[bonyclayd]

I got to drive the Focus!!!

I ended up driving the Race Red SE hatchback with the Convenience and Sport Packages I saw earlier, which was great as that's almost the exact spec I want (except it didn't have Sync and I think I prefer Kona Blue). I don't remember the exact price but it was a touch over $22k.




More pics: http://img51.imageshack.us/g/0420011650.jpg/

First things first, I loved it. It looks excellent in person, inside and out, and my God is it a smooth drive. Compared to my car, which is a bit jittery and fidgety sometimes, the Focus is ridiculously stable out on the road. I didn't get to drive it a whole lot, but I did manage to get up to about 60 or so and it was very quiet - even more so than the Fiesta - and solid. The steering to me felt a bit lighter than the Fiesta's, which addresses essentially the sole complaint I have about that car; it's extremely nice to drive as a result.

Handling/steering: Compared to my Mazda, I'd say the Focus doesn't have quite as much steering feel, though I think that could just be an impression extending from the Focus's considerably better NVH. The thing with my car is that it has good and bad days; most of the time, to me, the steering is a bit too heavy and sometimes a bit dead-feeling, but on good days it lightens up a bit while retaining just enough of the heft and is really quite enjoyable. The Focus is vastly superior to my car's steering on bad days but perhaps slightly behind it on a good day - it matches my car's "best" steering weight pretty closely but doesn't have quite the feedback through the wheel rim. Overall though the fact that the Focus' steering is 95% as good as my car's is at its best, all the time instead of just when it feels like it, gives it the easy advantage. (in an aside, I should probably get my car checked out to see why the steering effort varies - it's rather annoying)

Two other advantages of the Focus' steering relative to the Mazda's: it's lighter around town regardless of whether my car is having a good day or not, and at highway speeds, as I mentioned before, it's very stable and planted-feeling. Road trips in this car would be a breeze.

Engine: I didn't really notice much about the engine; it was quite a bit more subdued than the Fiesta's, which emitted a noticeable growl when you revved it. I think the superb NVH suppression is mostly responsible. The Focus is such a seriously quiet car that it's honestly a bit hard to judge engine noise - or responsiveness, unless you just stare at the speedometer. At one point I happened to glance down and notice I was pushing 60mph; it honestly felt more like 35 or 40. Similarly to the Fiesta - even more so, in fact - it feels slower than it is because it's just that refined.

Interior: The interior is very nice. The dashboard has a nice soft-touch padding, of course, and while I didn't look too closely everything seemed to fit pretty well. The glovebox door is damped unlike in the Fiesta, as is the grabhandle (the rear seat doesn't get them, so there's only one, for the front seat passenger). The sport seats are comfortable, with generous bolstering. One particular highlight for me are the gauges, which I absolutely love. I already really liked the Fiesta's gauges, which are similar, but the Focus's look much more expensive, with a classier script and those cool blue needles.

One caveat: while, from what I understand, the SEL and Titanium trims have soft-touch door tops, the SE does not; apart from the nice cloth armrests, the door panels are entirely finished in a rather cheap hard plastic. While I've read enough car magazines that I tend to think soft-touch dashboards are the be-all end-all, realistically the door panels should probably get priority for that stuff as it's the surface you're more likely to touch.

One other complaint I had was that while the SelectShift feature worked well and all, like the reviews have said its placement on the gearshift is awkward. I'm not sure I'd be able to find a comfortable way to use it, so I'd probably just ignore it.

I didn't get a chance to sit in the rear seat but, with the front seat adjusted to where I was comfortable (I'm 6'1"), legroom looked comparable to my Mazda3. That is to say, I would fit fairly comfortably but without much room to spare. Cargo room looked good.

So, overall, I was extremely impressed. The 2012 Focus is a seriously refined, solid and expensive-feeling car, along with being very enjoyable to drive. Even though I only drove it briefly, I already miss it, and I really, really, really want one.