The redesigned 2012 Ford Focus appealed to the two sides of Cars.com Family contributor Sara Lacey. Sara’s fun side enjoyed the Focus hatchback’s updated looks with its large grille and swoopy taillights. Meanwhile, her more rational side appreciated Focus’ cargo space and roomy backseat — the latter made installing child-safety seats a breeze.
Philip Couts doesn't normally buy compact cars. The 53-year-old mechanical engineer downsized from his usual midsizer last August to Chevrolet's latest commuter car, the Cruze, to help save gas on his 22-mile commute between two Chicago suburbs. Except for a few small things — the seat bottoms could use more cushioning and he's not quite getting 30 mpg — Couts describes himself as "happy" with the car, a decked-out LTZ trim with leather seats and a turbo engine.
Couts shopped the Cruze against Ford's redesigned Focus, but the Ford had a smaller trunk, he says, and the Ford dealer wouldn't budge on pricing. Couts drove home in the Chevy.
Two redesigned cars — the Cruze for 2011 and the Focus for 2012 — signal ambitious hopes for their automakers. GM sells the Cruze in six continents; Ford says it developed its latest "global" Focus with a database of adults across North and South America, Asia and Germany. But here in the U.S., drivers like Philip Couts aren't alone. Year-to-date Focus sales are barely outpacing last year's aging model it replaced. The Cruze, meanwhile, has become Chevrolet's second-best-selling model, beaten only by the venerable Silverado pickup. It topped the Focus by more than 36,000 units over the past six months.
Why did the Cruze win? It's a tale of timing and supply — and the competition is far from over.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released its first batch of 2012 model year ratings this month. Under the stricter guidelines, only three 2012 models — the Chevrolet Camaro, Cadillac CTS and Toyota Camry — have earned five-star composite scores from the safety agency. In fact, as we previously reported, the Camaro is the only vehicle to earn a perfect rating across the board since the new guidelines took effect for the 2011 model year.
NHTSA’s composite scores are composed of five-star ratings for frontal, rollover and a combined side pole and barrier tests. The side pole test, which is new, simulates a 20-mph side-impact crash into a 10-inch-diameter pole or tree at a 75-degree angle just behind the A-pillar on the driver’s side.
The redesigned 2012 Camry earned a five-star overall rating, getting four stars in the frontal test, five stars in the side-crash test and four stars in the rollover test.
Those looking for a Ford performance car that’s not a Mustang will finally have something new to fawn over in the guise of the Ford Focus ST.
More 2011 L.A. Auto Show Coverage
The Focus ST is the spiritual replacement for the Focus SVT, a high-performance model killed nearly eight years ago in the U.S. The ST will pack a 247-horsepower four-cylinder and come with a six-speed manual transmission, only.
As we reported earlier, Ford will upgrade the performance speed and usability of its MyFord Touch system and will deliver the upgrade via USB jump drive to existing customers starting early next year. The 2013 Ford Escape, Flex and Taurus will be the first new Fords equipped with the upgraded system.
We’re now learning that the performance upgrade will affect some 250,000 existing Ford owners — purchasers of the Ford Focus, Explorer, Edge and Lincoln MKX, according to the Los Angeles Times blog. MyFord Touch debuted more than a year ago, on the 2011 Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX.
The jump drive will be mailed to owners, and Ford says the upgrade should take about 45 minutes to complete. If owners don’t feel up to upgrading the system themselves, Ford says you can bring your Ford to a dealership that will perform the upgrade for free. Another 200,000 Fords equipped with MyFord Touch were sold outside the U.S.; Ford is still deciding on how to upgrade the system for those owners.
The improvements come after intense customer and critic complaints that the system was confusing, slow and buggy. In fact, the prolific introduction of MyFord Touch over the year, apparently much to chagrin of Ford buyers, was enough to dramatically decrease Ford’s reliability and initial quality scores with Consumer Reports and J.D. Power and Associates, respectively. Ford says that nearly 85% of people who own vehicles with MyFord Touch find it easy to use, before the upgrade.
Ever since the North American and European Focus coalesced into the same uniform model for 2012, American sport enthusiasts have been anticipating a replacement of the SVT, the high-performance Focus model that was killed nearly eight years ago.
Next year, these faithful will get what they wanted in the guise of the Ford Focus ST. This pocket rocket will be powered by the first EcoBoost engine announced for the U.S. Focus, a 247-horsepower, 2.0-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder engine with 250 pounds-feet of torque. Those estimates are pending final SAE ratings. The motor will be mated to a six-speed manual transmission only.
This Car Seat Check was originally published in May 2011 on MotherProof.com.
The Ford Focus has been completely redesigned for the 2012 model year. This compact car comes both as a sedan, which we tested, and a hatchback. The Focus seats five.
For the Car Seat Check, we use a Graco SnugRide 30 rear-facing infant-safety seat, a Britax Roundabout convertible child-safety seat and Graco high-back TurboBooster seat.
One recent oddity in the increasingly efficiency-obsessed automotive industry is some new compact and subcompact models each get 40 mpg despite being significantly different in terms of size. The question for car shoppers becomes not whether the smaller cars get better mileage in the real world, but can you live with the smaller confines to save money at the dealership — and not just the gas pump.
Currently, there are two clear examples of this trend: Ford’s new Focus compact and Fiesta subcompact and Hyundai’s Elantra compact and Accent subcompact. Ford offers a special option package, called SFE, on the two cars, helping them achieve 40 mpg highway, while the Hyundai models are rated at 40 mpg highway without any additional packages.
We put these four cars through a nearly 300-mile drive to see if size truly matters. We also found out which car was a clear winner at the pump. The larger question — could the smaller cars win us over? — was much harder to answer.
Car shoppers who were looking to buy the redesigned 2012 Ford Focus over the summer and came up empty will have better luck this fall, Ford says.
That’s because the initial supply constraints the automaker struggled with are over. “September is going to improve over July and August,” said Ford spokesman George Pipas, who expects good inventory by October or November.
As of last week, Ford had only 7,700 Focus vehicles at its more than 3,000 dealerships, or about 2.5 Focuses for every dealership. Last year at this time, Ford had 27,000 Focus vehicles at dealerships, with 36,000 en route.
“Dave in Nevada” recently purchased a 2012 Ford Focus SE. He apparently likes most aspects of the car but highlighted three distinct problems he would fix – namely Ford Sync, the tires and the automatic transmission. He fixed the tires and the radio problems, but what is his solution for Ford’s dual-clutch automatic transmission? Continue reading below to find out. If you want to share thoughts about your own car, you can do that here.
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