RE: PH Blog: It's time to focus on the triple

RE: PH Blog: It's time to focus on the triple

Thursday 5th July 2012

PH Blog: It's time to focus on the triple

Why a 1.0-litre Ford Focus restores Riggers' faith in the future of fun motoring



Normally, eco-friendly progress in the world of motoring tends to come at the expense of those things that make cars fun for the likes of your average PHer. Decent handling, a characterful powertrain, in general the sort of stuff that makes a car more than mere transport.

Doesn't look like the most exciting car...
Doesn't look like the most exciting car...
Think Prius, Honda Insight, or any number of hair-shirt diesels on rock-hard tyres and with power deliveries full of holes and you'll see what I mean. Even the engineer's wet dream that is the Chevrolet volt/Vauxhall Ampera range-extender isn't going to tug at the heart strings of the driving enthusiast.

But I have just driven the car that might well be the saviour of interesting cars. It is, of all things, a Ford Focus with a 1.0-litre three-cylinder engine.

Yes, I know it sounds weird, maybe even a bit wrong. But we who tap away at keyboards and talk about cars for a living have been banging on for ages now about how downsized turbocharged motors are the future of mainstream internal combustion-engined cars for years now, and yet the products have never quite lived up to our expectations of them. They've always over-promised and under-delivered, with too much in the way of fuel consumption and not enough in the way of actual grunt.

...but the tech behind it is a big deal
...but the tech behind it is a big deal
Until now.

I don't know what kind of voodoo the Ford folks at Dunton and Dagenham (and the various other Brit technology partners involved in the project) have invoked to create this machine, but it's clearly strong stuff. Because this really, genuinely, honestly, is a car with the economy of 1.0-litre engine (because it is one), and the power of a naturally aspirated 1.6.

Except it's better than that. I only had the opportunity to test the 100hp version - there's a 125hp version too - but even in its most lowly guise it feels a world away from the 1.6-litre Focuses I remember driving in the past. Mid-spec petrol-engined C segment cars that have become asthmatic, their bodies too bloated for their powerplants to cope. The 1.0-litre Ecoboost triple wipes that away in a stroke.

Tiny block fits on a sheet of A4 paper
Tiny block fits on a sheet of A4 paper
It feels strong all the way through the rev range, it's impressively quiet (you can hear the three-cylinder thrum and the whoosh-swish of the turbo with the window open, but window-up it's near-inaudible) and it returns genuinely decent economy - 58.9mpg on the combined cycle.

Buyers seem to be falling for it, too; it accounted for 17 per cent of total Focus sales in April, and Ford people are quietly whispering that it could take up to 25 per cent of the family car's sales.

Most important, though, is that it makes the Focus fun again - the trick that made the first-generation car such a charmer. I'd love to try the 125hp version in a Fiesta. It would most likely be a proper hoot.

Riggers

Author
Discussion

Stitch

Original Poster:

933 posts

216 months

Thursday 5th July 2012
quotequote all
So Riggers, did you achieve 59mpg on your test, or did you just run it round the block and then thumb through the press pack to get that figure?


Riggers

1,859 posts

177 months

Thursday 5th July 2012
quotequote all
Stitch said:
So Riggers, did you achieve 59mpg on your test, or did you just run it round the block and then thumb through the press pack to get that figure?
Sadly, I only had about half an hour with the car. and I was too busy enjoying driving it to do a 'proper' economy run.

But the combined cycle, as in the official EU figure, although admittedly not a real-world figure, is still a good yardstick for comparing with other cars, because it is a genuine like-for-like comparison. So for example the 105hp 1.6 Focus returns 47.9mpg on the combined cycle.

I'm sure that in everyday mixed driving you'd actually get somewhere in the mid-to-high 40s, but a 1.6 would be more like high 30s. Also - and this is really my main point - you'll enjoy yourself more in the 1.0-litre car.

GreatCornholio

1,724 posts

172 months

Thursday 5th July 2012
quotequote all
I really like the idea of these downsized engines, less weight and more economy for no losses in performance! The Fiesta with the 125bhp would be great fun, EPIC WINthumbup

MrBurt

128 posts

145 months

Thursday 5th July 2012
quotequote all
Stitch is spot on. We need real world MPG figures and drive reports before we consider this to be a great step forward. I have been reading some poor MPG reports for the Fiat twin air lately and that was viewed as a game changer went it first came out. I watch with interest as the wife's mini is due to be changed, but I will be sticking with diesel for now.

Riggers

1,859 posts

177 months

Thursday 5th July 2012
quotequote all
MrBurt said:
Stitch is spot on. We need real world MPG figures and drive reports before we consider this to be a great step forward. I have been reading some poor MPG reports for the Fiat twin air lately and that was viewed as a game changer went it first came out. I watch with interest as the wife's mini is due to be changed, but I will be sticking with diesel for now.
Fair enough. But that's not really my point - my point is that, whether it actually achieves anything like the MPG figs claimed, it's still fun - and fun that claims to be green. I think, as car enthusiasts, we should be applauding that.

C.A.R.

3,967 posts

187 months

Thursday 5th July 2012
quotequote all
That engine would make a lot of sense in the Fiesta, no?

Jag-D

19,633 posts

218 months

Thursday 5th July 2012
quotequote all
GreatCornholio said:
I really like the idea of these downsized engines, less weight and more economy for no losses in performance! The Fiesta with the 125bhp would be great fun, EPIC WINthumbup
Agreed on the Fiesta

sunsurfer

305 posts

180 months

Thursday 5th July 2012
quotequote all
Lots of places you could use this engine. How would it work in a Caterham or a Elise?

uncle tez

529 posts

150 months

Thursday 5th July 2012
quotequote all
Short review from the sun here comparing it a 1.7 diesel astra. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/motors/articl...

LewG

1,357 posts

145 months

Thursday 5th July 2012
quotequote all
I've driven the 125hp Ecoboost Focus a few times now with work and it is absolutely fantastic, much more fun than a 1.6, nice little roar to it and even a rewarding dump valve noise when you let off. Great stuff.

Krikkit

26,500 posts

180 months

Thursday 5th July 2012
quotequote all
sunsurfer said:
Lots of places you could use this engine. How would it work in a Caterham or a Elise?
Ooh. Good thinking. Caterham, Elise, MX-5, Ginetta, even something like a GWR Raptor it'd work well.

Switch

3,455 posts

174 months

Thursday 5th July 2012
quotequote all
As soon as these are available Crate style I'll be shoe horning one into a project I've got lined up...

VolvoMariner

38 posts

146 months

Thursday 5th July 2012
quotequote all
I Wonder what the long term durability is like - will it last 150k like a 1.6?

MagicalTrevor

6,476 posts

228 months

Thursday 5th July 2012
quotequote all
@Riggers: Do you intend to do a longer test of this? Whilst it's normally on the 'What Car' radar it might be interested to read what a petrolhead thinks of the 'shape of things to come' and whether the MPG figures are even remotely realistic or whether it's going to be the same as the Fiat 500 TwinAir i.e. Fun but nowhere near as economical as they say

Changedmyname

12,543 posts

180 months

Thursday 5th July 2012
quotequote all
VolvoMariner said:
I Wonder what the long term durability is like - will it last 150k like a 1.6?
My thoughts also,I mean say.. a lot of motorway miles?

anonymous-user

53 months

Thursday 5th July 2012
quotequote all
If the figures are to be believed, it could signal the beginning of the end for soot chuckers! smile

900T-R

20,404 posts

256 months

Thursday 5th July 2012
quotequote all
Riggers said:
Sadly, I only had about half an hour with the car. and I was too busy enjoying driving it to do a 'proper' economy run.

But the combined cycle, as in the official EU figure, although admittedly not a real-world figure, is still a good yardstick for comparing with other cars, because it is a genuine like-for-like comparison. So for example the 105hp 1.6 Focus returns 47.9mpg on the combined cycle.

I'm sure that in everyday mixed driving you'd actually get somewhere in the mid-to-high 40s, but a 1.6 would be more like high 30s. Also - and this is really my main point - you'll enjoy yourself more in the 1.0-litre car.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but when tested back to back in one of the big German mags I think, the difference between the two turned out to be very small. This is just another case of NEDC window dressing (although not as blatant as Fiats Twin Air).

Having said that, the compactness and lightness of this engine are very attractive, now to build a car that fully exploits these virtues. An Elise- or Smart Roadster-alike with this lump would be really rather nice. smile

Edited by 900T-R on Thursday 5th July 12:14

v8will

3,301 posts

195 months

Thursday 5th July 2012
quotequote all
St John Smythe said:
If the figures are to be believed, it could signal the beginning of the end for soot chuckers! smile
Not a chance IMHO.

Regardless of well documented problems with DPF and related gubbins, the diesel market is still too strong.

I do hope I'm wrong.

In regards to reliability, no reason why this car won't last for 150K or more. It's all about how the end user treats the car or if there is an inherent design flaw with the engine. I'm trusting Ford to have covered every angle with this engine.

Black S2K

1,462 posts

248 months

Thursday 5th July 2012
quotequote all
Indeed; it's also that (as many Diseaseal Weasels have found out to their cost) the expense of replacement pumps, injectors and turbos and depreciation far outweighs the few quid a week saved on squirt.

Still; if it makes these big, ugly slug-mobiles fun to drive, at least that's something. How about some EPS with some feel dialled-in and a bit of RWS throttle-steer, just to complete the picture of how good some boring hatchbacks used to be?


chris.mapey

4,778 posts

266 months

Thursday 5th July 2012
quotequote all
I'm also really sceptical about the real world economy of these small engines.

I'm happy to be convinced otherwise, but I believe that it will return mid 30's max in normal out of town driving (the sort I do driving in rural Suffolk) rather than the pie in the sky VOSA figures (but then its a level playing field for all manufacturers)

Remember the Prius vs M3 on Top Gear; yes staged I know, but it makes the point that a small engine worked very hard will use a similar amount of fuel to an unstressed larger engine in the same road conditions.