New car slower than old one

Assuming that there are no actual faults affecting performance, the two things that initially spring to mind are either a relatively tight, low-mileage engine (if applicable?) or a more accurate speedo - or maybe a combination of the two??

Alternatively, maybe slightly different gearing??

I belive that the new one is 150lbs heavier. More sound deadening, thicker safety glass, bigger dimensionally. More mass=less speed!

Ron

Ron

The 2005 is bigger, not the 2004. /per

[] [] Or a less accurate speedo - I just got a GPS system - I used it in a Merc and checked the speedo on the motorway - It compared spot on with the Merc.

In my 2 year Focus 2L Ghia, the speedo reads 34 when the gps tells me that I am doing 30. The speedo consistently is 'fast' compared with the GPS.

I tend to believe in the cesium clocks on the GPS than the speedo on the car. HOWEVER, I use the car speedo if a police car tailing me!!!

In alt.autos.ford.focus Donald Gray :

Exactly, GPS should be correct concerning speed withing +/- 0.1 km/h. The speedo on my Focus shows about +5% more then GPS, a pretty good value for some Ford speedometer. In addition it has the annoying feature that it stops shortly before 220 km/h, while revs are still going up.

:

GPS vs. speedo comparison is similar in my experience too - speedo reads

4mph fast at all legal speeds compared to GPS, indicating it is actually a pretty accurate unit with an in-built over-read that remains consistent. As an aside, my GPS reads identically to these flashing roadside speed signs that seem to be proliferating in this neck of the woods.

Just to clarify my earlier comments with regard to the OP, the more accurate speedo reasoning relates to the newer car - if the one in the old car over-read a lot and the one in the new car over-reads less, then this could give the OP the impression that the new car is slower over his chosen performance test (especially if the new car is also a bit quieter and smoother to drive than the old one too)

Mark Allen schrieb:

Hi I don´t know about the law in the USA, but here in Germany a speedo is only allowed to over-read the real speed by about 10% of the max. speed indicatable, but not a bit slower then the right speed. This leads to speedos with a over-read of about 2-10 km/h, bad ones until 15-20 km/h. About 5 is normaly. bye Jupp

In message , Michael Heiming wrote

While travelling on a straight road and at constant speed the GPS always reports a road speed that is 10 percent below that reported by my 2001 UK (Geman) Focus speedometer (over the range 30 to 80 miles per hour)

In alt.autos.ford.focus Alan :

A bit much, perhaps you have mounted another wheel/tire combination then your Focus is programmed? Can be adjusted from your Ford dealer.

In message , Michael Heiming wrote

Standard Ford wheels and recommended size of tyres (same brand/model of tyre as originally fitted to car)

I think it's ok, my german Focus' speedometer shows more km/h than i'm really driving. I measured it and the speedometer shows ca. 7 km/h more than I'm actually driving.

In alt.autos.ford.focus Thorsten Gartung :

Depends, at least with my Focus on the speed: speedometer 100 km/h - GPS 95 km/h speedometer 200 km/h - GPS 190 km/h

(Sadly speedometer simply stops short before 220 km/h)

Anyway looks like +5%, wouldn't really care about the 10%, but his dealer should be able to check if the tire dimension mounted is programmed correctly, if he's curious.