Focus 1.6 TDCI Zetec Avant - 1000 mile report.

Gooner · Focus 1.6 TDCI Zetec Avant - 1000 mile report.

I passed over 1000 miles just the other evening, sadly it was an uneventful landmark as I passed it on my way to Tesco! Still here's the readout from the trip, note how the fuel consumption is no better than my petrol Civic was. I'm thinking this is mostly due to the engine being tight and the weather being so cold it's been working incredibly hard to warm the car up:

I've settled into this car very nicely and I'm enjoying the ride which is so much smoother over the poorly maintained roads of Sussex, or indeed Britain in general. Despite being an estate, it handles well and feels reasonably composed round corners. My main irritation with the drive i the lack of torque at low revs which is a big giveaway to the low capacity of this engine. Whilst the power output of 110bhp is good for a 1.6 diesel, you only feel the performance once the turbo is properly spooled up. Whilst this seems an obvious observation, when I ran 90bhp Golf 1.9TDI, there was plenty of torque lower down. I can't begine to imagine how bad this must be with the Fiat/Vauxhall 1.3 diesel which can boast a similar power output. The upshot of this is that when slowing down to either go onto a junction of merge with traffic, you can find yourself caught in the position of either using the jerky first gear or keeping second and having the sensation of driving through mud. It's very disconcerting and does make me feel vulnerable if there's other traffic bearing down. The engine is very refined though. My wife didn't even realise it was a diesel until I mentioned it the other day. Road/wind noise is suprisingly low for a boxy family hatch and is a pleasant surprise. I would hazard a guess that this is in part due to the aerodynamic work Ford has done to ensure this car is below 120g/CO2. I took it down to Dungeness the other day using back roads and it was thoroughly enjoyable, if only there was a bit more overtaking poke.

The interior of this car, whilst being pleasant enough, is not as nice a place to be as I was hoping. The seats are very supportive but the fabric used in the zetec spec feels like the sort you'd get on some tough outdoor gear. The seats have odd plastic stripes running down them which don't seem to do anything and look rubbish. I've started to get a rattle from the trim on the drivers door which is irritating at such a low mileage and the large plastic mouldings of the centre console and transmission tunnel don't appear to fit properly. I often have to push this back into place. The plastics do feel reasonably good and soft to touch and they look decent enough. When I tried a pre-facelift one last year I wasn't at all impressed with the cabin but they definately seem to have improved it. The dials look good in white and red but, whilst they are traditional, I definately see the merit in the eye-level digital speedo of the Civic which required less refocusing and thought process to gauge speed.

The basic controls are good to use in the Focus and the wheel feels nice enough to handle. I'm at a loss to understand who designed the remote stereo controls. The mode button just changes radio preset rather than the expected switch from CD -> Radio -> Aux and the seek button does just that, whereas I would have expected to be able to change tracks etc. As has been mentioned in a recent post, the stalks are also a bit odd with the wash wipe controlled by the button at the end. I like that it automatically switches on the rear wipers when you select reverse, a welcome touch. The real disappointment is the lack of lighting for the cruise control buttons. This is a £200 option and, whilst that seems low, most modern cars only require a switch to activate this function so it's a bit disappointing that for such a price the switches don't contain a bulb.

On the recent cold mornings, the Quickclear screen has been a godsend, clearing the windscreen by the time I've scraped the side windows. A fantastic idea that makes up for the slightly fuzzy view out - although I am used to this now and rarely notice it. The only let down on the cold mornings has been the poor quality screenwash added by Ford at the factory which just froze and left me unable to clear the salt thrown up from the road. I've topped it up with concentrate but it's not perfect and still takes a while to come through.

I've rabbited enough here I think so I'll round off by looking at the value of the car. From a company car point of view I think this is a great value car with enough kit for everyday use and the 2 12v sockets up front being great for those with sat-navs and phone kits. The low CO2 rating also makes it one of the cheapest small estates from a tax point of view. The recently introduced Volvo V50 DRIVe being the only match for emmisions. If I was buying privately, however, I think it's a different matter. The list price for this car with cruise and metallic is £18,700 and for this, you don't actually get a lot of kit. It is by far the best value in the Focus range as it does get considerably more than ECOnetic or Style models and the Titanium add so little as to be a real false economy. Put into perspective, a similarly or even better specced Kia C'eed or Hyundia i30 will require a lot less outlay to take home. I also noted that the 5 door hatch version costs £17,900. The same money, it is worth noting will also get you a Civic hatch in top spec EX trim with masses of extras including sat-nav, climate control and auto wipers/lights. Having previously run one of these, I can also atest that, whilst the ride isn't as good, the interior is a much nicer place to be. In short, if it was my own money, I'd either splash out on the Honda or save a packet on the Kia, who's ride would have to be really poor for it to negate the saving over the Ford. This of course is only list price so with discounts it's likely the Ford would be available at a much lower price.

Overall though, I think it will be an excellent companion over the 20k miles I expect to do this year, mostly on my own. My iPod works well with it and it's smooth enough on motorways to make long journeys a bit less fearful. It does exactly what it says on the tin and though it would be nice if it would do a bit more, it's a decent car and a worthy competitor in this hard fought market segment.

3.5/5

ALF

Our 2.0 Petrol Mk1 Focus does 34-36mpg despite not doing many motorway miles (or town use, to be fair - mostly flowing A/B roads but quite a few short journeys). I used to work with a guy who had one and got the same - when he switched to a Verso diesel (the quicker one - is it 170bhp?) he got the same economy, which peeved him somewhat! This begs the question - how come our Focus is 212g/km and yours is 120, depsite using the same fuel, when CO2 can only come from fuel being burned? Just goes to show what a crock the CO2 figures are and how well cars are optimised for them not the real world.

I'm getting 33-34mpg out of the Audi as well (going from real mileage not the indicator) and that's distinctly without trying to be frugal, though recent weather has forced a high degree of sensibility...

Legend has it that diesels are less efficient in cold weather, anyway, so good luck come spring!

Blarno

I think you need to be doing spaceship mileage or own a really uneconomical petrol car to notice a difference when driving a diesel. When I had my GTE, I was getting 200 miles to 20 quid's worth. I swapped to a Vectra DTi and managed little better. Even taking into account the price difference between the two fuels, that was barely any better.

ALF

Of course in many countries diesel is substatially cheaper. They are more ecnomical, varying according the sort of driving you do, but with the fuel 12% ish more expensive it adds a different dimension in the UK.

Twelfth Monkey

Bit like this from Autocar about the Golf 1.4 TSI 122SE:

Don’t overlook it if you do high mileages either. However, the optional seven-speed DSG ’box might make more sense if you’re looking at daily motorway commutes; combined economy goes up from 45.5mpg in the manual to 47.9mpg in the DSG, so it will save your wallet as well as your left foot.

I can't be arsed to do the maths, but how long would it take to recoup the cost of adding DSG by reducing consuption by such a small amount?

garry

Colin

DaveGibson

ALF

My angle would be this - would the DSG even be more economical in real life rather than an EU benchmark test? Unlikely. Not a reason to spec it, for sure, and typical car mag "spend the extra" hyperbole.

Guitar Zero

I really, really like the facelift Mk2 Focus - I think the ST version looks stunning and at the moment I'm thinking that a facelift ST with the factory approved mountune mods would be all the car I would ever need (when the economy stops playing silly buggers that is).

Without getting into another fruitless diesel/petrol face off, all I will say is this :

I got between 32 and 34 mpg average out of my well run in Mondeo 2.0 banger - but that's because I never really beasted it because the clutch was weak and it wasn't that fast to begin with.

I get 39 - 41 mpg out of the D5, and I pedal it like I'm on a last chance power drive to hell and back. Find a petrol engine with equivalent perfomance (particularly mid range) in an equivalent weight car and then use the power as often as I do in the D5 - if you get better than 25mpg then I'll eat a shit pie with piss custard.

.

Gooner, press and hold the mode button on the remote stereo controls. It will pedal through FM, MW and CD then.

Our 1.6 TDCI's at work are all returning high 40's so I think you still need some miles on the engine and my economy has also dropped in this colder weather - mind you I also drive like GZ does (Though ultimately im a bit slower!) and still acheive 43/44mpg.

Roadrunner · Re: Focus 1.6 TDCI Zetec Avant - 1000 mile report.

PR

The Laguna has been something of a disappointment fuel economy-wise, for a 2.0 four-cyl turbodiesel, even accounting for its 180bhp and 295 lb/ft. It's hovering around the 38mpg mark and this doesn't really improve that much on the motorway!

M.

Bob Sacramento

I'm still gob-smacked by the price. £18,700 for what is, at best, a £13k car? Who would buy new without a massive discount?

Gooner

I totally agree with you Bob and if I'd spent 18 grand of my own cash I think I'd be feeling a bit underwhelmed. But if I'd got a 3 or 4 grand discount I'd feel I'd got a reasonably good value car and as a company car that is only going to cost £70 a month and includes fuel, tax, insurance, and maintenance it's probably the best value motor I've ever had! The low emissions pretty much put it in a league of it's own until the rumoured Passat Bluemotion 2 arrives with 120g and a similar list price to the Focus.

The economy has risen to an average 40.7mpg today so with time I suspect it'll only get better as the engine loosens up a bit. And I tried holding the mode button earlier and it works. Still a bit of an odd setup but then it seems most the controls are a bit quirky! It might not be the only one on our fleet soon either. I noticed it had disappeared whilst I was in a meeting earlier. My colleague then turned up having driven it home to his missus to see if she liked it enough to replace his Octavia 4x4 which goes back in a few months. Turns out he lives in Brighton and had managed to use half the tank of fuel up he was enjoying it that much! (I'd been in a long meeting)

Star69

Frank Bullitt

Diesels are notoriously as tight as a nuns snatch when box-fresh; give it a few K's and the mpg will start to improve.

PG

Gooner

Oh but the good thing about the cheap upholstery is that it is sooo much easier to clean than the velour that covered the Civics seats, they were a nightmare. With a toddler this is actually quite a useful feature! Still looks dodgy though.

Matt

The lack of fabric on the door trim on the 1.6 courtesy car we had was a particularly cheap look. My mate's 1.2 Corsa Elegance had fabric door cards ffs.

Martin

Focus Avant?

The fuel economy is dreadful, even taking into account engine tightness and weather. I don't ever see less than 40mpg on anything other than a short run and never on a full tank.

Mine is driven in a similar fashion to the S60!

Chris M Wants a V-10

I've just had almost a week in our "pool" pre-facelifted Focus II estate (avant indeed!) 2.0TDCI Ghia, to drive down to Plymouth and back (from Surrey); will try to post a separate thread later

Focus 1.6 TDCI Zetec Avant - 1000 mile report.

Re: Focus 1.6 TDCI Zetec Avant - 1000 mile report.