Having moved from Central Illinois to Southeast Michigan and finding myself a condo with a two car garage, I was determined to retire the 2009 Mazda Miata from daily driver duty and buy myself something sensible and reliable. I had just accepted a new job at Ford, and one of the things I got when onboarding onto my new role was a $1,000 voucher for a new Ford vehicle.
Originally, I wasn’t planning on using the voucher. I thought that I would do the financially smart thing and get a lightly used late model car that was just a few years old.
The problem with that idea became apparent as soon as I started looking for a 3-4 year old car. The first problem was that the selection was simply terrible. Not many cars were built during the Great Recession, and the few that were available for sale as used cars carried correspondingly high price tags.
I was also trying to buy a Ford of some sort so I wouldn’t feel like the odd man out at the work parking lot. (It turned out to be an entirely unfounded fear, as it turns out no one at Ford gives a whit as to what the IT guys are driving to their offices located far away from the engineering campus and the plants.) Looking at pre-2009 Fords reminded me of just how I simply wasn’t a fan of the turn-of-the-millennium cars — blocky styling, hard interiors, and power plants that didn’t exactly raise my pulse.
Eventually, I came back around to the idea of buying a brand new car. Ford was on a roll at the time introducing heavily European-influenced cars that I was quite fond of. My fellow MBA colleague, who had started working at Ford six months before I did, had bought himself a 2011 Ford Focus Titanium with the PowerShift automatic transmission. I thought it drove excellently, and decided to get a Focus of my own.
But mine would have a stick.
My brand new Focus, sitting next to its new garage mate, my ’09 Miata.
I found a metallic yellow Ford Focus SE with a manual transmission and the heated “sport” seats, which I found extremely comfortable. My car didn’t have MyFordTouch and just had regular Sync, but that was okay with me, as the 10-key number pad in the dash meant that I had ten radio presets.
Going rallycrossing in the Focus
I only had 600 miles on the odometer on the Focus when I decided that I would give rallycrossing a go. Rallycross is like autocross in that you run through a course marked with cones, but unlike autocross, the surface is dirt and gravel (and sometimes snow!). Also, instead of just the fastest time of your runs determining your finishing position in class, the winner in rallycross was the one who had the lowest accumulated time across all runs, making consistency important in rallycross.
Taking the Focus to my very first rallycross ever.
The Detroit Region of the Sports Car Club of America put on their rallycrosses in open fields at or surrounding dirt tracks and horse tracks in the state. That’s how I found myself driving over two hours to the middle of the state, ostensibly for a “local” rallycross.
As a complete and utter novice at driving fast in the loose stuff, I quickly learned that what works on dry pavement doesn’t necessarily work on dirt. Someone there offered to ride along with me and give me pointers; little did I know it at the time, but that first interaction led to one of my strongest and longest-running friendships in the Detroit area.
I was hooked. The joy of driving sideways in the dirt eventually overruled any concern I had about cosmetic damage to the car or the oodles of abuse I was laying down on the engine mounts. With the same snow tires that I’d use during the winter time, I would go to a rallycross and chew out the tires, coat the entire body in a thick layer of dirt and dust, and torture test the clips and fasteners that kept the undertray and the side sills on the car.
Taking the Focus to the race track
I still had my 2009 Mazda Miata around, but as it was a dedicated autocross car, I didn’t have a roll bar installed. As a result, opportunities to drive on track would pop up and I couldn’t take the Miata due to a lack of rollover protection.
But you know what car in the fleet did have a roof? The Focus!
My Focus, out on track at a private track event at Blackhawk Farms.
Equipped with a 1″ aftermarket sway bar on the back and 17″ summer tires on all four corners, I took the car to the Waterford Hills for the Corvette Club of Michigan’s yearly Fourth of July track autocross event. For a car whose mission in life definitely did not include “pretend you’re a hot hatch,” the car did remarkably well.
I took the car to the track again when some friends back in Illinois decided to do the Hoerr Racing Products private track day at Blackhawk Farms. Once again, the car acquitted itself very well, surprising me with just how well poised the car was in a performance situation that 99/9% of owners would never ask of the car.
Daily driving duties
It didn’t take long for me to get over the fact that I paid a little bit extra to buy a new car than to get an older, higher mileage car.
The Focus was the first car that I had ever experienced with heated seats. At the time, I marveled that such a thing existed on a car that cost under the $20k mark. I was also happy that my car came with a Bluetooth capable stereo, something that wasn’t nearly as ubiquitous on cars built before 2010 than those built after.
Parking at work next to my fellow Ford College Graduate program friends.
But most importantly for me, the car was quiet and comfortable. With the Miata was developed from a Stock class autocross car to a Street Touring Roadster class car, which included nearly sextupling the spring rates from roughly 110 lbs/in to 650 lbs/in in the front and quadrupling the spring rates in the rear, the Focus rode like a limousine in comparison. Also, with a stock exhaust, I could hear myself think.
I was very glad to have chosen a manual transmission. My MBA colleague, Ford coworker, and friend moved into my condo once the lease on his apartment was up, so we had two Ford Focuses and a Miata hanging around. And as time passed, it became increasingly apparent that his PowerShift transmission was living on borrowed time. Much has been written about the PowerShift if you’re interested in the details. I have always described the sensation of driving his PowerShift automatic-equipped car as if the transmission was a new driver was learning how to drive stick for the first time; every now and then, you’d have a heavy stutter when moving from a stop, or a weighty THUNK for a gear change.
That experience led me to stop recommending the Focus (or the Fiesta) to any friends or family unless they could drive stick. Which was a shame, because the rest of the car was so, so good.
Shouldn’t have sold the car…
After taking the Focus out to rallycrosses, the occasional autocross, and a couple of track events, I couldn’t help but think that I could be having a lot more fun if my car had more power and sportier suspension. So I bought another car and then sold the Focus.
It wouldn’t be until about a year or two later, when I was feeling rather apathetic about my new car, that I realized what I had done. I had taken a car that was good at 95% of the things I needed it to do — be a comfy daily driver — and not so good at the 5% of everything else — be a race car — and swapped it for a car that was the diametric opposite.
My new car was powerful, but it burned through gallons of expensive premium fuel whereas the Focus burned cheap regular. The new car had firm suspension and large wheels, which was great for grip, but not so much for comfort (or cheap tires). The new car had no heated seats, and insurance costs for the new car were double of that of the Focus.
Most disappointingly, I gave up a car that I had nearly finished paying off for another car with a new car note. Had I not done that, I’d have a paid off little hatchback that I’d probably still be driving around to this day. Chalk that up as a lesson that my younger self had to learn the hard way.
I sold the car to another enthusiast, and haven’t really seen the car or any similarly equipped car like it since. As it turns out, yellow manual transmission Ford Focus SE hatchbacks with the Sport package are extremely uncommon. I had a relative unicorn of a car, and I foolishly let it go…
I’ve been daily driving my basic 2012 SE sedan with a manual for almost nine years now, and you’re totally correct about its attributes. Even my basic model handles well, it gets great fuel mileage on regular, and it has plenty of power for day to day driving. Like you, I even took mine out on the track for some touring laps at Waterford Hills during their vintage race weekend, but you can’t consider that a track day. A few times, I thought of buying a new Challenger or Camaro, but I really just use the Focus as an appliance that sits outside so I can afford my old car toys, and for that it’s perfect. It’s really too bad they screwed up the automatic transmission, because Ford got the manual version just about right.
What a fun car! How terrible that Ford ruined the car with that transmission, at least for the overwhelming majority who would never consider a stick. But for the few who want a clutch pedal it sounds like this one would be a delight.
Finding many non-Ford products in the parking lot is not surprising, given the number of contract employees that they hire. When I worked for Chrysler in the late 70s, 3/4 of the cars in the lot were non-Chrysler makes. Our contract engineering staff was about 50% of the population.
I had the misfortune of receiving a Ford Focus with the Power Shift transmission as a rental car on a weekend trip to Boston, shortly after this generation was released. I was at the time in my 20s and absolutely in the target market for such a car, and in fact found the redesigned Focus with the practical hatchback to be one of the few domestic cars that held any appeal to me. It was a very sharp looking car with a quality interior but that transmission was garbage! My recollection is that the car had fewer than 1,000 miles on the odometer so if certainly wasn’t attributable to any abuse it had suffered as a rental. Attempting to navigate an unfamiliar city during Friday rush hour with a transmission that seemed completely disconnected in its actions from any of my inputs as a driver was absolutely frightening. Every moment behind the wheel was stress inducing and I was all too happy to leave it behind at the end of the weekend. Initially I assumed I must have obtained the rare lemon; only later did I learn that my experience was in fact the norm. What a huge missed opportunity for an otherwise very impressive vehicle.
I rented a Focus, once. Refused them after that. “Driving his PowerShift automatic-equipped car as if the transmission was a new driver was learning how to drive stick for the first time” were my exact thoughts after a week in one.
I only drove one Focus. In 2009 I had a free rental while my Taurus had warranty work. It was a 2008, four-door silver SE model with an automatic. 75,000 miles of rental use and it didn’t show it. I was surprised at how nicely it drove. I had it for five days and loved every minute of it. I didn’t care for the hard cheap plastic dash and much less rear room, but it was so fun to drive and getting over 30 mpg I was bummed to get the Taurus back. Always wanted to get one after that but with young kids then more space was needed.
I found the same problem when I was looking for a replacement car in late 2011 – all the used cars cost nearly as much as new and they didn’t have the interest rate or warranty to justify the purchase.
My priorities were fuel economy (it was the era of $4/gal gas after all and I was driving 650 miles per *week* back then (DC-Norfolk on weekends, 25 mi commute each way during the week), comfortable ride for long distances (yeah), ability to carry 5 in a pinch (family), and it had to be a 6-speed manual (it’s the 21st century, dammit!).
I considered a Focus, but the stick was a 5-speed, so out. I found a ’12 Chevy Cruze Eco, and it met my needs and exceeded my expectations. I still drive it, and my daughter liked it so much she bought a ’12 1LT stick for herself in 2015.
I was just thinking of how this generation Focus and the Cruze were small cars that showed that Ford and GM ‘could’ build cars that were very nearly as good as their Japanese counterparts. The Corolla, in particular, may have only bested them in reliability. By all other metrics, the domestics were better cars.
I absolutely -hate- the 6-speed in my SVT Focus, although that is entirely due to engineering choices which I think don’t play well in the real world. The lack of a proper reverse lockout mechanism regularly leads to catching reverse when I need 1st if I’m slightly rushed. And a complete inability to select 2nd gear at all if I apply a bit too much force to the stick when making the downshift from 3rd. I’d swap it for the 5 speed if it didn’t require changing everything between the bell housing and the lug nuts.
Always attempting to put my truck into “R” on the freeway at least once after getting into it after driving the SVT is a bonus annoyance.
My stepson bought a ’12 Focus SE Powershift, and I didn’t care much for it. Claustrophobic interior, odd shifting, and he had lots of trouble with it over the years.
I’ve been tempted by a Focus ST, though….
That model Focus, evidently, had some first year teething problems which seemed to have been resolved with the 2012, so the author seems to have done everything ‘just right’ (mainly in foregoing the troublesome PowerShift transmission and sticking with a manual). In general, that generation Focus got solid reviews but, by the end of its run in 2017, had grown long in the tooth in comparison with the more recent competition.
Still, it is a shame he got rid of the car. All things considered, it sounds like it was a keeper.
Wow, rallycrossing seems like a tremendous amount fun. I’ve actually never heard of it before, but I can definitely see it’s appeal – I enjoyed the video here too.
I liked this generation of Focus from the perspective of being a good “average car,” so I understand your regret at having sold it. I’m curious to see what its replacement was!
It is suprising to me that you did not get a ST trim of Focus or Festia. Both are excellent car in thier own right if Ford can make them more reliable. After all they are the popular cars in Europe, and Ford didn’t change much between the European model and Northern America model. They, along with VW Golf and Fiat 500, are the only budget mind European cars in this side of pond. But I have come to realize American driver is not very keen on good handling car even it is a Honda, recall the failure in sales of UK made Civic Si and first generation of Acura TSX (European Accord).
You seem enjoyingauto crossing, Festia. ST is the learning car for O’Neil Rally School.
How can you say that the Acura TSX was a sales failure. That first generation car is everywhere. I have several family members that them and they just keep going and going. I had an 04 Civic Si (make in U.K). The sales were low because it only had a manual transmission, not because it wasn’t a good car. My nephew still drives it. How many 04 Focus’s do you see anywhere except the junk yard?
Enjoyed the write-up and the videos, especially the autocross. I spend a lot of time driving on gravel forest roads, some of them quite rough. And I don’t drive slowly, often with just enough of a slide in the curves to make it interesting.
I wonder how well those skills would apply to autocross. Maybe I’ll have to see if there’s one nearby and show up in my xB.
I’ve got a bunch of dashcam footage of forest roads from blasting around the mountains in my Matrix. Makes me want to do a post about boring cars. Nothing boring at all screaming uphill going 50 in 2nd on a gravel road.
Was the grand off list price, local dealer offer or employees discount ?. It doesn’t sound that generous to me..
The claustrophobic interior and tight rear seat legroom and that god awful transmission have landed many of these cars on the used lot and off any car recommendations people ask me for. After one disastrous week rental of a 2013 I refused them every since.
My 2012 Focus has been perfect.
An amazing handling, high quality car.
Will buy another as a used car when my oldest gets old enough to drive.