**The Ford Focus: A New Benchmark for Small Family Cars**
Ford has done it again, and this time they've nailed it with their latest iteration of the Focus, which is not only a great drive but also a fantastic package in terms of features and technology. With its perfect balance of comfort and handling, the St Line model is a joy to drive on both smooth roads and bumpy ones alike.
The new focus has got some special Springs fitted into it to keep that rear torsion beam nice and stable. This helps to isolate the rear suspension from the main body, which means that when you go over bumps, you don't feel them as much. The torsion beam cars drive nicely enough, but those with an independent rear setup are even better. Ford's engineers have done a great job in balancing comfort and handling, making this car truly great to drive.
One of the standout features of the new Focus is its sharp steering. It loads up well, giving you loads of grip and confidence when driving. Whether it's just putting the wheels on the road or actually hooning around a twisty bit of road, the focus is always engaging and fun to drive. And with a smooth 8-speed automatic transmission, you can enjoy the ride without having to worry about shifting gears.
The Focus also comes with a range of engines, both petrol and diesel, including a decent 1.5-liter turbocharged petrol that produces 182 horsepower. The car accelerates from 0-60mph in just 7.7 seconds, making it more than capable of keeping up with the likes of hot hatches. While the engine may not be the most refined or rev-happy, its punchy performance makes up for it.
One area where the Focus still lags behind is in terms of rear space. The old model was criticized for being cramped in the back seats, but this new iteration has greatly improved matters. With more legroom and a flatter floor, you can now stretch out comfortably even with three people across the back. However, one thing that hasn't changed is the infotainment system's approach to rear seat space - it still doesn't have Isofix mounting points, which means you can't simply clip in child seats.
The boot space of the Focus is slightly better than before, but it's still not class-leading for a car of its size. If you need to carry lots of luggage or equipment, there's always the option of opting for the estate version of the Focus. While the hatchback may look less stylish, beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder.
Overall, Ford has built a brilliant car with this new Focus, and it proves that you don't have to pay extra for a premium brand to get a great driving experience. With its comfortable ride, engaging handling, and loads of features, the St Line model is a must-consider for anyone in the market for a small family car. Whether you're looking for a relaxing drive or an exhilarating one, the Focus has something for everyone.
**The Verdict**
I think Ford have done it again with this new Focus, and I'm thoroughly impressed with what they've come up with. The perfect balance of comfort and handling makes it a joy to drive on both smooth roads and bumpy ones alike. With its sharp steering, loads of grip, and smooth 8-speed automatic transmission, the St Line model is a standout in its class.
The focus is also a great package in terms of features and technology, with a range of new engines including the decent 1.5-liter turbocharged petrol. While it may not be the most refined or rev-happy engine, its punchy performance makes up for it.
One area where the Focus still lags behind is in terms of rear space, but that's still not enough to put me off this car. If you need to carry lots of luggage or equipment, there's always the option of opting for the estate version of the Focus.
Overall, I highly recommend the Ford Focus to anyone in the market for a small family car. With its comfortable ride, engaging handling, and loads of features, it's truly great value for money. Whether you're looking for a relaxing drive or an exhilarating one, the Focus has something for everyone.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis is the new Ford Focus and it could well be the most advanced mainstream car you combine and to find out if it is in this video I'm going to drive it I'm going to check out its practicality and I'm gonna test its technology which I couldn't afford is class-leading but we'll find out about that in a bit now before we get into the video please make sure you subscribe to this channel and hit the bell icon to turn the notifications on so you're alerted when we make a new upload let's start this review by talking about the cars design because it's a really important factor you see when I first saw the pictures of this thing I was like oh my god was Ford oniy looks terrible but whoever took those photos needs firing because they've done this car and injustice I actually think it looks great here in the flesh this is the esti line so it's sporty ER so you've got like a kind of aggressive front bumper and a honeycomb grille the basic car has a different grille the titanium model has a slotted shiny grille the Vignelli has a posh looking grille and then there's the active version which is they kind of pretend off-roader which has its own grille as well and he gets some special LED headlights which can actually bend round corners obviously they're not bending the light that is a physical impossibility unless of course you're near a black hole but this isn't a science lesson it's a car review and what it actually does is use a camera to read the road ahead and if it sees that Bend Hill angle the headlight so it's not connected to the steering wheel like most systems are it's very clever now moving down the sides this car is running on 17-inch alloy wheels because it's the S T line you can get wheel sizes up to 18 inches once again be in the esti line you've got some side skirts make it look sporty then at the back there's a roof spoiler you've got a sort of pretend diffuser now some people will be part of this car because of that badge it's not German however this car is built in Germany just like the Volkswagen Golf so which would you have the Volkswagen Golf or this click on the pop-out band there top right corner of the screen to cast your vote and don't be a bad snob because to tell you at the moment I'm actually leaning towards this I never thought I'd say that since the first focus arrived in 1998 more than 2 million have been sold making it the UK's most popular car and now here are some more interesting numbers about this latest focus fifty three millimeters that's how much extra space there is between the front and the rear wheels compared to the old focus and that gives you extra interior space Oh 20% that's how much stiffer this new focuses bodies than the old cars for improved crash protection and drivability one centimeter that's how much lower the st lyon version sits to the road however three centimeters is how much higher the active version sits over the standard car one meter is improved braking distance from sixty miles an hour if you have a focus fitted with brake booster which gives you some extra stopping power two milliseconds that's how fast the option adaptive suspension can respond to the road conditions in fact if you've ever pothole they can sense the wheel dropping will stop it from dropping too fast it doesn't crush when you hit the other side of the pothole I tried the adaptive suspension system on the new vignola version of the focus and it seemed to smooth out bad roads pretty well especially in softer comfort mode sorry to interrupt the review I just wanted to tell you about our refer-a-friend scheme so click up there to find out more about it could earn you a 50 pound Amazon gift card all right thanks anyway back to the review and the new focuses interior design this car just feels so much nicer on the insider than the old focus and it's like someone's actually bothered to design a dash this time I want the shape of it it's really nice it's it's not the most exciting thing to look at because it's all quite dark there you can try and liven things up with bits of trim here on this particular panel this one's got a fake carbon fiber effect it does a good job of faking actually terms of the quality there's plenty of soft touch materials about the place but then as you move down they do start to feel a little bit cheaper and look at this the center console it actually wobbles which is not great but I found that on many Ford cars in the past do like the fact that they've given you this little padded area here to rest your knee on and then down in the door bins that actually a lot of felt to stop bits and pieces rattling around in there when you're driving now that's a little trick that Ford is clearly nicked from Volkswagen because they've been doing that on the golf for a long time now now in terms of prices this car starts from 18,000 pounds and if you click on the pop-out band in the top right hand corner of the screen you can see how much you can save on a Ford Focus or any car for that matter Carl Wow now you don't actually on the entry level car you want to step up to at least the z-tech because that's got more kitten you also get Ford SYNC infotainment system the easytek has a slightly smaller screen this this is the esti line it's about 21 and a half thousand pounds but then you get a lot more kit such as this larger 8-inch screen easy to swap through different menus and you've got things like apple carplay and android auto on it as well the navigation system is alright it's not the best system but it's pretty decent really I don't mind it at all and this st-9 also has other stuff you've got partly the seats you've got this red stitching about the place to make it feel all sporty you also get a wide screen reversing camera which has a 180 degree view though the picture is a little bit washed out even though it's quite big you also get a Bang & Olufsen stereo which is really loud I like that and this is quite surprising a heads-up display a standard the display is the biggest and brightest on any car of this size and can show a wide range of speed safety and navigation data another thing to note is that most heads-up displays like these you can't actually see the image if you've got glasses with polarized lenses but with this one it has a special coating so that you can and so I can put my glasses on now you see it wasn't a continuity error that I'm trying to cover up not at all know if you want to cover up a lack of driving skills then Ford has the technology for you you get this car with a new automatic parking facility which can port this car into a gap which is about 1.1 meters longer than the car itself and that's what I have set up here with these two of the cars however this new version of the focus a little bit special about it you see if you go for the automatic version the system won't just control the steering wheel it'll also do the throttle and brake so you don't have to do anything and I'll demonstrate it now so all I have to do is press this button down here I indicate to say which way I want to look for a space it should be scanning now looking for a space or very similar to the system that was on the old focus nothing new here not yet now it's found the space and there we go I just stopped now and this is where it's different right so I just put the car into neutral hold this button down let go the brake and the throttle and the steering and basically just do nothing in fact I could in theory just be in a completely different position there we go it's a bit ridiculous so now it's going to maneuver the car into the space now I could manage to get the car in this myself but some people didn't terrible Parkers and this will just do the job for them but this isn't the only way the new focus can help you it can also prevent you from crashing into things as well as the usual auto emergency braking with things like cyclists detection this car is also available with something called evasive steering assist now what that does is use a Ford facing camera and radar to check out what's ahead of you and if it sees an obstacle and it thinks that you can't avoid hitting it even with braking it'll actually help steer you around it so that you don't have an accident now the system doesn't actually include any arms this is just for illustrative purposes they belong to my cameraman Bradley yes Bradley hey that's enough for Bradley they wanting to steal the show no no do I am actually it's the focus and it's assistant systems which is starting to steal the show and it could also help you on the motorway so I've got cruise control but it also has radar guidance so it will keep me a safe distance from the car in front and if I press this button here I also have a lane keeping assist on so it should steer to keep me in Lane and the idea is that you keep your hands on the wheel and it just helps you but you can of course take your hands off and it should stop me from just weaving about the place now it's gonna be a cross because I got my hands off the wheel it's always interesting to see what the system does when you keep your hands off the wheel does it disengage entirely which i think is a bit dangerous or does it automatically slow you in your lane so let's see its steering there to keep your lane still and now it's laid me down to telling me I've got driver fatigue because I was clearly just not paying attention and it's telling me to rest but I can't rest yet as you still need to know what the focus is like to drive but before we get into that I need to get technical now in the past all Ford Focuses had rien dependent suspension however now you only get it on the more expensive versions the cheaper models have a torsion beam setup so it's a bit like their rear wheels are tied together so I'm illustrating now so no this is not about to turn into an S&M video you know ya might be parked up in a lay-by all alone but it's not gonna get fruit he's not going to be an X I don't worry so when the wheels are connected together it can mean if you're a bump big corner the car can skip a little bit now to help counteract this Ford has fitted their car with some special Springs which keep that rear torsion beam nice and stable or so they've tried to isolate the rear suspension from the main body so that when you go over bumps you don't feel them so much the torsion beam cars drive nicely enough but those were the independent rear setup like this st line I've even better well I tell you what I think Ford's engineers have nailed it with this car they've they've got a perfect balance of comfort and handling so this is the sporty St line with stiffer suspension yeah over bumps it's great it's really comfortable it's a really relaxing car to travel in but it's also got handling employees you know you can have fun in this guy's genuinely good fun I mean I used to say that about the old folks the Mach 3 the one before that the mark 2 and the Marquand back in the day and people used to always complain when I was comparing any car to the Ford Focus as being the benchmark for what a small family car can drive like I stopped that in recent years because basically the game we've done a left the Ford Focus behind it but it's caught up and it's now setting the class benchmark yet again with this thing it's truly great to drive sharp steering loads of grip loads of confidence to just hoon it around and it can just put a smile on your face if you get into a road like this be a for most people in England when they're driving this con is stuck you know just getting up and down the motorway you'll be perfectly comfortable it's higher seats are nice the gearshift it's a bit not cheap but it's alright and the automatic and you 8-speed auto not smooth as well looks like it's a job well done the focus gets forwards latest range of engines and both the diesels and the petrol a decent I'm in the 1.5 liter turbo petrol and I want to see just how quick it is to 60 miles an hour so call my specialist timing gear here and I'm gonna launch it but it will spared oh this just change Nord 60 in seven point seven seconds which makes this a little bit like a hot hatch really I think I do notice those that while this engine is punchy it's not the freeze revving because it's a three cylinder and it can sound a bit rough you might notice it when I was accelerating in case you're wondering this 182 horsepower version of the 1.5 liter turbo petrol can do 51 miles per gallon that's thanks in part to the fact it has cylinder deactivation technology to help save fuel and seeing as we're being sensible let's move on to practicality now one of the big problems with the old focus was that it was cramped in the back seats but this one is way better it's just a lot more spacious now Ford actually says that it's got class-leading rear legroom and look I've got loads of space there's lots of headroom as well the foot wells are massive there's almost a flat floor which helps it's it's really good the body's wide so it should be alright for three across the back seat as well the only thing I can complain about are these isofix converse they just removable and they didn't even like clip in so you lose those very very quickly now this C is actually slam down cuz I like to drive nice and low but if I get Brad to raise it up god Brad raise it up all the way you can see I can really stretch out almost like I'm in a limousine I'm impressed but will I also be impressed with the boot space no not so much well it's a bit better than before but it's still barely average for this size of a car though yeah that's not enough to put me off still if you need to carry lots of stuff there's always the estate version of the focus though the cars more bulbous body just doesn't look as good as the hatch but hey beauty is in the eye of the beholder which brings me on to my final verdict I think Ford have built a brilliant car with this new focus and it proves that you don't have to pay extra for a premium brand if you want some the drives great looks lovely and is rammed full of the latest technology they enjoyed this video please like it and comment on it let me know what you thought about the video and of course the car to watch some more content by clicking over there and if you click over there you can check out our refer-a-friend scheme basically if you refer a friend to call out there buy a car through us we'll give you a fifty pound I was in beautifulthis is the new Ford Focus and it could well be the most advanced mainstream car you combine and to find out if it is in this video I'm going to drive it I'm going to check out its practicality and I'm gonna test its technology which I couldn't afford is class-leading but we'll find out about that in a bit now before we get into the video please make sure you subscribe to this channel and hit the bell icon to turn the notifications on so you're alerted when we make a new upload let's start this review by talking about the cars design because it's a really important factor you see when I first saw the pictures of this thing I was like oh my god was Ford oniy looks terrible but whoever took those photos needs firing because they've done this car and injustice I actually think it looks great here in the flesh this is the esti line so it's sporty ER so you've got like a kind of aggressive front bumper and a honeycomb grille the basic car has a different grille the titanium model has a slotted shiny grille the Vignelli has a posh looking grille and then there's the active version which is they kind of pretend off-roader which has its own grille as well and he gets some special LED headlights which can actually bend round corners obviously they're not bending the light that is a physical impossibility unless of course you're near a black hole but this isn't a science lesson it's a car review and what it actually does is use a camera to read the road ahead and if it sees that Bend Hill angle the headlight so it's not connected to the steering wheel like most systems are it's very clever now moving down the sides this car is running on 17-inch alloy wheels because it's the S T line you can get wheel sizes up to 18 inches once again be in the esti line you've got some side skirts make it look sporty then at the back there's a roof spoiler you've got a sort of pretend diffuser now some people will be part of this car because of that badge it's not German however this car is built in Germany just like the Volkswagen Golf so which would you have the Volkswagen Golf or this click on the pop-out band there top right corner of the screen to cast your vote and don't be a bad snob because to tell you at the moment I'm actually leaning towards this I never thought I'd say that since the first focus arrived in 1998 more than 2 million have been sold making it the UK's most popular car and now here are some more interesting numbers about this latest focus fifty three millimeters that's how much extra space there is between the front and the rear wheels compared to the old focus and that gives you extra interior space Oh 20% that's how much stiffer this new focuses bodies than the old cars for improved crash protection and drivability one centimeter that's how much lower the st lyon version sits to the road however three centimeters is how much higher the active version sits over the standard car one meter is improved braking distance from sixty miles an hour if you have a focus fitted with brake booster which gives you some extra stopping power two milliseconds that's how fast the option adaptive suspension can respond to the road conditions in fact if you've ever pothole they can sense the wheel dropping will stop it from dropping too fast it doesn't crush when you hit the other side of the pothole I tried the adaptive suspension system on the new vignola version of the focus and it seemed to smooth out bad roads pretty well especially in softer comfort mode sorry to interrupt the review I just wanted to tell you about our refer-a-friend scheme so click up there to find out more about it could earn you a 50 pound Amazon gift card all right thanks anyway back to the review and the new focuses interior design this car just feels so much nicer on the insider than the old focus and it's like someone's actually bothered to design a dash this time I want the shape of it it's really nice it's it's not the most exciting thing to look at because it's all quite dark there you can try and liven things up with bits of trim here on this particular panel this one's got a fake carbon fiber effect it does a good job of faking actually terms of the quality there's plenty of soft touch materials about the place but then as you move down they do start to feel a little bit cheaper and look at this the center console it actually wobbles which is not great but I found that on many Ford cars in the past do like the fact that they've given you this little padded area here to rest your knee on and then down in the door bins that actually a lot of felt to stop bits and pieces rattling around in there when you're driving now that's a little trick that Ford is clearly nicked from Volkswagen because they've been doing that on the golf for a long time now now in terms of prices this car starts from 18,000 pounds and if you click on the pop-out band in the top right hand corner of the screen you can see how much you can save on a Ford Focus or any car for that matter Carl Wow now you don't actually on the entry level car you want to step up to at least the z-tech because that's got more kitten you also get Ford SYNC infotainment system the easytek has a slightly smaller screen this this is the esti line it's about 21 and a half thousand pounds but then you get a lot more kit such as this larger 8-inch screen easy to swap through different menus and you've got things like apple carplay and android auto on it as well the navigation system is alright it's not the best system but it's pretty decent really I don't mind it at all and this st-9 also has other stuff you've got partly the seats you've got this red stitching about the place to make it feel all sporty you also get a wide screen reversing camera which has a 180 degree view though the picture is a little bit washed out even though it's quite big you also get a Bang & Olufsen stereo which is really loud I like that and this is quite surprising a heads-up display a standard the display is the biggest and brightest on any car of this size and can show a wide range of speed safety and navigation data another thing to note is that most heads-up displays like these you can't actually see the image if you've got glasses with polarized lenses but with this one it has a special coating so that you can and so I can put my glasses on now you see it wasn't a continuity error that I'm trying to cover up not at all know if you want to cover up a lack of driving skills then Ford has the technology for you you get this car with a new automatic parking facility which can port this car into a gap which is about 1.1 meters longer than the car itself and that's what I have set up here with these two of the cars however this new version of the focus a little bit special about it you see if you go for the automatic version the system won't just control the steering wheel it'll also do the throttle and brake so you don't have to do anything and I'll demonstrate it now so all I have to do is press this button down here I indicate to say which way I want to look for a space it should be scanning now looking for a space or very similar to the system that was on the old focus nothing new here not yet now it's found the space and there we go I just stopped now and this is where it's different right so I just put the car into neutral hold this button down let go the brake and the throttle and the steering and basically just do nothing in fact I could in theory just be in a completely different position there we go it's a bit ridiculous so now it's going to maneuver the car into the space now I could manage to get the car in this myself but some people didn't terrible Parkers and this will just do the job for them but this isn't the only way the new focus can help you it can also prevent you from crashing into things as well as the usual auto emergency braking with things like cyclists detection this car is also available with something called evasive steering assist now what that does is use a Ford facing camera and radar to check out what's ahead of you and if it sees an obstacle and it thinks that you can't avoid hitting it even with braking it'll actually help steer you around it so that you don't have an accident now the system doesn't actually include any arms this is just for illustrative purposes they belong to my cameraman Bradley yes Bradley hey that's enough for Bradley they wanting to steal the show no no do I am actually it's the focus and it's assistant systems which is starting to steal the show and it could also help you on the motorway so I've got cruise control but it also has radar guidance so it will keep me a safe distance from the car in front and if I press this button here I also have a lane keeping assist on so it should steer to keep me in Lane and the idea is that you keep your hands on the wheel and it just helps you but you can of course take your hands off and it should stop me from just weaving about the place now it's gonna be a cross because I got my hands off the wheel it's always interesting to see what the system does when you keep your hands off the wheel does it disengage entirely which i think is a bit dangerous or does it automatically slow you in your lane so let's see its steering there to keep your lane still and now it's laid me down to telling me I've got driver fatigue because I was clearly just not paying attention and it's telling me to rest but I can't rest yet as you still need to know what the focus is like to drive but before we get into that I need to get technical now in the past all Ford Focuses had rien dependent suspension however now you only get it on the more expensive versions the cheaper models have a torsion beam setup so it's a bit like their rear wheels are tied together so I'm illustrating now so no this is not about to turn into an S&M video you know ya might be parked up in a lay-by all alone but it's not gonna get fruit he's not going to be an X I don't worry so when the wheels are connected together it can mean if you're a bump big corner the car can skip a little bit now to help counteract this Ford has fitted their car with some special Springs which keep that rear torsion beam nice and stable or so they've tried to isolate the rear suspension from the main body so that when you go over bumps you don't feel them so much the torsion beam cars drive nicely enough but those were the independent rear setup like this st line I've even better well I tell you what I think Ford's engineers have nailed it with this car they've they've got a perfect balance of comfort and handling so this is the sporty St line with stiffer suspension yeah over bumps it's great it's really comfortable it's a really relaxing car to travel in but it's also got handling employees you know you can have fun in this guy's genuinely good fun I mean I used to say that about the old folks the Mach 3 the one before that the mark 2 and the Marquand back in the day and people used to always complain when I was comparing any car to the Ford Focus as being the benchmark for what a small family car can drive like I stopped that in recent years because basically the game we've done a left the Ford Focus behind it but it's caught up and it's now setting the class benchmark yet again with this thing it's truly great to drive sharp steering loads of grip loads of confidence to just hoon it around and it can just put a smile on your face if you get into a road like this be a for most people in England when they're driving this con is stuck you know just getting up and down the motorway you'll be perfectly comfortable it's higher seats are nice the gearshift it's a bit not cheap but it's alright and the automatic and you 8-speed auto not smooth as well looks like it's a job well done the focus gets forwards latest range of engines and both the diesels and the petrol a decent I'm in the 1.5 liter turbo petrol and I want to see just how quick it is to 60 miles an hour so call my specialist timing gear here and I'm gonna launch it but it will spared oh this just change Nord 60 in seven point seven seconds which makes this a little bit like a hot hatch really I think I do notice those that while this engine is punchy it's not the freeze revving because it's a three cylinder and it can sound a bit rough you might notice it when I was accelerating in case you're wondering this 182 horsepower version of the 1.5 liter turbo petrol can do 51 miles per gallon that's thanks in part to the fact it has cylinder deactivation technology to help save fuel and seeing as we're being sensible let's move on to practicality now one of the big problems with the old focus was that it was cramped in the back seats but this one is way better it's just a lot more spacious now Ford actually says that it's got class-leading rear legroom and look I've got loads of space there's lots of headroom as well the foot wells are massive there's almost a flat floor which helps it's it's really good the body's wide so it should be alright for three across the back seat as well the only thing I can complain about are these isofix converse they just removable and they didn't even like clip in so you lose those very very quickly now this C is actually slam down cuz I like to drive nice and low but if I get Brad to raise it up god Brad raise it up all the way you can see I can really stretch out almost like I'm in a limousine I'm impressed but will I also be impressed with the boot space no not so much well it's a bit better than before but it's still barely average for this size of a car though yeah that's not enough to put me off still if you need to carry lots of stuff there's always the estate version of the focus though the cars more bulbous body just doesn't look as good as the hatch but hey beauty is in the eye of the beholder which brings me on to my final verdict I think Ford have built a brilliant car with this new focus and it proves that you don't have to pay extra for a premium brand if you want some the drives great looks lovely and is rammed full of the latest technology they enjoyed this video please like it and comment on it let me know what you thought about the video and of course the car to watch some more content by clicking over there and if you click over there you can check out our refer-a-friend scheme basically if you refer a friend to call out there buy a car through us we'll give you a fifty pound I was in beautiful\n"