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
Doesn't look like the most exciting car...
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
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
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
Nobody but nobody thinks that the EU figures represent real world.
This is taken from the business link website.
How the figures are calculated
The figures are meant to serve as a useful means of comparing the relative economy and CO2 emissions of different vehicle models.
However, you should bear in mind that the fuel consumption figures quoted are obtained under standard test conditions. It's unlikely that you would achieve these figures under 'real life' driving conditions, where different weather, driving and vehicle conditions might apply.
Riggers (quite rightly) stated that all the EU figures do is allow a comparison/benchmarking between one car and another.
The manufacturers map and test the cars in such a way as to make sure that they achieve the best figures possible.
ETA = just read the post by the guy from FMC (thanks for a balanced response).
For comparison, I achieve 41/43mpg at 70/75 mph cruise.....................................
in my BMW 730D
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