After One Week

[fusion37]

First, this car replaced a 2010 Fusion Sport, which may have been the best overall car I have ever owned. My list includes lots of Fords, lots of Hondas, a couple of Mazdas, Lexus (LexI? - wife's cars) and an Infiniti G35 (wife's current ride) & a few others I've probably (thankfully) forgotten. So, I factored in the change from a Fusion to a Focus.

 

Likes:

-the technology. No real problems with MFT but I'm still exploring.

-the Power Shift selector on the shift lever. I think it is more convenient & use it more than the gate in the Fusion. This was a pleasant surprise.

-seats. Seem to be about as comfortable at the Fusion. I've had some back problems, so that's important.

-dash/interior - rate it above the Fusion.

-gas mileage - about 27 mpg on first tank of mostly city driving.

-comments -several people have asked what the car is, who makes it, etc. They say they like the styling, the 18-inch wheels, the Ingot Silver.

-got a fabulous deal & $1200 in rebates, etc.

 

Observations:

-like my Contour SVT, rear seat room is tight. May be a problem for the non-fanatic buyers, unlike those of us on this board, as it was for the Contour. Trunk too is very small.

- glitch with ambient lighting. It won't hold the color I select, defaulting to light blue when the door opens or closes.

-low beam headlights. Not as bad at the Fusion but should be better, given the price we're playing for the Titanium.

- transmission does lot of "hunting' in Drive. See above on use of the Power Shift button.

- it's new and not broken in but but it will have to improve a LOT to have anything close to the acceleration of my 03 SVT Focus. Only 10 hp difference but feels like a lot more at this point.

 

Counterpoints? Other observations?

[theoldwizard]

Fuel economy will improve over the first 2 or 3 tankfuls. Glad to hear the seats are comfortable (my wife will be shopping for one this fall and seat comfort is high on her priority list).

 

I disliked my Contour for some of the same reasons. No back seat room (I had 2 teenagers at the time) and small trunk. My Fusion has way more room, rides better and I feel handles better than my contact.

[Chibana]

...

Observations:

-like my Contour SVT, rear seat room is tight. May be a problem for the non-fanatic buyers, unlike those of us on this board, as it was for the Contour. Trunk too is very small.

- glitch with ambient lighting. It won't hold the color I select, defaulting to light blue when the door opens or closes.

-low beam headlights. Not as bad at the Fusion but should be better, given the price we're playing for the Titanium.

- transmission does lot of "hunting' in Drive. See above on use of the Power Shift button.

- it's new and not broken in but but it will have to improve a LOT to have anything close to the acceleration of my 03 SVT Focus. Only 10 hp difference but feels like a lot more at this point.

 

Counterpoints? Other observations?

 

I'm fine with rear seat room. Seems perfectly reasonable for a car in this class. I have quite a bit more leg room up front than I had in my 2007 Focus. If I move the front seat to where it matches the front leg room in the 07, there's plenty of back seat room for this size car.

 

I totally agree with the hunting transmission comment. In general, I *hate* this PowerShift transmission. I hate traditional automatics even more, but this was not what I was hoping for in a dual-clutch with manual shift mode from Ford. The S mode is disappointing in that it also shifts on its own, and at odd, annoying times. I'm hoping for a chip or reflash from FSWerks or some other reputable Focus performance shop to address this awful behavior.

 

I wouldn't expect this car to be as quick as the SVT Focus. It's 10 hp less and also weighs what, 400 lbs. more? Ain't gonna happen. Still, Car & Driver got 7.6 seconds 0-60 mph for the Titanium hatch, which is far from slow for this class. They got 7.3s for the manual SE Sport. That's not bad. I think the only other car in the class that can match or beat that is the Mazda3, if I remember correctly. If I remember right, the SVT Focus did 0-60 mph in about 7.0 seconds, maybe a bit better (I think I saw 6.8 once). Not a huge difference between the old SVT and the 2012 SE, at least comparing manual transmission cars. I'm quite happy with the performance, steering, and handlng of this new Focus. I just hate the transmission, but hopefully the aftermarket can do something about that. If only my wife could drive a stick shift....

[emerrill]

I totally agree with the hunting transmission comment. In general, I *hate* this PowerShift transmission. I hate traditional automatics even more, but this was not what I was hoping for in a dual-clutch with manual shift mode from Ford. The S mode is disappointing in that it also shifts on its own, and at odd, annoying times. I'm hoping for a chip or reflash from FSWerks or some other reputable Focus performance shop to address this awful behavior.

 

Sorry if you already know this, but just in case you don't (or for others out there):

 

There are 2 transmission modes with the shifter in 'S'.

If you just shift into 'S', you are in Sport mode, it still does all the shifting, but somewhat more aggressively, down shifting more readily, and holding longer on the up shift.

 

Once you press the gear select toggle, you enter SelectShift mode and your current gear is displayed on your cluster display. In this mode, it will hold your gear 'as long as feasible'. It won't let you over rev, and it won't let you stall, otherwise it doesn't do any other shifting. Now I would say that it's high end limit is still a bit low, considering how high the power band is, but otherwise it works quite well.

 

 

 

This is one of the things that they re-wrote in the updated users manual. The first printing didn't explain it at all, and had a decent amount of incorrect information.

Edited June 14, 2011 by emerrill

[630land]

Focus is a C class compact and should not have its rear seats compared to mid or large sized cars. Sit in back before buying and if too small get a bigger car.

 

The issue with old Contour was that it had a compact interior with a Mid size price. Same year Taurus had rebates and overlapped.

[theoldwizard]

Focus is a C class compact and should not have its rear seats compared to mid or large sized cars. Sit in back before buying and if too small get a bigger car.

 

The issue with old Contour was that it had a compact interior with a Mid size price. Same year Taurus had rebates and overlapped.

I have.

 

IMHO, there is more room in the back of a new Fusion than in the old Contour.

[Nkempf01]

I have.

 

IMHO, there is more room in the back of a new Fusion than in the old Contour.

 

But I think what he's saying is you can't compare a Fusion to a Contour or a Focus. A Fusion is a midsize sedan, whereas both the Contour and Focus are considered compact, so a Fusion should have more room in the back than the Contour.

Edited June 15, 2011 by Nkempf01

[fusion37]

But I think what he's saying is you can't compare a Fusion to a Contour or a Focus. A Fusion is a midsize sedan, whereas both the Contour and Focus are considered compact, so a Fusion should have more room in the back than the Contour.

>-like my Contour SVT, rear seat room is tight. May be a problem for the non-fanatic buyers, unlike those of us on this board, as it was for the Contour. Trunk too is very small.

 

I don't think I even implied a comparison to the Fusion. The point, perhaps not well stated, was the Focus rear seat leg room, compared to the competition, might be a concern to buyers.

My eyes were wide open in trading a Fusion for a Focus. I certainly knew it's a smaller car.

 

On my comment about the new Focus's power compared to my SVT, I didn't consider the weight difference.Good point.

[Chibana]

...

 

Once you press the gear select toggle, you enter SelectShift mode and your current gear is displayed on your cluster display. In this mode, it will hold your gear 'as long as feasible'. It won't let you over rev, and it won't let you stall, otherwise it doesn't do any other shifting. Now I would say that it's high end limit is still a bit low, considering how high the power band is, but otherwise it works quite well.

...

 

 

This is one of the things that they re-wrote in the updated users manual. The first printing didn't explain it at all, and had a decent amount of incorrect information.

 

I'll have to pay more attention, but I'm pretty sure mine does not behave this way after I have pressed a button on the shifter. I'm almost totally positive that I have had instances where I have pressed the upshift button and then had the car shift for me again very quickly after that, long before I've gotten close to 6500 RPM. I'll have to test it out again and pay close attention to be 100% sure. If the car really behaved the way the manual states, I would be fine with this transmission (at least with the requirement that I had to have an auto so my wife could drive the car when necessary).

[630land]

">-like my Contour SVT, rear seat room is tight."

 

 

Umm, yeah. Both are compacts, what do you expect? I don't see Corollas or Civics carrying a family of 5 most of the time. Anyone expecting the Focus rear seat to be 'limo-like' is shopping in the wrong segment

 

And again, yeah, Fusion back seat is bigger than Contour.

Fusion replaced the old mid-size Taurus, not Contour, which was really supplanted with Focus.

Edited June 16, 2011 by 630land

[fordtion]

I'll have to pay more attention, but I'm pretty sure mine does not behave this way after I have pressed a button on the shifter. I'm almost totally positive that I have had instances where I have pressed the upshift button and then had the car shift for me again very quickly after that, long before I've gotten close to 6500 RPM. I'll have to test it out again and pay close attention to be 100% sure. If the car really behaved the way the manual states, I would be fine with this transmission (at least with the requirement that I had to have an auto so my wife could drive the car when necessary).

D is economy mode, and yes it hurts for gears. Just pull the shifter back into M and it will show in the display as S on your dash and leave it there. You touch the - or+ side buttons and your in manual mode. Yes, it works just like a 6 speed manual, watching your tach and shifting around 3500-4000 keeps your mileage good,but not like Drive D position. Manual mode is great for down shifting, saving your brakes..

 

30+ with wife driving it to work, round trip 24 miles a day and A/C onand in 45 and 35 mph speed zones, with a sh*t load of tourists in the way.

[Chibana]

Yes, I verified it this morning. It doesn't shift for me once I have pressed the buttons. The times when it did shift for me I must have let it shift for me at 6500 RPM and then it quickly shifted again into third for some strange reason. I still find that behavior odd for an "S" shift mode to shift that early when I have the pedal planted to the floor, but it is true that once I have pressed a button, it will hold the gear I have selected up to almost redline. Well, that's one major complaint I had about this car that's mostly gone. Now for that MFT/SYNC fix....