Ford Focus Active Estate X 1.5 Ford EcoBoost 150PS 5d Owner Review

In terms of value for money this is a great car. Added all the options to my 1.5 150bhp manual active x estate in magnetic grey and picked it up for just over £26k. There's very little not to like to be honest. Would like a little bit more power and would definitely consider going to mountune or elsewhere to chip it up to 180 or thereabouts to make it just a little bit more exciting, that said the 150 is not half bad. I would imagine the 1.0 petrol is a bit underpowered. I occasionally wish I’d gone for the 2.0 diesel and would definitely have specc'd the 180 petrol if it had been available in the active X trim. Ok it’s not a 4x4 but that said I’ve had it in muddy fields in biblical (North Wales) rain regularly and it has not let me down yet. It is definitely the best all rounder I’ve owned and I regularly drive long motorway journeys and winding country roads swiftly and effortlessly. I like the panoramic roof, B&O sound system and variable cruise control, which is way better than in a new VW Tiguan 1.5 match I had for 6,000 miles recently. If you gave me the choice of the two, I like the focus more! The top spec directional led headlights are excellent and the heads up display and nav all work flawlessly. There is an issue with the new focus which others have reported where the emergency call function can malfunction and affect other systems. I’ve experienced it once but removed and replaced a fuse and it hasn’t reoccurred. Some others on forums report this being more an ongoing issue than I’ve experienced. Doesn’t appear to be a dealer fix for this currently. The new focus suffers slightly from the same problem a lot of new cars experience. With an intelligent battery that is drip fed charge, the eco stop-start function rarely works as the battery never thinks it has enough charge to support it. There's lots of chatter about whether ford have fitted sub-standard batteries and perhaps these will be changed on a recall in future. Realistically stop start saves only thimble full of fuel, so this isn’t a big issue. Importantly, the car has never failed to start due to a flat battery. Other niggles are a noisy clicking relay somewhere towards the rear of the car either in the headliner or the boot. The fault is intermittent and I can't track it down. Thought for a while it might be some plastic trim in the pan roof but is definitely an electrical relay as it occasionally clicks when the car is stationary. Perhaps some sort of thermostat for the air con but dealer is unable to shed any light on this. Some bright spark will track down the culprit at some point. Two other minor niggles. You couldn’t get an optional cd when I ordered mine but this is now available as an option and although it is branded as the Active X, it doesn’t get the ski hatch the Vignale does. Can’t understand Ford's decision with that. Not even available as an option! Big plus point for me was the spare wheel which pretty much all other estates In this segment have now done away with. After 5,000 miles I have only seen one other active x estate on the road and get a warm feeling inside knowing that with 0% finance at a competitive price this is a heck of a lot of car and options for the money! It’s not a Mercedes all terrain or an Audi A6 all road but at less than half the price you definitely get a lot of car enjoyment for a modest budget IMHO.