Quote:
Originally Posted by csv8
Franco Cozzo .You cannt say that. I did and continually got shot down. So, I have stopped commenting on Ford cars.
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Insert clip of Greta 'how dare you'
I've got an LV Focus as my daily that I bought new, you can tell the new SA Focus is a next generation car in terms of refinement compared to my old banger, it reminds me of VE and VF Commodore but it's not as impressive, that was a huge change in quality of switchgear and interior refinement.
Steering feel through the wheel was on point though and that's typically a strong point of cars designed by Ford Europe from my experience, all the little cars like the Fiesta and Focus are on point with steering accuracy and feel, you move the wheel the slightest amount and the car moves, the most minor adjustments and the car is changing direction and you're getting feedback of what the fronts are doing.
I've got a bit of experience with Mazda 6 and Mazda is more interested in isolating you from steering feel, you might as well as be driving the car with a PSX controller prior to the dualshock vibration functionality being introduced because you can't feel anything, it's like holding onto a plastic pizza with thick crusts.
The dash has soft touch materials, I spent a bit of time touching and feeling things while driving about inner Melbourne
As you get below the dash they're back to cheap and nasty, the good stuff is only the steering wheel which is leather wrapped and feels majestic, the dash which is mid way between quality and nasty soft touch, the centre console is hard plastics and feels cheap.
The window switches feel cheap and clicky rather than nicely weighted in their action, it doesn't inspire confidence.
Has electric park brake, you can see the knob shifter thing in all its glory in below photo:
I had a bit of a fiddle with Sync 3 briefly, originally I wasn't sold on the tablet stuck to the dash look in marketing photos but in person I like it, it's functional and the display appears high resolution, the DAB radio functionality is clunky and slow to respond, it's divided into multiple 'bands' with 'clusters' of stations in each band, the factory settings on the audio are also crapola, there's no bass to it but I was right on the dealership before getting a chance to adjust and evaluate further.
The SA Focus is OK, but there's nothing that really stands out and puts it on my radar as worth buying.
If you had $30K in the bank and looking for a new daily I'd probably look at all your options first rather than just walking into a Ford dealership and making it rain, I feel that 10 years ago Ford was more relevant than in 2020.
If the prices were lower, than the SA Focus would be a good buy but I'd suggest people check out the competition and I'd be heavily considering the options that our South Korean friends are offering.
Having a WZ Fiesta ST in the family I'd be more inclined to buy the 2020 Fiesta ST without having laid eyes on it over the SA Focus as you're getting the same engine with more balls in a higher spec car albeit smaller, I cross shop on price rather than class of car.