Upgrading from WS Fiesta to LW Focus (Advice)

[LeadFoot81]

Hey all,

Mrs LeadFoot81 wants to upgrade from her WS Fiesta Zetec to an LW Focus Sport (hatch), for many reasons, but mainly the interior:

- Nicer materials on the inside

- Lots of tech that just isn't available on the Fez

- Most importantly however, she perceives the Focus to have a lot more space on the inside which she needs as opposed to wanting all the perks/luxuries that the Focus offers.

As far as I can tell from google researching, the Focus hatch has 277 litres for the hatch but with the rear seats in the hatch folded down you get 1062 litres overall. The sedan is listed as 372 litres, but I figure it can't compete with the practicality of a hatchback.

The WS/WT Fiesta meanwhile is listed as having 295 litres of space, 979 litres with the seats down.

So ignoring the numbers, can anyone who has switched from a Fiesta to the Focus tell me what the rear 'cargo' area is like in the real world? The numbers suggest very similar (slightly less actually) storage in the Focus..but (for example) is the rear opening larger, making it easier to get tuff in and out? Is the Focus wider, but the cargo area slightly shorter due to sexy, swoopy styling? Or should we consider a Mondeo wagon if space and versatility is the issue? We also value the smaller footprint of a Focus over Mondeo so we'd like a good balance between space available inside, and space taken up outside.

Also how does the 2.0 Auto Focus drive? Figures for power and consumption look pretty good on paper. Are the autos in these things a problem? We're used to regular slush boxes.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers