2011 Ford Focus TDCI

Despite the ‘all new’ tag, it’s still very recognisable a Ford Focus. Personally I’m a bit disapointed by this, when the Focus first came out, it was a bit of a shocker, and it seems a shame if you’re starting with a clean sheet, not to do something new with the car. The biggest clue it’s a new car besides the front bumpers is the rear lights have been moved off the rear C pillars and back on corner of the rear quarters.

2011 Ford Focus Rear

This gives a bit of a mix on the styling, the front with the gaping (though 50% blanked) front bumpers looks pretty agressive even in standard trim (so any ST or RS version should look like it’s ready to rip your grandmas head off), yet the rear feels softer.

Snarly (but mainly fake)

Focus

What we will be thankful with Ford for not messing with, is the Focus chassis, it still rides superbly, smoothing out imperfections in the road, yet cornering quite flatly at speed, and you can easily drive this faster than the TDCI badge suggests. It has the kind of balance I wish the ST I drove earlier in the year had. Unfortunately the electronic power steering means you pretty much no longer have a clue what the front wheels are doing.

Unfortunately that 115PS 1.6TDCI Duratorq lump is awful. Really awful. I can only imagine Ford have tuned this to suit the new CO emissions for the low £10 tax, it has an official figure of 109 Co2 but it’s ruined the car, and I’m not sure how they had the cheek to include ‘torq’ in the name as it has non. Stuck behind something at 40mph? Drop a cog, pick a gear, any gear, doesn’t really matter, you aren’t about to overtake whatever is in front. Overtakes involve planning and a run up. Come up to a giveway in second, want to live? Seriously stick it in first there’s no guts if left in second. I don’t think I’ve ever driven a car that daily requires you to drop it in to 1st on the move. Multiple times I found myself checking I wasn’t really pulling out of somewhere in 4th.

For Fogs Sake

Just to prove how bad it was to myself, I tried the same slow moves in my BMW but it could actually do it in 4th never mind 2nd! Lower trim models are also available with a 95PS engine if you fancy suicide. I’m also afraid I got nowhere near the claimed 55-76mpg either (though I rarely do), the run up the M1/A1,A66,M6,A75 at the usual motorway/dual carriage way speeds saw it returning around 43mpg, taking it cross country in Ireland & actually ‘driving’ the car dropped it into the high 30s. Reports from a friend who’s driven the petrol suggest that’s as equally gutless too.

Oh, and did I mention the stop start system? I can see the point of these if you live in London, but I think the system needs a bit more intelligence, it just works on premise of no clutch & neutral, cut engine. So driving for 1.5hours non stop, pull up to the first roundabout, drop neutral for a moment, and it cuts the engine, just as you’re dipping the clutch again to go, rather than thinking hang about this is a very temporary stop. It also means it’s cutting it in the mornings when you’re bloody freezing and the engines still cold, so it’s there blowing cold air at you. Luckily there’s a button to turn it off, but I’d like a permanent override in mind, so that was off except for when I turned it back on again, for now I’ll stick with the system I use in the BMW, called the keys…

Inside the Focus has become a button fest, with not 1 but 2 control panels on the steering wheel (which isn’t the easiest to figure), plus audio & voice activation controls (pretty much useless as ever), then the radio console is an even bigger button fest with controls for the DAB, telephone…. I’m still not keen on plastic trying to look like shiny metal, but I’ll sound like a very broken record soon, and luckily it’s only on the steering wheel details.

This does at least mean it does come with what I count as ‘essentials’ in modern cars, DAB (as FM as being discontinued) BT handsfree, a USB port in the glovebox for your iPod/iPhone or USB drive along with an aux input. You can also stream audio over BT but like the old model Focus ST it still requires you to push play on the iPhone each time. Not sure why it can’t auto play like my 3yr old aftermarket JVC unit does with my iPhone.

At least up front it is comfy, the dash looks good, the speedo & rev counter are both in smart hooded binnacles & lit in an attractive white & blue. Put in a lot of mileage over the week without any experience of the dreaded ‘numb bum’, the only real criticism is knee room particularly for the passenger can be a bit ‘tight’. The centre console loses points for not being big enough to store a CD case or A5 map. The 12v power socket it also right back behind the gear lever. With the prevalence of sat navs, mobiles etc that get mounted to the screen, surely these should be closer? Finally had to succumb and buy a longer charging wire so could have my iPhone sat nav mounted to the screen in this car without the wire obstructing the gear change.

Fairly typical of modern cars, rear visibility is restricted by those heavy C pillars, particularly combined with tinted rear glass, but forward visibility is actually better than some I’ve driven of late, with the front A-pillar only being an occasional annoyance.

Safety wise, all models are fitted with a plethora of airbags, ABS, ESP, emergency flashing of brake lights under heavy breaking, and the Focus has earned itself a 5* NCAP rating. Luckily I didn’t have to test any of those features. Higher models can also be specified with Driver Alert in case of drowsiness, blind spot information, traffic sign recognition, auto high beam, & active city stop.

Conclusion:
So overall, despite a few niggles, the new Focus is a good car, safe, practical, comfy, handles well, well equipped. Just not with that 1.6TDCI lump. It’s woefully underpowered. I await the new ST with interest though…

Spot the difference - Audi Cab & Audi Saloon

It was such a good, cheap runner it was 3 years before I finally got round to thinking it’s about time I had a coupe, and by then the Cabriolet’s had dropped in to budget… So the hunt was on for a 2.6 Cabriolet, 2.8s were out as they need even more expensive Super Unleaded, 2.0s were definitely out as running the 2.0 saloon was slooow compared to the GTi I’d had. Preferably wanted a manual but with around 10-30 Cabs on Auto Trader nationwide (of all variations) it did make picking the perfect spec difficult. So it’s quite an exclusive car, it’s rare to even see another Audi 80 saloon or Coupe, another Cabriolet on the road is quite a very rare spot indeed, I can probably count on both hands the amount of Cabriolets I’ve seen on the road in two years.

Very exclusive, you never see another on the road...

A bit of searching and found a 2.6E down in Ipswich, £2k, bit of laquer peel, recent cambelt and some other expensive bills recently done, 10 months MoT, unfortunately an Auto box, but with a handful of manuals to find there had to be a compromise. Spoke on the phone & a deal was done to collect that weekend.

The first few months unfortunately didn’t go well, the seller neatly didn’t disclose anything about the autobox being temperamental, then a few weeks in it went through about 5 recon power steering pumps in about 4 weeks before I finally got a second hand original fitted instead. To top it off just after I’d got that sorted, it transpired I’d got a blocked radiator too. Luckily managed to drop on a brand new OEM radiator for £42 on eBay, so turning that in to a relatively cheap job with help from a mate.

Fixed, we took the car up on a do or die trip to the lakes, and took it over the challenging HardKnott & Wrynose Pass amongst others. The car passed with flying colours, and roof down you forget about any previous troubles. I eventually got the gearbox sorted too, I put it off & off fearing big bills from the auto box, but eventually booked it in to a specialist at Barnsley, who diagnosed a broken connector inside the box, apparently a common fault. A morning there, box drained, plug fixed, filters renewed & refilled and £150 lighter, I thought not that bad a bill, and the gearbox much improved.

Did have a few other faults with the car over 2 years, the old after market alarm system was causing a hot start issue with it’s old wiring, which once it had left me stranded once too often was sorted by an auto electricians, and the camshaft sensor decided to let me down spectacularly on the December 23rd, that led to a fun 24 hours. I also had to rewire the boot wiring for the roof, there’s a bunch of sensors to stop you opening the roof with the boot open to stop the hitting each other, 7 core wires either side of the boot lid through the tight scissor action eventually fray internally, leading to the roof not working properly & various rear lighting faults… It’d been soldered in the past on the corners, with a tip off audifans.net I grabbed some trailer wire from the local caravan centre, and rewired from plug end to plug end so as to remove as much of the old wire as possible. Problems sorted for £3 and an afternoons work. Bodywork wise though was typically Audi, solid as a rock throughout with hardly any noticeable corrosion on it anywhere, which is one of the reasons I’ve repeatedly bought VAG over the last 10+ years.

The manual roof once you’ve got the knack of the process can be put up & down in sub 30-40 seconds, faster than a lot of electric roofs (especially of that era), and very useful with our temperamental weather and means you can use it roof down even on a short trip to the shops/work. You sit quite low within the car too so roof down there’s little breeze in the cabin below 60mph, so whilst there are wind deflectors available, they’re less required than some other drop tops. There is a touch of scuttle shake noticeable as the rear windows rattle against the fronts, but only on rough roads, but no other shakes or rattles from anything else. The general build quality is superb though, it’s only as I’ve started looking inside comparative E36 BMWs recently that realised what a cut above the Audi is, no wonder been giving other cars a tough time on plastics, the switchgear & plastic quality was evidently built to last, reassuring clicks as push buttons and shares those touches such as the chromed door locks, and the scissor boot lit mechanism that shows Audi were thinking about things.

Looks more complicated than it really is

The handling is pretty good, it does suffer the typical Audi nose heavy as the engine sits way out front (it’s so far front the strut brace crosses behind the longitudinally mounted engine), but push on and it continues to dig in beyond the levels you may expect, giving you the confidence to easily drive it quickly, though the power assisted steering lacks any reel feel. It feels faster than the books suggest, 0-60 in 11 seconds sounds like a lifetime, but it must be something in the auto 1st gear/lazy V6 not suiting drag races, because if you prod the throttle from about 10-20mph+ and it’ll soon start reeling in the horizon with no let off as the gear box slushes up through the range. The 80 Cabriolet does have the downside of being one of the few Audis made in the last 30 years, that isn’t available in quattro form (the other being the A2). If you want a convertible & quattro you need to step up to the A4 which means spending a whole lot more dosh. With reasonable tyres on, it deploys the 150bhp of the 2.6 to the road with little fuss, bit of wheelspin in the wet, but little torque steer. The V6 is super smooth, has plenty of bottom end torque, and pulls from low down, makes a nice enough noise, but it’s more discreet, not as aurally pleasing as the Audi 5 pot, or the BMW straight 6.

The car’s not about an all out racer though, I have the cabriolet as live on the edge of the peak district, within 5 minutes of home I can be amongst farmer fields, and 10 minutes up in to the hills. Driving through in a tin top, you drive ‘through the peaks’, all feels very soulless, and if you’ve got something quick, you feel the only way to enjoy it is to drive it quick. With a cabriolet you drive ‘in the peaks’, you get full 360º unobstructed views of your surroundings, the smells (maybe not always a good thing), the sounds, you notice a lot more about what is going on around you, so you’re much happier to just drive about soaking in your surroundings, or if the mood takes you can push on and give it some stick.

Some people question the point of a soft top, particularly in the UK, but roof up it feels like a coupe, the lined roof is quiet, buffet free and it only really gets noisy on the motorway, not uncomfortably so, you can still chat fine, it’s just a few db louder than sitting in a tin top, and these 4 seaters feel just as roomy as your typical 3 door hatch/coupes, not so hemmed in as you do in say, an MX5. Practical wise, whilst the boot is smaller than the saloons, and lacks folding seats, it’s still big enough for carrying shopping, or holiday luggage, and if you really go OTT there’s the back seats for extra bits, or even a passenger or two. So day to day it’s not much different to driving a coupe on the road, when when the weathers great you’ve then enjoy the soft top, turning it in to two cars in one. Granted it’s not going to be as sharp as the Coupe, but unless you’re taking your car on track, you can’t really drive them to the limits that find those weaknesses on the road.

The bonus of the one car solution, rather than say a practical hatch & smaller convertible, is that you’re always in ‘the right’ car. You don’t find yourself leaving work on a beautiful day with the cabrio stuck at home in the garage, because of this you get home, leave the roof down, which then encourages you to go out and take it out for another blast. It’s also practical & comfy enough to carry luggage, so you can use it as the holiday car too.

Downsides to the car, the biggest for me has been fuel consumption. 2.6, auto, lots of Derbyshire hills, my average for the past two years has been 19mpg, probably not helped by a non working thermostat. On long runs & around the flats of Norfolk it returned a much more respectable 25-29mpg. It also hasn’t got the chuckable fun of some FWD hatches, nor dor is have the RWD thrills of an MX5, or the raw character, but roof down through some beautiful scenery and you forget about this, kick back and enjoy it, it’s worth every penny. I’m also it has to be said, for the first time in a car conscious of the consequences of rolling it, but that’s only an occasional thought.

Others to consider in this price & size point are the BMW E36, Saab 900, & Volvo C70. To be honest, I disregarded the Saab & Volvo pair immediately as I prefer the styling & image of the Audi, and to me neither Volvo/Saab add anything to the driving dynamics. So for me the fight is down to the Audi & the BMW. Both have their own strengths and weaknesses, it’s been a tough call but I’ve bought an E36 convertible to replace her, but purely because of the rear wheel drive aspect, and the belief it should make it the better drivers car…

But I’d still recommend/buy another, looking through Auto Trader after this one had been written off, some very nice final edition Cabriolets were pulling at the heart strings. It’s a quick, rare, comfy, timeless looking, sure to be appreciating future classic.

Golf Balls

Design wise I’m really liking the current small VW line up, especially the Scirocco, and the Golf feature some really nice design touches, like the VW emblems on the headlight reflectors…

VW Headlight Detail

and the rears are nicely LED without being too over the top LED bling

Golf rear lights

Though there’s some bits I don’t like, the aux in socket is a bit, well I’m sorry VW, but it’s very £0.05p Maplins afterthought…

Inside there are hark backs to the original mk1 Golf GTi with the tartan interior, it’s a nice place to be, deep hugging seats, a very nice chunky leather steering wheel , the detailing continuing to the red stitching on the wheel & seats. If you keep the standard 6 speed box you get the good old Golf ball inspired gear knob too. There’s an air of quality to the interior, it feels solid, the leather on the wheel feels quality, and has a very nice chunky feel, the plastic around the radio is a bit shiny for my liking, but it’s honest plastic being plastic. The door cappings/dashboard inserts are shiny striped plastic, which looks quite nice, definitely preferable to plastic attempting to be shiny aluminium, wood or shiny carbon fibre. All the buttons click with the reassuring VW click, and is all pretty logically laid out.

Mind you, it bloody well should have an air of quality to it, as tested it rings in at £27,400, yet still lacks DAB or BT handsfree which with the impending doom of FM, and handsfree being a must have in my book, but it’ll cost you another £650 to add both! One option I was wishing had been specced early on with the car was the adaptive suspension, it was very fidgety on any ridges in the road, and that’s on the standard 17s, never mind the much nicer looking 18s (another must have), not a good combination with my neck.

After not much of a drive in it I was rather wishing they hadn’t specced the DSG box either, whilst not doubt it makes the Golf easy to just jump in and drive, it robs it of involvement, oh it does all the nice stuff like blipping the throttle for downshifts, but there’s non of the satisfaction of getting it right yourself, and flip it over in to manual (only possibly from drive and not from sport…) and it’ll still ignore you sometimes, was in one situation in forth, coming up behind a cyclist, just opened the throttle a little so as to pass, and the car decides oh you’d really want second, so next moment you’re high revving as passing the cyclist and now looking/sounding like a bit of a knob, cue rant at gearbox in manual ignoring you… It also seems to do a bit of hunting, and can be jumpy from starts, especially if you’ve slipped an extra notch back in to sport mode. I really expected the DSG to be better than that, there’s also paddles on the back of the steering wheel but personally preferred to use the Tiptronic gear lever to them.

Unfortunately things don’t improve with the engine, there’s no question that it’s quick, the turbo charged 2.0 4 pot kicks out 207bhp, and combined with the DSG box a shove of the throttle will soon see the speedo needle whizzing to the legal limit, however whereas in the ST this fun accompanied by the glorious 5 pot burble, this had all the aural appeal of my washing machine. Sure even my old 8v sounded nicer. With that & the DSG just slushing up perfect smooth changes, it complete robs it of any soul. Just sit it on some road, point the wheel in the right direction and push the throttle, and it deals with it, it’s even less fun than driving on the Playstation. Stick it on some old mk2 GTi hunting grounds and even in my crippled state, you could tell it was too fast for the old back lanes and twisty B roads the Golf used to excel in, and the chassis can easily deal with the speeds you can corner those at, go in too fast and the brakes are superb too, very sharp. On some more open A roads you could feel it was capable, but felt like to enjoy the car you’ve really got to push it beyond any posted speed limits, or what my neck can take currently.

So a bit flawed? I’d love to revisit this car in a few months when I’m feeling better, and also with a manual box. I’d also love to test the Volvo C30 @majorgav @ petrolblog is currently testing (if VW/Volvo are listening), you get the 5 pot turbo from the ST, I specced up a 3 door GTi with my preferred options and came in at over £28k, and I could get a better specced Volvo C30 for under £27k, the Golf with some of the features of the Volvo would be over £30k…  I’m also probably being harsh trying to compare it too much to my old mk2 which I loved, and the Golf now has to compete with the new breed of uber BHP hot hatches. The Golf GTi is certainly a comfortable, quick, and very practical car, and finished to much higher standards than the Focus ST was (but so it bloody well should be for the extra money), and seemed less flawed handling wise too, so it’s the place you’d want to be to go from one end of the country to another, but find a twisty road to play with enroute…the jury is still out on that one.

a) nice colour b) manual c) in bloody good nick d) 323 or 328 in the BM, or 2.6 or 2.8 in the Audi e) not too high mileage f) bonus points for nice toys &/or hardtop or LPG

Expected the search to take a few weeks, found a few contenders at the wrong end of the country, a few with all the right specs but in a horrid colour. Then managed to find a nice looking BMW 323i Cabriolet in Harrogate, nice colour, one of the right engines, all the bits it should come with & a hard top.

So here she is my new long termer, freshly collected this morning in Calypso Red

Freshly MoT’d, she has some of those details a petrol head looks for in these, still got the orig dealer sticker in the hardtop rear window from ’97, matching Dunlops all round, handbook, full toolkit, all three keys, dealer mats all round, even the BMW torch in the glovebox. The first two owners were husband & wife, and the third owner snapped it up when it was traded in at the garage she works for, but wasn’t using it, since last July she’s done 2000 miles. The downside is it is currently wearing her private plate, but will soon be restored to a standard R reg.

Inc the hardtop, a fresh 12month MoT, 6 months warranty, receipts for a bunch of the suspension sorted, and with 116k on the clock I’ve paid £2900 from a reputed dealer, which bearing in mind I’d looked at one tattier without the hard top, 4 completely different cheap tyres inc a flat, slashed rear window etc and up for £3000… I think I’ve done OK.

Interior wise, toys are pretty much limited to the fully electric roof, traction control off switch, and the instant MPG gauge below the rev counter. There’s no aircon, grey cloth seats (not heated either boo), no trip computer, but I’ve found from the Golf before, a car that didn’t even have electric windows or central locking, this allowed you to concentrate on the important toys it did have, ie a superb chassis & engine.

Having had the Audi Cabriolet before, it’s hard not to make direct comparisons between the two, I actually prefer the styling of the Audi, and they’re much rarer too, but I’ve gone for the BMW this time as it should be the better drivers car being rear wheel drive. The feel of the plastics and switchgear in the Audi is also a cut above the BMWs, yet the BMW is evidently better insulated, it was just like a tin top with the hard top on down the motorway, but even with that removed and just the soft top up, it was much quieter at cruising speeds on the local dual carriageway than the Audi was, and feels like a fraction less scuttle shake too. The hardtop is doubly clever too, hidden in the mounting points either side is electrical connections for a heated rear screen & addition courtesy lights in the rear plus grab handles for passengers. Non car people would probably never guess this wasn’t a fixed head car with it fitted.

The engine in the BMW has a bit more tech, being a 24v with variable timing (VANOS), so kicks out 170bhp from its 2.5 litre straight 6, vs 150bhp from the Audis 2.6 12v v6, combined with the manual box, it gives a bit more kick, and a much deeper nicer noise. Unfortunately I’m still suffering from last week both physically and mentally, so I’ve only pottered her home, and not ready for exploring how good the handling is yet.

This can only be described as the ultimate people carrier, never mind the 7 seater awful Vauxhall Zafari with next to useless seats 6 & 7 suitable only for pixies, Galaxies that you have to squeeze in to the back of for seats 7 & 8, or even my favourite, the Toyota Previa, with it’s sliding seats, fab if you all want to get out, not so good if just one. With the Transit you’ve got seating for 17, all with seat belts, all with aisle access, and only a bit of neck bending, so even granny can use the back row.

14 seats out back

There’s no fancy flex system, or quick release seats, these are all bolted down, and fixed back, so strangely enough, you can’t convert your transit minibus in to a transit van, even though you can attempt to turn your Galaxy in to one and then discover it’s even smaller inside than a dinky Transit connect. The Transit does suffer from the same issue as the Galaxy, Zafari & all it’s other brethren, whilst it can seat so many people, you’ve got bugger all luggage space.

Up front it’s pretty sparse, especially when you think it’s cost £33,552. No that’s not a misprint, the 17 seater minibus starts at over £33k before you add options, but, don’t forget a pair of 8 seater Galaxies would set you back the thick end of £50,000, so the Transit is suddenly a bargain, especially if you can claim the vat back bringing the price down to £28,731.

It really is function over form up front, big chunky cup holders, the good old Ford CD radio up front, with a hidden aux in socket in the oddments bin above the passenger air bag, 6 speed box, a pair of air bags and electric windows. Head room up front is enough even Marge Simpson wouldn’t have any issues with her hair rubbing on the roof. It’s a bit plasticy, but it’s a van, and it’s honest plastic, which I’d rather have than that painted silver plastic trying to be aluminium. If you fancy making your van a bit more special, you can specify metallic paint, which, bearing in mind the amount of pain involved is a bargain £400 option, you can also add air con, tacho (£500 & fitted to this), privacy packs, appearance packs, fog lights, rear air con, sat nav & BT handsfree kit.

This new generation of Transits caused some horror amongst the petrol heads, they were moving to front wheel drive, with rear wheel drive being optional. Luckily on the long wheel base they are rear wheel drive as standard, but unfortunately they are fitted with traction control, and whilst it has an off button, it quickly turns itself back on if it senses you trying to play. So you need a wet road & bravery to play with the rear of one of these nowadays.

Despite the size, it never feels quite so big from the driver seat, at least unless you find yourself down a tight dead end, it can be hurried along roads at quite an aplomb, it rides quite well, and gives you the confidence to drive it at speeds the bulk of it suggests you really shouldn’t, at least till the limited kicks in at 62mph. It lacks the thickness of sound deadening of the car range so it’s a bit noisier, and from the squeaks out back, it evidently isn’t quite so tightly put together either.

But, for it’s few foibles you can forgive it, the Transit is a legend, it’s been about longer than most of us, seen off various rivals, it’s great because it doesn’t try to be anything that it isn’t, it’s built to move things, be it people in the minibus, or just about anything else in the van or on the back of the flat bed versions, and that’s exactly what it does.

Thanks to GK Group Chesterfield for their kind loan of the Transit.

My Audi has the good old H4 headlight bulbs, and in the old headlight units, on dipped beam they are more akin to candles, like many I’d normally wait for the bulbs to fail, but I’d kept reading good things on the Philips upgrades, and decided to get some as the winter nights drew in, so I’d actually getting the benefit of them over winter.

Whilst doing so I decided to go the full hog and replace both the H4 and the H1 driving spots, and in the end settled for Philips X-treme Power +80% at £22.50 for each set. These bulbs “transform your headlights with up to 80% more light than standard bulbs, yet are E markes and fully road legal”. Bit of canny shopping online via Quidco meant I also got 12% back, bringing them down to sub £40.

I’ve got two gripes with the packaging, it was an absolute sod to get into, and for products we’re not meant to touch the bulbs of, the fitting in the case makes it pretty impossible to get the first bulb out without touching the second, especially when it’s -5º outside and you’re doing this (I fitted them late November). This is also why I omitted to do the comparison against the wall test. Fitting is just straight swap for the original bulbs, which could be easy or a complete pain in the arse depending on your car.

The ultimate question though is ‘do they work?’ It was quite clear that they do improve the amount of light on the dipped beam, not hugely, but definitely better. From the marketing of 80% more light (and on others 100% more light) you might expect to see twice as far, indeed often the implications of the marketing…however, from my photography I know that the inverse square rule applies here, which essentially says that if you double the power, if only illuminates 1/4 further of the distance, so these 80% brighter lights only equate to 20% more light on the road.

So do I recommend them? Yes, they do work, and ultimately sub £40 is a small price to pay to better see where you are going, and as the age of the bulbs in my own car were unknown, they could well have blown at anytime and I could have spent near that locally for standard bulbs. The next step up from that is the switching your headlights out for a higher spec model of your car if available, or a HID conversion, either of which can cost £150-600 depending your car, and neither is a 5 minute DIY swap.

Tested here in ‘base’ Zetec TDCi spec which has an OTR price of £22,495, but as tested with optional Panther Black Metallic Paint £575 and the ‘Appearance Pack’ £275 which adds tinted rear glass & aluminium roof rails, taking it to a total price of £23,295. A hefty chunk of change, the Kuga is being pitched in to the premium sector of the range hence it only being offered in Zetec & Titanium trim levels.

Appearance

The original adverts for the Kuga suggested that it was rewriting the rule book for design with a blank canvas, yet it looks like a puffed out Focus or Mondeo, it’s hardly new. It’s not like it shocks like the original Focus did, or the new Juke does, which now makes this look very reserved, and would have suited the campaign better. But the chunky styling but sporty works well, and it’s recognisable as being one of the current Fords, without being a fugly interpretation, which often happens when you try and bulk a design up.

On The Road

The Kuga irons out bumps in the road very comfortably, and is quiet and relaxed. Start pressing on though, or drive it over undulating roads and the weakness of a tall car with standard struts/springs dealing with the handling, they can’t defy the laws of physics, it wallows quite badly. There’s a local 3/4 mile stretch that looks flat, but drive it and you realise it is constant undulations, and by the time you are a 1/3rd way along and doing the legal 60mph limit, it feels like the Kuga is going to chuck you off the side of the road. Push on in the corners too fast and it’ll just scrub on the front tyres & understeer. Remember that this is a high riding car, and drive it just a bit slower than you would a hatchback and things are mainly fine.

Performance is fairly typical TDCi, the weight of the Kuga blunts it down to a 0-60 of 10 secs, feels like it has good mechanical and in the dry or wet doesn’t feel like it taxes the 4WD system at all. Low end power is there from around 1200rpm, but the real power from the turbo doesn’t kick in until above 2000rpm, however if you want to see above 40mpg from the diesel, you need to be gentle on the throttle, and change up when indicated before 2000rpm, do that and I could get 38mpg on side roads & 44mpg on the motorway, but you find yourself cruising at 60mph in amongst the lorries. At regular motorway cruising speeds expect to see closer 37mpg, and at the higher motorway cruising speeds this drops down to 34mpg. Taking it for a hard drive about the peaks I got this down to 28mpg, though a more relaxed (but not sticking to 2000rpm) drive around Lincolnshire the following day returned 34mpg again. Checking the fuel receipts (not just relying on the trip computer), over my 600 miles with the Kuga I averaged 34mpg, down on the manufacturers 37mpg urban/47mpg combined. Do note though that I am not good at eco runs in diesels, I’ve driven various over the last few years and normally somehow I get 35-38mpg out of stuff others reckon they can get 50mpg out of. So don’t take these as complete gospel figures.

When stopped hidden in the menu section is some variable settings of ‘comfort/standard/sport’ for the electronic power steering, most of the difference could be felt at parking speeds only, with the Sport mode being heavier, but still lighter than the steering of my own car, and non of the settings giving the driver any feedback from the front wheels.

The brakes are bloody good though, strong and pull you up with no fuss, no squirming.

Having driven the Focus ST with HID lights a few weeks earlier, the Kuga standard lights were a bit of a disappointment, whilst on dipped beam they were definitely an improvement on my Audi candles, with main beam on they didn’t get much brighter, may actually question if my Audis were better at that point. As the tech is there for brighter lights, I’d want them fitting on my car, as the driving lamps on the Focus were superb, you could see the road crystal clearly and plenty of distance.

Off The Road

The Kuga is fitted with an “Intelligent All Wheel Drive” using the tried & tested Haldex 4 system. Despite any impressions given in the photos, I never really took the Kuga more than a few hundred hards ‘off road’ down a few farmers tracks, and ‘the beach’ is just some sand covered tarmac. The soft suspension ironed out the bumps of the rough tracks. In some deeper sand  around the edges of the car park it never felt that convincing that you could ‘go anywhere’, though the ground clearance did mean I could follow in some deeper tracks made by a Land Rover earlier. Venturing off in to some virgin soft sand it didn’t feel convincing enough that you could head off alone, and soon returned back in to the safety of the LR tracks, though not helped by being fitted with standard summer road tyres. I’m sure it’ll cope fine with unmade tracks to the stables or farm, but I wasn’t about to take it up some of the local Land Rover boys favoured tracks as it’d kill it.

Inside

The Kuga is comfortable for 4-5 passengers, nice big glass area, with no major blind spots. The driving position is good and the seats reasonably comfortable and nicely sculptured, no numb bum on the long motorway run. The tops of the door cards are padded for nonchalantly resting your arm on, and the steering wheel a nice chunky leather affair.

However I do have some gripes, the Kuga is being pitched at the premium sector, but I don’t think the plastics cut it, the dash sounded hollow and cheap. The painted plastic on the radio I’ve always thought looked cheap, even back in 2003 in the Mondeo, and it definitely isn’t any better now in 2011. You can get away with it on the door triggers and the steering wheel details, but that big slab of silver, nope. Horrid.

Whilst on the subject of the radio, in standard form it comes with a single disc FM radio, it’s 2011, FM is due to be discontinued in 4 years. DAB needs to be standard, it doesn’t play MP3 discs either, something I’ve come accustomed to in cars since about 2004. No BT handsfree either, as it’s now pretty much a legal requirement, I expect that in my cars too. It does at least have a token Aux in plug inside the centre glovebox to plug in your iPod. On the plus side it does look like it’s double din unit, so technically not that hard a job to replace it in the future, just I’d like to see all those features now.

The power for your sat nav/phone sat nav etc is also tucked all the way back behind the cup holders, so it’s a long stretch over the gear lever & radio up to the windscreen, most chargers will only just reached, to save the stretch most of the time I left the iPhone in the cup holders (again no other real home at other times for a mobile) and clicked it to the screen when leaving motorways for the sat nav again.

For a car that only comes available with keyless ignition, why does it come with a steering cowling that has a hole for the key that’s then been blanked. Screams afterthought almost as much S3 Focus’s which had the recesses for the side repeaters filled in with spec badges when they suddenly decided to fit them in to the wing mirrors. The ‘Power’ button is in the middle of the dash, right where inquisitive fingers can reach. I managed to power off the car whilst it was moving at one point messing about, and can foresee the ‘dad setting off from the lights’ and kid powering down the car just as you set off scenario. If we must have push button start, can we have it out of the reach of passengers?

It’s also not that big on luggage space, like many of these MPV/SUVs, it looks big, but in reality the boot space is smaller than a 3/5dr Focus hatch with the seats up, and not much bigger with them down. The Focus Estate completely trumps it on boot space*. I really don’t get the split mini tailgate either, Ford says it’s quicker & more convenient, I don’t see how, it’s no quicker to open, , it makes for a very high load point and you haven’t got full access to the boot via the mini. I only ever used the mini tailgate for the purposes of taking pictures during my short time with it.

*Focus 3/5dr 385/1247 litres, Focus Estate 482/1525 litres, Kuga 360/1355 litres. Based on them all being mini steel spare versions.

Conclusion

So would I buy one? I guess if you’re in the market for a 5 seat high riding mini SUV it’d be a good choice, but for my own money there’s too many compromises. You could have a fully loaded Focus Estate Titanium (£19.5k OTR) with a bunch of options ticked inc the HID, Leather & privacy and everything else, and still have change out of the Kuga’s base £22.5k, it has more room, lower tax bracket, and it’ll handle a lot better, the Focus is one of the best in it’s class.

But go knocking on Audi’s door, and you can have the A3 Sportback TDI quattro for £23,290, so similar in price to the Kuga tested, very similar in spec, 4WD confidence for poor conditions, faster, will handle better, better built, lacks the ground clearance, but lets be honest when do most of these ever need it?

So I’d buy the Audi? Well no, I’ve no kids, so no school runs, don’t need masses of practicality if I had £23k to spend, I’d spend 3/4 of it on a 996 C4 convertible for most of the time, and spend the rest on a Land Rover Disco or an old A4 Avant quattro for shopping and bad weather runs

Of course, what do I know, evidently people are happy to live with the compromises and these compact SUVs are selling like hot cakes.

It’s never going to get off to good start in this reviewers hands, as I dislike French cars, and particularly some of the smaller French cars. I’d already driven this a few weeks earlier just to run an errand in it, and even with just 100bhp it was torque steering and tramlining, it was so bad I even double checked the back to make sure I hadn’t really just driven a Vectra.

It’s also got some tough competition to live up to, for many years I ran a mk2 Golf GTi 8v, still (at least in my book) a decent benchmark for the small hot hatch, so how does it compare? Well in VTR spec it’s more luke warm than hot, with a fairly mild 0-60 of 9.4 secs, it feels ok nipping about town, but as soon as you get it in to the country it quickly starts to feel rather sedate, the 8v lacks punch or low down torque to really get it going, nor does it really give the chassis too much trouble, besides the aforementioned torque steer in first. It has a slightly soft ride, but handles reasonably enough through the twisty stuff, but that softness means it isn’t as sharp and planted as some of the better hot hatches. Steering is power assisted and a bit on the light side for my liking, but it keeps the driver pretty well posted about what is happening up front.

Dual carriageways were another matter though, once at the average cruising speed, the back end never felt as planted as it should, whilst most cars you feel you could happily push on faster, the Saxo was saying really shouldn’t.*

The interior feels classic Citröen, cheap! Whilst with central locking and electric windows it ticks the basic equipment standards, it all felt rather flimsy, the handbrake felt like if anyone grabbed it in any ernest, it would pull right off in their hands. The seat back helps to increase the sense of speed by rocking forward as you brake & back as you accelerate. Driving position is classic Italian, offset to the left and with the pedals really close together. I’ve no idea how the youth of today drive these in size 12s, as even in my size 8s I was heeling & toeing without even trying. Most of the layout is easy to find (not that there’s much to choose from), but there are some oddballs, the headlight adjustment is clearly an afterthought hidden away near your right knee for eg.

I know why these sold well, launched at a time when hot hatches were in the doldrums so no serious competition, the Golf had become fat, the Fiesta looked horrid, and then in a masterstroke of genius, just as insurance were going through the roof, Citröen gave them away on finance deals and chucked in a years free insurance to anyone over 18. They sold like the proverbial gâteau chaud. It’s still only a group 7 now, so still a teenagers favourite, despite all the ribbing me & the owner have given this car in front of him, it’s already sold to a teenage lad as soon as the owners fixed up his CRX.

Looking at Auto Trader at cheap cars, you can see why they still appeal, for all the “they’re built of cheese” & “it’s a chavmobile” go find a sub 10second car, that you can run on peanuts, that your peers will respect (even if no-one else does), and that the insurance company won’t take your arm, leg & a kidney to insure…

*It should be noted this review is based on a car with over 100,000 miles on the clock, two tyres of one brand on the right, and two completely different brands on the left, and any other quirks of doing a review on a 10yr old plus car…

A colleague had the same car and came back unimpressed, felt more like a 1.8 than a 2.5, I’ve got a 2.5 in my Landy and it feels no quicker. Within minutes I think I’d found the reason, I doubt he pushed it beyond 3000 revs. The Focus ST trundles around docile like a regular family hatchback, trundle it up through the box and you’d never know what lies beneath, particularly when it’s in an unassuming colour such as the black one tested. But get past 3000 revs, and suddenly the turbo comes on song, the engine note rises to the gorgeous 5 pot burble, kicks you back in to the Recarro’s, and it starts reeling in the horizon like there’s no tomorrow.

Heading up the A1 handled the usual cruising speeds with ease, just drop it in to 6th, plenty of bottom end torque when speeds drop, though if you want a bit of extra boost to pull you back up to speed, 5th or 4th will quickly see the speedo back at motorway speeds. Just have to remember to back off and drop back in to 6th as the speedo will surge relentlessly beyond licence loosing speeds if you let it. Not wanting to drive all the way to Edinburgh on boring dual carriageways in a capable car, at the signs for the A68 we pulled off the A1 and started heading cross country.

At this point my impressions of the ST went a bit downhill, a mix of wet roads, and rough surface, along with a lot of undulations, it didn’t feel quite as planted as you’d like. You’d crash on a pot hole, then wallow for a few seconds on the aftershocks, humps in the road left you feeling queasy afterwards and it felt skittish. The ST was scoring badly. It was quick, but on these roads you just couldn’t use it, going through the mighty Kielder, even let a few rep mobiles past as they were evidently comfier at a higher pace than the ST was.

Coming home we came back down the A1 all the way from Edinburgh, whilst quite a bit of it has been converted to dual carriageway, there is still plenty of two way sections until you get to Morpeth. Here on flatter smooth tarmac, the ST turned in to an absolute stunning point to point, just wait for the gap, drop a cog or two in the six speed box, and sail past whatever is in front. The brakes are fabulous too, easily reeling the speed in before you get yourself in trouble.

Power delivery to the road was surprisingly good, the traction control very rarely kicked in throughout my three days with the ST, even in the wet, and it doesn’t even have the tricky diff of the RS. So top marks there, with 225bhp I was expecting to feel the traction control a lot…

Interior, well it’s a Focus, OK it’s a Focus with some very nice (in this car heated leather) Recarro’s, but it’s still a Focus. Bad points though as they didn’t fold forward very well, so access to the two rear seats wasn’t brilliant.

I’m not keen on the fake carbon, (though it’s an improvement on the silver fake aluminium Ford were putting in the Mondeo’s a few years ago), and the radio is that shiny plastic ‘gloss’ look that seems to be all the rage. In the centre console armrest (which gets in the way of the seat belts) is a USB port for the iPod, and an aux 3.5mm stereo input. The USB didn’t work with the iPhone, but it could stream music to it via the bluetooth connection, however with my iPhone it seemed to need some voodoo each time you started the car, so OK for long runs, annoying nipping to the shops and back. The boot is typical Focus affair, so plenty of room in there for the shopping etc.

Nestled behind the gear lever is a start stop button, the Focus features keyless start, but this brings two further niggles.

A) Where the frig do you put your keys? Always that nag in your mind that there is potential to start the car with the keys in the car, then end up with the keys & the car far apart, and no way to start it again…

B) Having gone to all that effort, Ford, why oh why have you used the standard lower steering cowling and just put a gromitt in. It looks cheap, an afterthought. It showed up the moment you got in the car and annoyed me immediately.

For the final day with the ST, I took it out round the Derbyshire Peaks on some roads I know and love. So up over Ringlow, Ladybower, over Snake Pass, Glossop & back down through Winnats Pass (following 911HUL no less). Today with a bit more experience of the car under the belt, was able to use the performance more, and it was feeling much better than the first day over the A68. It’s still horrid over humps and bumpy roads (so some hard breaking sometimes when you saw them coming), but on the good bits of road between, it covered pace so quickly, so efficiently, unless you spent 80% off your time on those bumpy roads you’d forgive it. Push too hard on the accelerator in a corner and it’ll start to understeer but lift off and it’ll tighten back up quickly, biggest issue is catching the next gear quick enough as the revs whiz round. As you start to sling a few corners together the handling encourages you to push on harder as it just keeps gripping. Being a rental with a non waive-able £750 excess though I’ve not explored it fully to it’s limits.

It returned a decent economy too, over the whole 700 miles it averages over 25mpg, I think the Scotland trip was about 29mpg, and the Peak thrash was 22mpg. If I take my own 2.6 Audi over the peaks, it isn’t as quick, it isn’t as involving and it only does 17mpg…

Exterior I’m in a bit of a mixed bag, I like the Venom styled alloys (though thankfully these are a bit more kerb friendly), in black I think it looks a bit too restrained for something that is so fast, yet in Orange it’s a bit too “look at me”…, I’d probably take the red one with the white door graphics…

Whilst flawed, I still think the Focus is a good package, it’s after-all a Focus, so it’s a practical family hatchback, docile round town, it’s a very quick cross country motor & crucially can put the power down, economical for the performance offered, comfy (no numb bum on the long trips), and that engine noise & acceleration is addictive. They depreciate a bit heavily at first, so best picked up used (though technically this is the only option as they don’t pass Euro 5 emissions regs, so a casualty along with the Type R), this shape can be picked up from £12,000