This week we’ll be talking about the Ford Focus hatchback Titanium model. I really wanted to take a look at this one as previous years the Focus was not an attractive car in my opinion. To be honest prior to the year 2010, you wouldn’t catch me driving a Focus anywhere, but this 2012 model definitely has a nice style about it, which prompted me to want to take a look. Was this just beauty from afar, or is the 2012 Ford Focus a sexy vehicle?
Style
Right off the back the 2012 Ford Focus is a looker, this is one attractive car! In fact during my week review of the Focus, more than a few people felt compelled to tap on the window and ask me how much does this car go for, as they would quite interested. This included one gentleman who was in the lane next to me as I was heading down to Manhattan to return the car on my final day.
On the outside the car looks quite good, it is was what caught my attention in the first place. It looks like a cool sporty street racing car. On the inside though, I wasn’t quite impressed. The inside wasn’t bad, it was just plain looking. Basic black leather looking interior. It makes think of a person who does a lot of work on a house on the outside so it look gorgeous, but on the inside they got their furniture from Ikea. And while Ikea isn’t bad, it just isn’t what you would expect on the inside.
Tech
On the inside there is some cool tech. All the features I think should be standard wad present. Keyless entry, power windows/locks, Navigation, Bluetooth (phone and streaming via smartphone), and more. The sound system was by Sony, and while the sound was okay it is pretty tough to follow a week with the Chrysler 300S and Beats Audio. But the sound was indeed good.
Again like the style area, there wasn’t much that wowed me with the tech inside the Ford Focus. All the standard features I expect in a 2012 car were there, but there wasn’t any stand out feature that made me say “Wow this is really cool”. It gets the job done, but I just wasn’t excited while doing it.
Experience
Now here is where the car got weird for me. This was an automatic car, no mistake about it. But one thing I’m definitely now use to is an automatic car doing a roll back. You see when your in a manual car and in a stopped position the car would be in neutral, so I would expect it to roll back first before going forward. But this is definitely not something I would expect in an automatic car, but sure enough on more time than I could count, the Focus would roll back when I took my foot off the brake. This might not be major, but it was definitely a little unnerving at a stoplight when cars close behind me. Since I wasn’t expecting it to do that, I jumped a few times and hit the brake to make sure I didn’t tap the car behind me who was too close. Again this wasn’t a deal breaker, but just not expected.
Other than the roll back, the Ford Focus feels like a sport tuner car. Acceleration wasn’t as good as I hope, but once it got going it was kind of fun to drive. I see this as a car for the first time car own, or the 18-25 crowd. I did enjoy using the Ford Focus, but not enough where I felt like I wanted to buy one right after. It would make for a nice rental, which is funny enough since I see Zipcar has a few in their fleet now…
Wrap Up
Coming in at $27,140 for this Ford Focus Hatchback Titanium model, I think it is just a tab bit pricey than I would be willing to pay for this car. And that is not to say it is bad or anything, but I would like to see it come in around 23-25K max for this model. Of course you can you get for that price if you left just the bare minimum as the starting price for this model is $22,765.
The car is cool to drive, but it just didn’t do it for me. You might feel differently since as I mentioned, there were quite a few people interested in this one. And I still give it all the kudos for its exterior, because it looks leaps and bounds better than previous years! If you are coming right out of college and ready to get that first time vehicle, definitely check out the Ford Focus!