2012 Ford Focus: So gifted yet so annoying

After a few months on the market, the Ford Focus has already won its fair share of awards. It’s pretty easy to see why, given the car’s overall quality, very modern appearance and the fact that you can add a substantial amount of equipment. However, I discovered several annoying features during a recent test drive of a Titanium hatchback. But let’s begin though with this car’s many positive traits.

First the good news

The hatchback I tested was equipped to the teeth for a compact vehicle. Indeed, in addition to the leather seats, the powerful, high-quality Sony audio system, sunroof and sequential automatic gearbox with Sport mode, this Focus had all the electronic driving aides that Ford could manage to cram into it. Naturally, this included a navigation screen, rearview camera, and the My Key, Ford Sync and My Touch systems. This luxury Focus could also park itself, and it had one of the more efficient systems currently on the market.

A newcomer on our market, the Focus is one of the most elegant cars in its category. The front end turns heads with its short nose overhanging a prominent front spoiler. Add to that classy alloy wheels and the tail end with oversized inverted V-shaped lights that compliment the line of the hatch. Overall, it earns high marks for its exterior design.
The same praise applies to the passenger compartment, where the quality of the materials and fit and trim are excellent. On our test model, the steering wheel’s thick outer ring made it easy to grip. Square before the driver are good-sized indicators that are easy to read, even in broad daylight. Between the two, there’s a small display screen that provides information on the distance travelled, the car’s general condition, fuel consumption, and so on.

Since my test model was equipped with a satellite navigation system, there was a large screen overhanging a black lacquer rectangle with a button in the middle to control the audio system. Another noteworthy feature was the quality of the seats with great lateral support. This helps make the most of this Ford’s excellent platform and adds to the fun of driving on winding roads.

Although the engine has only a 2.0 litre capacity, performance is decent and pick-up is relatively responsive. On the other hand, if you’re driving a manual version, you’ll have to downshift two gears when your are engaging in a passing manoeuvre since the two higher gears are overdrives. Our test vehicle came with the six-speed twin-clutch automatic transmission. It also offers a Sport mode that speeds up shifting and stabilizes downhill speed via the engine brake.

Now the bad news

In terms of mechanics, I have only one beef with this Ford – but it’s a whopper: the automatic gearbox. I don’t think that it’s an isolated case, since all of the automatic models that I’ve test driven behave the same way. First of all, when you slow down in traffic, the gearbox automatically downshifts (between second and first gear) and a load “clunk” is heard. It’s not dangerous or anything, but it could be disturbing to sensitive ears. Then, especially in Sport mode, it seems as though the transmission gets confused when you try to get going. It’s like the transmission doesn’t know whether to stay in first or shift into second, and the hesitation is very noticeable. Once the car reaches 20 km/h, there’s no longer a problem.

This Focus is powered by a 2.0L four-cylinder engine that offers good output. As for its fuel consumption, I recorded 8.7L/100 km, which is about average for this category. Normally, this wouldn’t be anything to complain about, but during a test drive of the Mazda3 SKYACTIV (also powered by a 2.0L engine with an automatic gearbox) last week, we recorded an average of 6.3L/100 km. I’ve got to say, Mazda’s new system aimed at improving fuel economy seems to really work.

The thing that really irritated me about this car was all of the touch and voice commands. It’s really complicated to change radio stations or climate control settings while driving. Sure, after a while you’re bound to get used to the control layout and learn to manage, but nonetheless you have to take your eyes off the road for several seconds to change settings. In theory, the SYNC voice-command system should solve the problem, but it doesn’t always cooperate. After a few unsuccessful tests by me and my guests during the test drive, the system refused to work properly. Eventually we lashed out with four-letter words, and the system responded saying that curse words are not part of its vocabulary!

Even switching radio stations proved a challenge. Even though there’s a radio control button on the right spoke of the steering wheel, it doesn’t always work the way you want it to. I don’t know how, but I managed to set it successfully at one point. The next day, however, I did exactly the same thing and it didn’t work. And not to belabour the point, but certain touch commands on the screen weren’t always easy to use, as they are positioned too close to the edge of the display panel.

In fact, the navigation system – which I started to think was possessed by the devil – was unable to plan a trip to a neighbouring suburb. The system recognized the street, but not the municipality. According to the database, this city didn’t exist! Eventually, I had to enter the postal code to find it. Ok, so maybe my guests and I are no computer whizzes, but the same three people managed to find the information in less than a minute in another car that shall remain nameless... Okay, you got it out of me, it was the Kia Optima.

In light of this annoying experience, consider this fair warning before you go off and play computer scientist behind the wheels. However, if you do become an owner of a Ford vehicle with the SYNC system, you can get updates whenever they are available. Simply visit www.syncmyride.com for more information. Alan Mullaly, the head honcho at Ford, admitted recently that all SYNC and My Touch onboard electronic systems were going to be refined and improved, since several surveys have brought up buyers’ concerns with these systems.

For now, the best advice I can give you is to order your car without these “electronic marvels”. It’s the smartest way to experience the excellence of the rest of the vehicle. That said, if you think that you’re enough of a geek to master them, go for it! Personally, I’d take the Sport version with the manual gearbox and alloy wheels. It would keep me Zen and I’d have more fun driving it.