Ford Focus, which was damaged by power, but chassis control is still the benchmark.

Every old car fan, or car industry practitioners, will never forget Ford Focus.

Historically, when Fox was born, it was the time when young people could own their own cars with hard work. Fox is very good in design, handling performance, chassis comfort and safety.

Compared with Toyota Corolla, Corolla, Peugeot 307 and Nissan TIIDA at that time, Fox’s young and manipulative image was very good. Honda Civic is also a latecomer, and Fox’s control is not disappointing.

Driving the early Focus, it is a 2005 hatchback 1.8L automatic transmission. The power performance is average, the 4AT gearbox is only a little better than Volkswagen 4AT, and the fuel consumption in urban areas is high. But after driving for more than two thousand kilometers, people felt what chassis control was for the first time.

One of my favorite Focus is the 2009 hatchback/sedan Focus 2.0L sports version. The set of sports seats and 5MT manual transmission are not out of date now. Coupled with the sporty design, both driving and perception are cool.

The best Fox is the self-priming version equipped with a 2.0L+6-speed dual-clutch gearbox in late 2014-15. The double clutch is provided by Gertrak, and the shift is not as fast as the Volkswagen double clutch but very smooth. Crucially, this version of Focus has smooth shifting and low fuel consumption.

However, the most beautiful Fox, personally, is the 2006 Fox ST. Once I went to Ford R&D Center in North America, I noticed that the poster of’ 06 Fox ST was still on the staff’s office wall, which shows that the design at that time was very successful.

Fox in the first ten years was still on the normal road. But I think the change of Fox happened in 2015.

The biggest change of the new Focus, which was redesigned in mid-2015, is to switch to the "Martin" front face, and then introduce two pairs of 1.0T and 1.5T turbocharged engines. Of course, a lot of electronic equipment has been added, such as automatic parking, blind spot monitoring and so on, and the new Focus finally has a large navigation screen for the first time!

Martin’s front face was used on Mondeo, and the new carnival and Forrest were used, and the modified Fox came to join in the fun. Martin’s version of Mondeo is beautiful, but it doesn’t mean that Fox with a smaller size also has this effect. At that time, when the official map of the new Fox came out, it also caused quite a controversy.

When we were in the test drive, we drove a sedan with a dark gray body for a test drive. I remember when a colleague saw us, the first sentence was: "Aren’t you trying the new Focus? How did you get Forsyth here?"

The biggest problem is Fox’s motivation, which began to decline at this time.

In 2015, the Fox automatic transmission has three sets of power configurations: 1.6L four-cylinder, 1.0T three-cylinder and 1.5T four-cylinder, which are very strange power configurations. The entry-level version of 1.6L is equipped with a "tall" dual-clutch gearbox, while the turbocharging is all equipped with a 6AT automatic gearbox. Of course, the high-end version is not equipped with a dual clutch because of the cost.

The test drive is a 1.5TEcoBoost GTDi turbocharger, and the output is 135kW/6000rpm and 240Nm/1750~4500rpm, which completely surpasses the old 2.0L naturally aspirated. However, the high noise is another disadvantage of 1.5TEcoBoost, and the sound is a bit disturbing as soon as the speed reaches 3500rpm.

The biggest problem appeared. After testing the car, I said, "Fox has returned to the era of high fuel consumption."

However, Fox never wins by power, but by chassis control.

The subframe+multi-link rear suspension, which is rare at the same level, has the greatest advantages in complex mountain roads-the rear wheels can still cling to the road even if the road surface is uneven in the corner, and the redundant vibration can be filtered out one by one. The performance of Volkswagen Golf at the same level is not as good as that of Fox.

At this time, the Fox suspension was softer, and the car body tilted badly around the pile, but the magic thing was that the soft suspension had almost no side effects on handling during cornering, and the four tires were still very close to the ground. The steering is still fast but accurate, as if you won’t understeer when you turn corners at a faster speed.

However, the adjustment of Fox in the later period of domestic production is not perfect, and the softness and long suspension, as well as the increase of the ground clearance, lead to the improvement of the center of gravity, which makes the dynamics of Fox’s body very subtle when it is pushed to the limit at high speed, and its stability is more affected than that of its peers.

Fortunately, most drivers will not drive it to the high speed limit …

Unfortunately, not every car buyer will care about these designs which increase the cost but are invisible to the naked eye. What they often see is that the rear footroom of the new Focus is still average, and the comfort of the seats is not as good as that of Japanese cars. But it’s also true.

Later, in 2019, Ford Focus finally embarked on the road of no return of all three cylinders. At this time, although there is 8AT gearbox support, Chinese people still don’t recognize the three cylinders.

There is really a lot to say about the story of Fox. But once you meet Fox with good motivation, you will release his nature and talent.

After driving the Fox ST for two generations, I enjoy the feeling of 6MT manual gear shifting, and the pleasure of twisting the front wheel and gently pulling the steering wheel to one side every time the gear shifting is accelerated. After many years, I think Fox ST is more fun than Golf GTI.

I also drove a very cracked Fox RS. Without some practice, it is difficult to handle the relationship between 6MT and 440Nm on the track. But it was really fun.