Ford Focus ST-Line: No sweat going to sports-lite version

The new generation car has plenty of appeal, but this version is a low-temp warm-up to the ST.

Base price: $36,990.
Powertrain and performance: 1497cc three-cylinder turbo petrol, 134kW/240Nm, 8-speed automatic, FWD, Combined economy 5.3 litres per 100km.
Vital statistics: 4398mm long, 1454mm high, mm wheelbase, luggage capacity 375 litres, -inch alloys.
We like: The drivetrain, strong spec, appealing to drive. We don't like: Too-dull interior ambience, fiddly gear selector.

REMEMBER when a Ford car was a New Zealand best seller?

Bad call, all who answered ‘just last year’. Family use favouritism regardless, utilities are defined as commercial vehicles. So, exclude Ranger from this exercise.

In respect to a pure Ford passenger car? It’s been a while. Best evidence – because this precedes current industry record-keeping process - suggests the year was 1982 and the titleholder the Mark V Cortina, a rare sight now. There’s a cracker on display at Southward Museum.

 Anyway, market realities will assuredly keep the Focus from making history. So what that Ranger cruised to the top. With cars it’s harder. Fleet penetration is key. Ford had it 40 years ago. Toyota does now and so completely nothing else achieves a decent look-in.

So everything comes down to private buyer interest and Focus has been tailored accordingly. It’s also made tastier by being more ideologically European in dynamic attitude and driver engagement than its predecessor.

An arresting styling, an intriguing and very forward-thinking drivetrain technology and a talented chassis that gives a big thumbs up to a fresh and more rigid platform are also core to achieving appeal.

That new C2 platform delivers a larger, more practical basis. The increase in cabin space is particularly noticeable in the back, the changes are less obvious in headroom (well, the silhouette demands compromise) but certainly delivers in legroom and the wide cabin means there’s decent shoulder room. Three people across the rear bench? It’s possible.

The boot is a decent 375 litres, and the load lip to lug heavy items over is modest. The rear seats drop to extend capacity to 1354 litres, with an almost-flat load floor.

The Focus has been awarded a five-star crash test rating by Euro NCAP. You can see why, too, with automatic emergency braking, electronic stability control, hill start assist and a system that locks the brakes on after an accident to help prevent any further impacts. 

Updating to a head-up display (HUD) is timely and lane departure warning, lane keep assist and a parking aid (smart enough, now, to do gear selects and braking) are also the norm. Evasive steering assist helping drivers steer around stopped or slower vehicles, night-time pedestrian and cyclist detection, a rear wide-view camera, an adaptive front lighting system with its predictive camera-based tech that pre-adjusts headlamp patterns for improved visibility by monitoring bends in the road and road signs are premium features nice to find here.

With dual-zone climate control, keyless entry and start, and wireless smartphone charging as standard, it really is smartly-specced.

A shame, then, that Ford’s struggle to match best rivals for interior quality continues. The materials should prove fairly hard-wearing, but most of the surfaces don’t have the tactility, texture or colour tone to cut it with the best. In this case, the Mazda3.

The dashboard has a fairly sensible layout and though the touch-screen infotainment system demands some playing about, it’s worth persevering, as the technology is impressive. Sync3 infotainment system, satellite navigation with live traffic, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support, Bluetooth connectivity, voice control and Wi-Fi hotspot …. again, that’s pretty much at the leading edge.

Ability to deliver a solid, comfy driving position is a cinch as there’s lots of adjustment and visibility is pretty clear in every direction, with no major blind spots. Controls locate sensibly though there are operational niggles. One is with the weight of the switchgear: it’s so light as to make it very easy to overshoot the intended selection. Another is the rotary dial to operate the eight-speed automatic. Ford’s following Jaguar down this route but nowhere as pleasingly, with piddly, loose-feel controller. 

For all that, the gearbox itself works well and the engine works even better – it’s the best element.

Three-cylinder engines are not new, but turbocharging and precisions unachievable 10 years ago having done the trick for refinement and flair and Ford is a proven leader with its EcoBoost mills. The one-litre in the previous Fiesta was a breakthrough but the 1.5 in this Focus is better still; very responsive to throttle inputs and providing good acceleration, yet also going easy on the juice. It also engages really positively with this transmission and, on top of all that, there’s a lovely exhaust note.

Such a willing, energetic and characterful engine surely deserves a chassis of equal quality.

On that note, the Focus now isn’t the car it used to be, having traded off some nimbleness for a more grown up attitude, not least in respect to the ride, which is compliant, comfortable and well-controlled. Another example of its improved sophistication comes with the reduction in mechanical and exterior noises. They’re not wholly eradicated, but are better isolated.

The attitude change isn’t wholly total, though. While more grown up in how it deals with poor surfaces and fiendish bumps, it’s still a fun car if you want to let the reins loose. 

Trademark Focus impishness reveals especially well on secondary routes. It flows really nicely through bend to bend, with lot of grip, impressive agility and steering that could be a little quicker yet is lovely for feel. It’s not so sporty as to leave thinking something spicier is unnecessary yet is nonetheless so well tied-down in its body movements to raise a smile and leave impression that, by any normal hatchback measure, it is well-sorted, not least for damping and control.

In summary, it has winning qualities in good looks, a roomier interior, tons of useful tech and lots of on-road character. All factors that should keep it sweet with anyone seeking a nice niche mainstream five-door.

Ford Mustang Bullitt: Gunning for greatness

It’s a closed case. This IS the best factory-delivered edition of the current Pony car.

Base price: $93,490.
Powertrain and performance: 5.0-litre petrol V8, 345kW/556Nm, six-speed manual transmission, RWD, Combined economy 13 litres per 100km, 0-100kmh 5.15sec.
Vital statistics: 4789mm long, 1382mm high, 2720mm wheelbase, luggage capacity 408 litres, 19-inch alloy wheels.
We like: The best distributor-delivered Mustang yet, just 50 on the road. We don't like: Just 50 on the road … and they’re all spoken for.

A Ford Mustang GT 390 Fastback driven by Lieutenant Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen) duels with a Dodge Charger 440 driven by a pair of assassins down the jagged hills of San Francisco to the soundtrack of squealing tyres and howling V8s.

Actually, there’s more to the plot, but it’s this 10-minute epic duel that lifts Bullitt above being just another 1960s’ lone-wolf-cop-fights-for-justice-in-a –world-gone-bad flick. It still captivates today, despite amusing continuity gaffes: The Charger loses six hub cabs and hugely misses the petrol pumps that trigger a fireball; without wing mirrors getting to the car wash, the Mustang departs with one. And the same green VW Beetle is overtaken repeatedly.

You shrug this off because … well, it’s just so epic, so raw.

The same can be said of the Mustang Bullitt who release is supposedly to celebrate 2018 being the 50th year since the film issued. Could a film in which the most memorable line had McQueen telling a superior “you work your side of the street, I’ll work mine” be THAT crucial? Actually, to Mustang’s image, it was.

Even so, there’s surely a touch of Hollywood to the release timing of this reprise. The Mustang nameplate holds the record for the fastest-selling model in history, yet the latest generation, a white-hot showroom performer when it kicked in, has now starting to drop sales pace. Moreso in North America than places revelling in seeing the Pony Car in right-hand-drive for the first time. Still, this seems a good time for a quick buck blockbuster.

From my time with it, I’d say if any edition can reprise the ‘I want one’ feeling for Ford’s little pony it has to be this Bullitt.

Being based off the best variant, the V8 manual coupe, is an excellent start; I know the shifter’s ‘measured’ action puts off many, but a ‘stick’ is utterly in keeping with the car’s theme.

The car does a great job in announcing itself. Ford NZ only ordered Dark Highland Green, the same colour as McQueen’s ride. It looks amazing, better than the alternate Black (‘as a hitman’s heart?’) they could also have chosen.

The tribute also includes 19-inch aluminium wheels, reminiscent of the original’s Rostyles, and though it bows to the modern in having navigation, all the usual safety assists and air conditioning, it also sharpens fast road (or track) readiness with semi-active suspension, Recaro seats, red, painted Brembo brakes, and a new induction system, specifically the intake manifold from the Shelby GT350. This doesn’t alter the 5.0-litre’s torque and only elevates power output by just 5kW, but it’s nonetheless quite enough to lift the top speed and, just as crucially, make the engine sound meaner.

The only crime against good taste is perpetrated by a swag of Bullitt emblems Stakeout discretion was never likely but the largest - on the steering wheel boss and the tail, mimicking where the original model had its fuel filler – are just too much.

Even emblazoned it’s not a given everyone understands why this car exists. I’d always imagined Bullitt would never misfire, yet I met a few from the Mustang’s traditional 50-plus customer base who honestly had forgotten all about the link. Then there was a mate, too young for the era yet a serious film and car buff, who stunned by fessing he’d heard of, but never seen, the pic. 

Of course, visually the car has enough of what would, back in McQueen’s day, be called a ‘badass’ ambience to achieve kerbside cool. Yet what makes it really worthy is a factor that, admittedly, comes from left field.

Namely that the Mustang in latest form has turned into quite a decent driver’s car. Yes, it’s big and wide and a touch hefty. Yet just this generation being the first with an independent rear suspension is a huge positive. Beyond that, the Bullitt’s calibre is improved by all sorts of further refinements. You might not want to chase Porsches, but it is genuinely good enough to utterly blow apart perception of American cars being wallowy, ponderous and prone to fall off corners.

Here control weights and steering in particular impress, the power is thrilling - you tend to ‘hit the gas’ just to hear it roar - and, though the weight and size are never fully disguised, it is a refreshingly honest car. One that makes you feel connected and happy to be alive. I just loved every minute with it. Even when it rained.

You’d expect nothing less from a ‘special’.  Yet, on that note, another twist. Even though Ford New Zealand has decided to cap the order to just 50 units – all spoken for, sorry – and says it will deliver no more, in theory it could. Because, from what I can tell, the build plan allows the Flat Rock factory to knock out many as it wants for as long as it sees fit.

The Bullitt is not perfect – you’ll not be surprised that it drinks hard and, though I don’t doubt the sincerity of the window sticker attesting to the plant being staffed by world class people, that’s not quite a descriptive that sticks when discussing assembly. However, the fuel burn and the occasional trim rattle are not in any way plot spoilers. They’re just … well, character.

You wonder, of course, what the man himself would think of it. Being a petrolhead, you’d think Terence Steven McQueen – who died in 1980, aged 50 from a rare cancer – would have ultimate interest in Shelby’s 2020 GT500. But hey, that’s not likely set for NZ screening, so best not dwell.

It’s hard to think of any reason why he wouldn’t also enjoy the Bullitt, nonetheless.

One thing everyone who knew the man, not least some big name race drivers, tend to testify is that McQueen loved a fast car and knew how to handle one,

He intended to do all the driving in the film, but a crash rattled McQueen’s wife so much she implored director Peter Yates to bring in stunt ace Bud Ekins. McQueen was furious. (Check the interior shots: When McQueen is driving, the rear view mirror shows his face. When Ekins is driving it is up, so his face is hidden).

Final film fact. There were two Mustangs used for the film; one went to the wreckers’ just after shooting was over but the other – even though it was used for the remarkable hill driving stints - is still around and looking good.