Ford Focus Active Hatchback long-term test
The Ford Focus Active Hatchback is practical and rugged, with a little bit of SUV attitude thrown in for good measure. But is it good to live with? We’re running a Vignale 1.0 EcoBoost mHEV version to answer that very important question: Do you really need a full-fat SUV in your life?
Reports by Gareth Evans
Update 1: Welcome
Gareth’s on a six-month mission to discover whether he prefers RS over kit
Here’s an interesting vehicle: a Ford Focus with a list price of £32,200. Now, way back in 2016 I reviewed the previous-generation Focus RS hot hatch on its launch in Spain for Parkers, giving that wonderful machine a full five stars, and it was £31,385.
So how on earth can this – a 1.0-litre with a 0-62mph time almost twice as long as the RS’s – command such a lofty price tag? I’m going to spend the next six months finding out…
But first let’s unpick what is a rather impressive-looking spec sheet. We’ll start with the name, because it’s a whopper: Ford Focus Active Vignale 1.0 EcoBoost mHEV.
What do you get with a Focus Active Vignale?
That means it’s a Focus Active, with raised ride height, extra drive modes and rugged plastic wheelarches, in posh Vignale trim – think full leather seating, an upgraded sound system with 13.2-inch touchscreen (below), head-up display and LED lights.
The 1.0-litre EcoBoost mHEV is the engine spec, which translates to 157hp, 0-62mph in 9.0 seconds and a top speed of 131mph. Efficiency-wise, its ‘mHEV’ moniker means it’s a mild hybrid (a small electric motor fed by a battery to help the petrol engine out), so Ford claims combined economy of 54.3mpg, with CO2 emissions pegged at 118g/km.
Phew. That little lot weighs in at £28,625, so clearly there are some optional extras on board too. That sparkly blue paint is £575, there’s a blindspot warning system for £400, a driver-assistance pack (fatigue alert, traffic sign recognition, adaptive cruise control and automatic high-beam headlights) for £525, Matrix LED headlights for £950, a Parking Pack (automatic parking, door edge protectors and a wide-angle rear camera) for £500, and the Family Pack, which nets you wireless smartphone charging, a 60/40-split rear seat and two USB ports. That’s another £225.
So there you have it. The recipe for a Focus that’s very, very different to the aforementioned RS. In fact it’s about as far from it as it gets – an SUV-esque tall ride height, luxurious spec and loads of gadgets.
But there are some constants that I do hope remain; the primary being that the Focus has always, ever since the mk1 way back in 1998, been among the best in its class to drive, regardless of spec. Furthermore, they’ve always been practical and while not always premium, have represented a classless appeal that suits myriad types of drivers.
My primary focus (couldn’t help myself) this year will be on testing all those bells and whistles, to see if the sum of this car’s parts add up to more than that gigantic sticker price. I’m excited to run a landmark car for Parkers and see what the score is. Let’s hope it can live up to my expectations.
Update 2: Divine driving; dealer distresses
The Focus has been back to the garage with gas guzzling issues, but it’s not a petrol problem…
I wasn’t expecting to visit the dealer just 2,000 miles into my time with the Focus, but alas that’s what unfolded.
Upon collecting it from airport parking after a fortnight’s holiday, on a particularly muggy day, it became clear the air conditioning wasn’t functioning – warm air was blowing into the cabin despite me selecting Arctic-spec temperature levels. This wasn’t ideal for the three-hour drive back from Gatwick.
So off I popped to TC Harrison in Peterborough to have the car looked at. It was there for a few days as the air-conditioning system was pressure tested, verified as working and regassed under warranty, and a bonus software reflash for the blindspot warning system carried out due to a recall.
It was lovely to get the key back and slot my behind into the quilted leather seats too, though. It’s easy to forget this is a very high spec of car when you haven’t driven it for a while, but sat looking at the 13.2-inch screen you’re reminded it’s a premium product.
I did wish there were physical buttons for the aforementioned climate control – having to operate this through a screen doesn’t strike me as particularly intuitive compared with using physical buttons or knobs to do the same thing. Progress for progress’s sake, perhaps?
Actually, no. Because recently I’ve found I’ve been missing a trick: you can use the voice control to change the cabin temperature, and it works flawlessly. “Set temperature to 18 degrees” does exactly that.
So begins a new era of talking to my car. It’s likely to be a jovial conversation as I’m pleased with many aspects of this hatchback’s performance so far. My main criticism is the fuel economy, which won’t approach 50mpg regardless how hard I try. Ford promises 54.3, and I’m seeing 46. I was expecting more from a mild hybrid, but with petrol prices at stratospheric levels I should think everyone would like a few more miles between fill-ups.
I’ve been really impressed with its motorway manners, though. The engine is really smooth, which helps with driver fatigue, and the driver assistance features are well configured too. The adaptive cruise control deserves special mention for adjusting the car’s speed smoothly but quickly enough to adapt to the traffic around it. It’s just a shame that other road users see the gap it leaves to the car in front as perfectly large enough to pull into. Reader: it never is.
Still, overall I’m still enjoying life with this somewhat expensive take on the familiar Focus story. A few longer trips are in the offing over the next few months, so it’ll be interesting to see if my enthusiasm wanes for any reason. I have a feeling it won’t, as long as the gas stays in the air con…
Updated 3: Comfort, quality and crashes
Gareth’s experienced a crash, but not the sort you might expect…
The Focus Active has been treating me a little better recently, I’m happy to report. The only glitch I’ve experienced was with the screen going dark after a particularly long drive, followed by the entire Sync 4 multimedia system crashing and rebooting. I’m hoping this is a minor bug rather than anything more irksome, but time will tell.
On a brighter note, I’m loving how comfortable the car is. The seats – leather-covered and highly adjustable – are fantastic. I particularly enjoy the quilted design, which makes it feel like a premium proposition.
I do think it’s a bit of a shame the ride quality is a little spikey, though. The Active should be the more comfortable Focus thanks to its taller suspension, but it’s the 18-inch alloys and low-profile tyres that do it. You really notice bumps in the road, expansion joints and potholes far more than I’d have expected. At one point I had a passenger complain about this, proving it’s not just me and my overly sensitive rear end.
The manual gearbox is another feature that doesn’t help smoothness: an automatic is capable of far slicker shifts, and it’s my belief it would suit this car better than the six-speed manual.
That’s because despite being a three-cylinder engine, which can mean unwanted vibration in some cars, the 1.0-litre EcoBoost with its hybrid assistance is really well designed. It has a carefully developed balancer shaft that removes much of the off-beat rumbling you get with other triple-cylinder motors.
And it sounds pretty good too. Ford pipes some artificial engine noise into the cabin that makes it sound a bit like a diesel, but from outside the Focus has a pleasingly distinctive rumble.
However, the vast majority of the time it’s completely drowned out by the exceptional stereo. It has a whopping 10 B&O speakers and not only is it loud, but the sound itself is rich and full of frequency. Combined with Spotify streaming direct through wireless Android Auto at its highest-possible quality, it means I can thoroughly enjoy all my favourite tunes.
I’m also enjoying getting to know the Focus’s voice command system I mentioned in the previous update. No longer am I frustrating myself by poking my way through touchscreen menus for things: I simply tell the car what to do and it does it. In fairness, Ford has had this feature for many years now, but it’s only now I’ve been coerced into using it more that I’ve realised just how effective it is.
The final note from me this month goes to the excellent head-up display, which is a subtle, handy reminder of speed limit, current speed, and navigation instructions without taking my eyes off the road. I think this gives the car’s safety credentials a decent boost, and £400 doesn’t seem like a bad deal for this optional extra.
There’s plenty to like about the way Ford has developed this car over the years. It’s a helpful, well-designed machine that I’m enjoying a lot.
Update 4: Dreamy Driving
Gareth delves deep into what makes the Focus such a treat to drive
I’ve been doing a lot of driving recently, and not just in the Focus. Competing in an historic motor race at Silverstone last weekend in a 1952 sports car really brought Ford’s family five-door into focus as a driver’s machine.
In fact, I’m going to state that I think the Focus remains right at the top of the tree when it comes to hatchbacks that handle.
It’s a fantastic car to drive. The chassis is brilliantly judged, with accurate, agile and feelsome (for a front-wheel drive car) steering. You can add additional weight to it by selecting Sport mode, but do be aware that the livelier throttle response ushered in when you hit that button will damage your fuel economy.
But even in Normal mode this is a car that runs rings around others of the same type. Its suspension is configured so through bends you have predictable body control and amble feedback about what’s happening under the wheels. This provides you the confidence to press on if the mood takes you, safe in the knowledge nothing untoward will occur.
The gearbox is similarly brilliant. I remain convinced an automatic would suit this car a little better, but still the six-speed manual is an unreserved joy to operate, with near-perfect shift lengths and wonderful weighting. It rewards slow, careful and considered inputs in a similar way to the classic car I’ve been driving, but don’t let that put you off – it’s so solidly constructed that it’ll stand up to any sort of gearchanges you demand of it.
An oft overlooked but clearly contributory factor in how well the Focus drives is the pedal layout. It’s dead centre, with perfectly spacing between each one, so even with my walking boots on it’s a cinch to cover serious miles in comfort.
The final part of the equation as far as driver engagement goes is the engine. While I’ve bemoaned its lacklustre fuel economy performance in my previous update, what that doesn’t say is that the 1.0-litre EcoBoost in 155hp guise, with hybrid assistance, is a mightily impressive thing in its own right.
Its flexibility is what stands out for me. There’s torque available pretty much everywhere in the rev range, meaning it’s almost impossible to stall: a little like a diesel, in fact.
But thankfully it doesn’t sound like a diesel, instead rewarding the driver with a muted but distinctive thrum from its trio of cylinders.
A few years back 155hp from a 1.0-litre engine would have been seriously stretching what’s possible, but nowadays technology has moved on and it doesn’t in any way feel stressed, regardless of how hard you push it. I’m not left wanting more punch at motorway speeds, it cruises with exceptional manners and gets away from a standstill impressively well if you really gun the accelerator.
Overall the Focus is a very impressive package when it comes to driving. We’ve come to expect that from Ford over the years, sure, but it remains just as true to this day.
And this isn’t even pretending to be a performance car…
Update 5: The lights fantastic
This family hatchback has hugely impressive headlights
‘The nights are drawing in’. It’s a phrase uttered at this time of year, as the sun sets on summer and we move into the autumn. The clocks go back soon, and we’re on the irreversible descent towards winter.
Anyway, on a much brighter note, it turns out this Ford Focus Active is a brilliant car for driving in the dark. There are numerous reasons for this, but first and foremost the headlights are simply fantastic. It’s got optional Matrix LED headlamps installed, which means they’re capable of projecting a main beam at all times, while avoiding dazzling other drivers by cutting out just the light that is pointing directly at your fellow road users.
It’s eerily accurate, to the point that it’s taken me several months to properly trust it. I’m sure you’ve seen what happens if you leave main beams on for a fraction too long when there’s an oncoming vehicle: you’ll get a (mostly) friendly flash to remind you to dip your beams. I’ve not experienced this once in the whole time I’ve been driving the Focus with its automatically deploying main beam, despite never manually flicking it off.
It works the same for vehicles you’re approaching from behind, too, so you don’t become a dazzling distraction in the rear-view mirror.
Not many people know that Ford has been on the cutting edge of headlight technology for many years, but alas they’ve often had systems that are a among the best in the business. This Matrix technology really does take it to the next level.
I’m seriously impressed, because the remaining beam of light you’re left with is vast, allowing you to spot animals creeping out of verges, potholes and all manner of other hazards far easier than a conventional car that requires you to toggle on and off. This takes a considerable amount of stress out of nighttime driving, without diverting any of your attention from the important things. Bravo.
The driver-assistance systems are also of note. The adaptive cruise control is brilliant, smoothly adjusting speed and offering loads of adjustment in both 1mph and 5mph increments, but if I’m being picky, the distance settings you can pick between you and the vehicle in front could be slightly better.
The closest is just too close for my liking, and also means the car has to slow itself down fairly regularly so it’s not as smooth. However, the second, middle setting leaves a gap large enough for a large HGV to get into, and guess what? Those folks don’t miss and opportunity to do so. Case in point: travelling down the M11 at 5am, trucks regularly pull out to overtake one another on the many hills that awful road presents to them. With the adaptive cruise set, I was pulled out on multiple times using the middle setting.
And finally, the largest gap is something I just don’t use. It might be the safest, but it makes the aforementioned issue worse, and you end up the slowest vehicle on the road. Not good for making progress.
Another oddity I’ve noticed is the blindspot recognition system, which works fairly well in most situations, but also seems to consider a concrete central reservation something to alert me to. There are miles of this on the M11, and to be honest the orange light in the door mirror was more of a distraction than anything else.
It’s a bonus of testing a car with so many optional extras that I’m able to review each system in such detail. Would I pick this spec? I’m not sure I would because it isn’t all as useful as it seems on the spec sheet. But those headlights, though… they’re ace.
Update 6: Farewell, fine Ford Focus Active
Time to say goodbye to the SUV-ised family hatchback
So, it’s time to wave goodbye to the Ford Focus Active Hatchback long-term test car. Ironically just in time for winter, its heated steering wheel and seats going almost unused during my balmy summer test period. I tried both just once, and in typical Ford fashion, you’ve got a variety of seat warmth levels on offer ranging from tepid to screaming hot.
Another extremely useful feature I didn’t make much use of was the heated windscreen. Ford fits this to lots of its vehicles and they’re widely regarded as essential in winter months, clearing the screen in minutes, and meaning you don’t need to stand outside scraping ice to defrost.
Anyway, this car was absolutely packed to the gunwales with other kit to test, largely accounting for the stratospheric list price of this particular vehicle – a whopping £32,200 including optional extras.
Most notable for me were the Matrix LED headlights, which were remarkably effective at night, allowing me to retain full beam in the face of oncoming traffic without worrying I was dazzling other road users. I’ve explained in more detail in Update 5, but it’s deeply impressive technology, albeit at a cost of £950.
I love the £400 head-up display too, providing useful driving information without having to divert my eyes from the road.
But it wasn’t only optional extras I was pleased with. I learnt to use the voice control on the Sync 4 multimedia system and ended up having some fairly long and useful conversations with the car, changing the interior temperature and setting navigation instructions.
Wireless Android Auto is another absolute highlight that I’m sad to see the back of. It’s so useful being able to hook up to your car without plugging it in; just start the ignition and the tech does the rest.
I loved the speaker system too. With 10 B&O speakers it was seriously loud and full of depth, making my awful choice of music sound better than any other method I use to listen.
And finally on the positive side, those Vignale seats are just wonderful. They’re comfortable and covered in Sensico synthetic leather, meaning they’re vegan-friendly.
The negatives aren’t anything too serious to write home about. A recall for the Blindspot monitor was done in my early days with the car when the air-con failed and required regasing, the latter being something I’ve not experienced in a new car before. I was happy to get it sorted before the summer’s 40-degree-centigrade heatwave arrived in earnest, though…
My other bugbear was the engine. Its performance and character were fantastic, particularly when coupled with the six-speed manual gearbox, but the fuel economy simply never got near what Ford claims. I think this is largely down to the hybrid system – it didn’t seem to function anywhere near as conspicuously or for as long as an equivalent Toyota Corolla, for example, and the result was more visits to the filling station and an average of around 45mpg over my time with the car. Ford claims 54.3mpg, so I wasn’t getting anywhere near the claimed range per tank.
But overall, my soft spot for Ford’s family hatchback remains indented by this six-month tenure. It’s still among the class-leaders to drive, and this particular car with its wealth of toys showed that when you’re speccing one yourself, nearly all options are on the table. I’d simply have chosen slightly differently.
