Eco Boost I4 Vs Fox

The Focus used to be a good car. They have kind of ruined it. The Neon was horrible. It was also the fastest depreciating car for like 8 years straight.

Kurt

I'm curious to know how you think the car has been "ruined"? The Focus used to be be an utter POS. It's improved tremendously over the years. My chicks Focus ST is 10x the car the Fox body ever was. Rock solid platform, as fast, or faster than most of the Fox's still out there, handles and brakes like a go-cart, great exterior styling, beautiful, functional interior, top notch fit and finish and gets 30mpg in town and almost 45mpg on the highway.
2014-Ford-Focus-ST-Black.png


The new Focus is easily hands down the best that model has ever been.
 
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I'm curious to know how you think the car has been "ruined"? The Focus used to be be an utter POS. It's improved tremendously over the years. My chicks Focus ST is 10x the car the Fox body ever was. Rock solid platform, as fast, or faster than most of the Fox's still out there, handles and brakes like a go-cart, great exterior styling, beautiful, functional interior, top notch fit and finish and gets 30mpg in town and almost 45mpg on the highway.
2014-Ford-Focus-ST-Black.png


The new Focus is easily hands down the best that model has ever been.

Ford Tempo?
 
I couldn't speak for the ST. I never drove one. The original Focus was a good looking car, and you sat way up in it, so you had great visibility. I rented a Focus a few years ago, and it was just awful. There was no head room in it, the visibility wasn't as good. I mean, no where near as bad as the Cobalt, but less of a car than I would expect from Ford. Then it had this feature with the transmission where it would shift into neutral automatically when the car was stopped. It was so jerky at slow speed it was almost undriveable. I suppose if you drove it everyday it would go from undriveable to just highly annoying, but unacceptable either way. It's also extremely ugly now. But most cars are now, so I guess I can't hold that against it.

Kurt
 
Then it had this feature with the transmission where it would shift into neutral automatically when the car was stopped. It was so jerky at slow speed it was almost undriveable. I suppose if you drove it everyday it would go from undriveable to just highly annoying, but unacceptable either way. I

Kurt
They do not have a torque converter anymore. They have a clutch that is electronically engaged/disengaged when you stop/start. This is a fuel economy feature as there is no load on the engine at a stop, unlike a torque converter that always has some load on the engine. There is an extended warranty on the clutch as the issue you experienced is/was quite common during the first year this trans was used. The clutch was very very sensitive to contamination of any kind. The recall/warranty included a new designed clutch assembly and new rear main seal assembly. As yours was a rental car, the rental company had probably not taken the car in for warranty service at that point.
 
Im a 4 cylinder guy at heart. Ive wanted a Neon SRT-4 since they came out, after i saw a few 450-500 whp cars running 10's and still being able to drive every day comfortably. The 2.3 ecoboost is a punched out version of the 2.0 ecoboost in the focus ST. Guys are already getting 300 FWHP out of the ST with just a few mods. Id love to see what could be had from the 2.3

I remember when the Skittles (SRT-4) were popular. Those lost steam quickly. I saw one for the first time in awhile and was amazed. It's like they all fell off the side of the planet. Dodge was trying to capitalize on the tuner market, but the aftermarket support for the car never came onboard to make the car have standing popularity. The dealer support was bad too. I had a friend who bought one around 2003. He made an honest effort of it with a boost controller and nitrous. The the MAP sensor died, and the dealership wouldn't even sell him one; said the part was unavailable. He ended up having to take a turbo PT Cruiser for a test drive, and the swap the MAP sensors out really quickly behind The Home Depot to get a working MAP sensor. Then it kept breaking CV axles. There was only one aftermarket axle available and it could hold the power, but it made the car practically unsteerable. He sold the car shortly after racing my MR2 which was a decade older. He beat me, but not by much. He figured if he could just barely beat an MR2 there was no chance his almost completely unstreetable Skittle would ever be able to hold a candle to the ever popular LS1 Camaros at the time. So he jut got another LS1 Camaro.

Kurt

^This^

I can't count the number of "streetable" 4-bangers out there that have 500 HP and make it all the way to the end of the pass before spewing oil and parts all over the track.

If it removed reliably down the track, then it's a pretty good bet that it's crap to drive down to the corner store.
 
I couldn't speak for the ST. I never drove one. The original Focus was a good looking car, and you sat way up in it, so you had great visibility. I rented a Focus a few years ago, and it was just awful. There was no head room in it, the visibility wasn't as good. I mean, no where near as bad as the Cobalt, but less of a car than I would expect from Ford. Then it had this feature with the transmission where it would shift into neutral automatically when the car was stopped. It was so jerky at slow speed it was almost undriveable. I suppose if you drove it everyday it would go from undriveable to just highly annoying, but unacceptable either way. It's also extremely ugly now. But most cars are now, so I guess I can't hold that against it.

Kurt
You must have never driven an SVT Focus. I had two, a 5door and 3door. Tight suspension, recaros, light weight. I couldn't tell you how many Mustangs I cleaned up with it. With a 75shot of course
 
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I'm curious to know how you think the car has been "ruined"? The Focus used to be be an utter POS. It's improved tremendously over the years. My chicks Focus ST is 10x the car the Fox body ever was. Rock solid platform, as fast, or faster than most of the Fox's still out there, handles and brakes like a go-cart, great exterior styling, beautiful, functional interior, top notch fit and finish and gets 30mpg in town and almost 45mpg on the highway.
2014-Ford-Focus-ST-Black.png


The new Focus is easily hands down the best that model has ever been.

Not to mention its Europe's best selling compact vehicle. The Ford Mondeo (Fusion in the US) is one of the best selling Midsize sedans.

The Focus ST is from Europe, and we all know everything that comes from Europe is top notch..
 
They do not have a torque converter anymore. They have a clutch that is electronically engaged/disengaged when you stop/start. This is a fuel economy feature as there is no load on the engine at a stop, unlike a torque converter that always has some load on the engine. There is an extended warranty on the clutch as the issue you experienced is/was quite common during the first year this trans was used. The clutch was very very sensitive to contamination of any kind. The recall/warranty included a new designed clutch assembly and new rear main seal assembly. As yours was a rental car, the rental company had probably not taken the car in for warranty service at that point.

The transmission is a Dry Dual Clutch automatic.
 
The transmission is a Dry Dual Clutch automatic.
OK. did not know what they were called, just saw a lot of them get replaced. When the tech's first had to do them they complained quite a bit about what a PITA job it was. Paid 12 hrs warranty time. After they had done a few, most of the tech's were able to do them in just over 4hrs time. Then had to spend about 1hr to get the electronics to "re-learn" proper clutch engagement/dis-engagement. Was quite the money maker for them. For a while the dealership was replacing the clutch's on 10-15 cars per week.
 
OK. did not know what they were called, just saw a lot of them get replaced. When the tech's first had to do them they complained quite a bit about what a PITA job it was. Paid 12 hrs warranty time. After they had done a few, most of the tech's were able to do them in just over 4hrs time. Then had to spend about 1hr to get the electronics to "re-learn" proper clutch engagement/dis-engagement. Was quite the money maker for them. For a while the dealership was replacing the clutch's on 10-15 cars per week.

Ford had some issues with that transmission when they first brought it out when the focus was redesigned and on the Fiesta when it came out. There was a lot of threads on multiple forums and warranty claims on those transmissions. Ford probably has the bugs worked out of them by now.
 
Ford had some issues with that transmission when they first brought it out when the focus was redesigned and on the Fiesta when it came out. There was a lot of threads on multiple forums and warranty claims on those transmissions. Ford probably has the bugs worked out of them by now.
I doubt it kinda. They're "disposable" cars, (as are lot of em these days) worth nothing after the warranty is out and during trade in time.
 
You can basically classify all cars as "disposable" Depends on how deep your pockets are. A wealthy person can classify a C Class Mercedes as "disposable", and an average person can consider a Focus as "disposable" Like i said, depends how deep your pockets are.
 
Well the Focus is still ugly. I get the transmission stuff, I do. It is important to get good gas mileage.

The disposable car thing goes back and forth. I have the ultimate disposable car for my Detroit crash pad car; a 1999 Mitsubishi Mirage. I inherited it in my marriage. Truly awful car. You can tell it was designed as a disposable car because no one sells any parts for it, and you can't find much record of anyone ever working on one. Drive it for 120,000 miles and throw it away. I have 155,000 miles on mine, and if it makes it another year going 8 miles back and forth to the airport I will be happy.

Kurt