A week on Saturday I'll be going to collect my 6 month old black Focus Titanium TDCI 1.6 (with sat nav, convenience pack and 18"s). Coming from a remapped 58 plate Skoda Octavia VRS TDI it's a considerable step down in terms of power but a huge leap in equipment and (I'm hoping) economy. £20 a year VED is great too.
Driving wise it was excellent and had a nice combination of feel, comfort and sharp turn in.
Test drove a 11 plate Mondeo TitX 163 TDCi at the same time and was less impressed. Nice and smooth but waaaaay too big and heavy (especially round bends where the heft is noticeable) , needed a lot of revving and was overall quite unrewarding to drive as you are cocooned inside the thing. Also what is with the flap of felt they call a glovebox door? Decided that despite the power drop the Focus was the better choice. Plus it parks itself apparently - be interested to see how that works....
Was a bit bemused at Fords choice to fit drums on the back brakes but I guess there's no need for discs on this kind of setup (and discs are weaker on hand brake and tend to seize up quite a bit - had several cars do that to me - bring out the copper slip
)Will be looking at getting it mapped in the not too distant future, depending on cost etc as I'm sure it'll make it much more drivable with the added torque. From what i've seen about 140 bhp and 240 ft/ lb is reasonable? Any advice appreciated.
Cheers,
Chris.