had a lot of drivetrain loss uh which this does this doesn't as a front-wheel drive car so brakes just had to brake a bit there they are really really good again really really good brake pedal feel is just marvelous performance is really really good they have just done an incredible job over at ford you can flat foot shift so when i shift into the next gear i leave it on throttle high speed stability absolutely perfect they have done little adjustments on the suspension compared to the brief facelift which was already an amazing car on the autobahn and it still is as amazing if not even a bit better because of those changes this really is a very impressive old hatch it did a 15.6 100 to 200 run which is a bit strange because the pre-facelift did a 47. jesus you cannot go into the left lane with 80. you stupid man jesus christ what an idiot thankfully i have these awesome breaks he just wanted me to demonstrate them i think so what was that yeah 15.7 102 200 and the pre-facelift did a 14-7 i i i just noticed that our delivery is a bit inconsistent so if you do a lot of runs the one run will be significantly faster than the other and that's that's a bit strange that's a bit of a downside but as i said before it's really not about the straight line performance it's about everything into one package awesome seats awesome engine awesome gearbox awesome brakes that screen it's just perfect it's now a reason for me to get this car instead of a reason not to get it like with the pre-facelift it's all good news i think well they should never have ditched the analog speedometer for this stupid digital one but that's basically it i wouldn't be surprised if at some point i would buy this car i really wouldn't so let's see if we can do a top speed run near to the border it's a bit busy today and you need a lot of space to do it it's 250 of course and it will do 251 gps i have tested it of course for you guys ah no don't think we're going to make it that's 250 on the speedo it will do 258 on the speedo come on ah there we have the awesome brakes again yeah they are getting old right now but they have taken a beating today and they can handle a lot they really really can so this might be it for you guys and for me that was it for today hope you enjoyed the review go check out this one and go check out the playlist and please guys subscribe it really really helps bye\n"