UNIMPRESSED BY OUR Mk3 FOCUS

 I have no experience of the original Focus. At the time it came out we had a Rover 200

(R8) and would probably have got another Rover if the company had continued.

However, times change and in 2013 my wife bought a 2011 Mk3 Focus 1.6 TI-VCT. Our daughter had previously bought a C-MAX based on the Mk2 Focus and was very satisfied with it. While what follows may seem like treason to some, the reality was that I didn’t think much of the Mk3 and wonder if Ford had lost the plot a bit, producing a car that was a triumph of design over engineering.

The first issue was that, for such a big car, the rear passenger space and luggage space was very poor. It was an inverted Tardis, big outside and small inside. Comparison with a Mk2 indicated that the earlier car was certainly better in that respect.

The car was much too high geared, meaning that hill starts were brutal and climbing the steep ramp to the car deck of the Belfast to Liverpool ferry (which we do several times a year) was unnecessarily stressful. Fourth gear is too high for comfortable town driving and 5th gear was in practice only used on motorways. At least the little light telling me to always change up at unrealistically low speeds told me what gear I was actually in!

In addition, throttle response was dreadfully slow, much slower than my daughter’s C-MAX. I suppose the thing was optimised for fuel saving – but you can buy a lot of petrol for the cost of a clutch or a set of big ends. Incidentally, it was the only car ever in our family where

I have no idea what the fuel consumption was.

With regard to driver visibility, all I can say is that I thought my 1956 Morris Oxford had blind spots until I tried this thing. We got rear sensors fitted by the Ford dealer and a good job, too.

The radio/cd player often had to be turned off at night, because the dozens of panel lights were such a distraction. Pity, because it was actually quite a good sound system.

One feature common to all modern Fords, without any option it seems, is the heated front windscreen. The result is that low sun or approaching headlamps cause much the same effect as a scratched screen, with light being reflected off the tiny element wires, and the thing never seems to look clean in any light. At my age, I need all the unfettered vision I can get. It wasn’t even a particularly good de-icer...

The controls were over-servoed and too light, but I am told that’s the way with modern cars – live with it or drive a classic. That is perhaps open to interpretation; my daily driver is a basic 2000 Fiesta 1300cc that feels about right, control-wise. Sadly, a year ago the Focus was written-off when we were rammed amidships by an uninsured pick-up in Sherwood Forest, the Nottinghamshire Police finding it all too difficult to charge the other driver, which was disappointing to say the least. As a result, my wife bought a Mk3 C-MAX 1.6 TI-VCT, which is a much better proposition and far more practical, if nothing like as pretty! The gear ratios are sensible and it really has got decent boot space. Even the radio (we ended up with the same type) has dimmer lighting that is less of a distraction.

Mind you, we still have to live with a windscreen that never looks clean, and brakes and steering that are too light!

David Garrett

Martyn Knowles responds: Thanks David for enlightening us about your Focus Mk3 driving experience. Two power outputs for the 1.6 TI-VCT were offered by Ford – 105PS and 125PS. Maybe your daughter’s C-MAX has the higher power output, which would explain the driveability difference.