I miss my Focus

I drove a Mk5 Golf hire car for a day recently. It was so sluggish, I was certain it was only a 1.4. When I returned it I was amazed to be told it was a 1.6!

Like you, I felt the interior was more like a 90's car than a 21st century one. It was more comparable to an Escort than a Focus.

I found that the vertical part of the centre console rubbed my leg, and the scuttle line around the car was very high. This again made the design seem very dated.

VW seem to have concentrated on gimmicks (the ventilation system goes to recirc when you select reverse so you don't draw in your own exhaust fumes for example) at the expense of getting the dynamics of the car right.

My Focus is 5 years old now, but I would rather drive it than a brand new Golf!

Chris.

-- Remove prejudice to reply

"Square, boxey, tacky, cheap" - like the interior of the new North American Focus? : )

Rob

The acceleration from starting seemed quite good, but when trying to overtake it really did seem to lack a lot of the power my focus has (both 1.6's)

I agree, this one I have at the moment has a 6 speed automatic gearbox that also works as a clutchless manual, interesting idea, but if they had put the effort that creating something like must have been into the design of the interior it would have been a much nicer car to drive.

My Focus is 18 months old and the VW is 6 months old, but I think if somebody offered to swap, plus give me a few thousand extra I would still say no.

Like the interior of about just every american car.

I was stunned when i learned that even the grandest carbrand of America (selfproclaimed by GM, well, who's taking anything they say seriously these days), Cadillac has those cheap looking materials. It is still true that american car manufacturers confuse "better", as in luxury and quality for plain "bigger".

Ford interiors tend to be quite poor, but they've been getting better and I'm happy with our Ghia trim...

I really want a focus but am stuck with my poor excuse for a car, namely the pug 206... it's crap compared to the Focus... In fact, what little use I get of my dad's Focus, I enjoy more than a lifetime driving a 206 on the road... i.e. Parking the focus is more exciting than driving the

-JB