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| Source: Ford Motor Company |
The grey
walls, grey fluorescent lights, grey cubicles and grey colleagues demonstrate
the depths office life can dive to. The only hope a corporate robot has for any
sort of excitement is from an eccentric colleague. You know, the new guy that
awkwardly fumbles through his day. Not the most productive of workers, but fun
nonetheless.
This brings me
to the latest version of the Ford Focus. It and its compact competitors are the
automotive representation of middle class, middle-managed office life. It’s a
fine car with great benefits. But it’s not a job, er… car one dreams about.
It’s the one they get. A safe choice with good safety ratings.
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| Source: Ford Motor Company |
The big change
is in the hiring of a new powerplant. It’s the 1.0L 3-cylinder EcoBoost
turbo engine from Romania. The idea is to use the award winning engine to help
improve operational efficiency while adding a little bit of excitement to the
workplace.
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| Source: Ford Motor Company |
At 123 hp and
148 lb-ft of torque, the specs are quite impressive for such a small engine. However, let’s not forget how
big the Focus is. An average car gets an engine twice the size with much more
power. But this downsized turbo concept is the future. So, is it any good?
Well remember
that eccentric colleague I was telling you about? That’s exactly what this
engine is like. Driving through a city is a very interesting affair. The clutch
take up is quite high and from a stop the engine needs lots of throttle to get
going. If you don’t give it enough, the engine lugs close to stalling. But if
you give it too much you’ll chirp the front tires. There’s a very narrow sweet
spot that’s hard to get. And once you do get going there’s a bit of turbo lag.
It feels like the engine is constantly distracted and overwhelmed by what you’re asking of it. “Oh? You want some power now?” Tires chirp, “Too much? Okay I’ll pull back. Oh not enough??? (spools turbo).” It’s really weird and took me the full week to get used to it. But even after I thought I had mastered it, I’d sill be bouncing around and apologizing. Once you're on the highway things settle down and the turbo becomes a really handy asset in the passing lane.
It feels like the engine is constantly distracted and overwhelmed by what you’re asking of it. “Oh? You want some power now?” Tires chirp, “Too much? Okay I’ll pull back. Oh not enough??? (spools turbo).” It’s really weird and took me the full week to get used to it. But even after I thought I had mastered it, I’d sill be bouncing around and apologizing. Once you're on the highway things settle down and the turbo becomes a really handy asset in the passing lane.
That’s not to
say the engine is all bad. I absolutely love the sounds it makes. That
3-cylinder growl is very special. And you can hear the turbo spool up and dump
air like it’s a tuner. What I found really surprising is that because of clever engine
mounts, there is no vibration. It’s so smooth that I would hit
the rev limiter without flinching.
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| Source: Ford Motor Company |
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| Source: Ford Motor Company |
As interesting
as the concept is, it can’t really recommend it. And I doubt many people will
buy it either. It’s only available as a manual on the Sedan in mid-range SE
trim. And the whole package costs $1600. It’s a really tough sell, and I don’t
anticipate many will go for it.
This downsized turbo Focus is the future though. As governments impose ever stricter fuel
consumption regulations, automakers are already looking to the turbo for help.
And does it? Well in my week of driving on mainly the highway, I averaged about
7.5 L/100km. According to NRCAN ratings the engine represents a 1 L/100km improvement over the regular Focus, representing more of a small step forward rather than a giant leap.
I really like
this new engine, it’s very special. But touchy clutch take up, and a slightly
delayed turbo shows that maybe the Focus isn’t quite ready for such a
small engine. It is available on a Fiesta however, and I feel like that is
probably a better fit.
2015 Ford Focus SE EcoBoost
There are a couple of things that'll need to be looked at at next year's performance review ☆☆
Price as tested (Base Price): $23,314 ($22,114) inc. Freight + PDI
Engine: 1.0 Litre Direct Injection Turbocharged 3-cylinder
Power: 128 hp @ 6350 rpm Torque: 148 lb-ft @ 5000 rpm
Transmission: 6-speed Manual
Fuel Consumption NRCan (city|hwy|combined): 8.1 | 5.9 | 7.4 L/100km
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