2008 Ford Focus Titanium 1.8 petrol from Slovakia
Summary:
Good looking family thing
Faults:
Nothing serious.
The car had a tiny dent in the driver's door when new. Fixed by the dealer.
Trunk wouldn't close as easily as one would expect - you had to smash it down really hard. Got better after some time, so we never asked for a repair.
Some plastic rattling... most recent noise - wind blowing through the driver's window (no crash history).
Engine RPM unstable at some rare occasions when in neutral. Jumps between 600-1200 and can make the engine die when accelerating from 0. It's a common SW issue with this model, but as it doesn't happen often, it doesn't really bug us.
General Comments:
We have a wagon. The handling is that of a wagon - it has some pendulum effect, but is otherwise stiff enough.
The suspension seems a little harder than our old Astra G (2000), so first you feel bumps you barely see, until at about 160-170 km/h, you stop feeling anything, which feels like taking off.
It is excellent value for the money, considering all the stuff inside, and the 1.8 L petrol gives enough power for 2 adults with plenty luggage. With 4 adults to carry, I'd consider a 2.0.
I had the "pleasure" to test drive a friend's 1.6 (2007) Focus wagon and was barely able to catch a fully loaded bus! (we were 3 adults with no luggage in the car vs 80 in the bus and I pushed it to 5000 RPM) Stay away from 1.6 engines - they are far too weak for this car - used cars dealers were full them.
When making our decision, we tested other cars:
KIA Ceed - I liked the handling, but due to VVT, it was very noisy at speeds above 110 km/h.
Astra H's interior was something I couldn't look at.
SAAB - tested a 180 HP, which was not impressive enough to convince us to buy 120-125 HP.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know
Review Date: 4th December, 2010
11th Feb 2009, 23:24
I'm glad you like your Focus and you fit so well in it with your large size. I read that Ford has recently been using a database to design cars that takes into account people of all sizes and it is making a difference.
I am especially interested in this because I want to buy a new car for my father, 6 foot tall, 380 lbs. It is very hard to find information on this subject that is helpful. I want to narrow the choices to one or two before I bring one to his house to take him on a test drive.
If you would have any comments on what you have found looking for cars that fit larger people, I would be most grateful if you could post it.
I hear the Volkswagen Beetle is good for large people, but that would not work for him because it sits too low. He is older and his knees don't work so good. For years Dad has done well with a 1993 Ford F-150. But now it is getting hard for him to climb up into it. Ideally we could find something that he could just kind of slide horizontally into without climbing down or up. (My father in law has done well with a Ford Escape that way, but he is not as big as my father.)