Mk3 Focus RS

[595girlie]

Don’t know how interested people are, but just thought I’d stick this up for people to have a gander… 


My OH collected his mk3 Focus RS a month ago after a 9 month wait.  It's not been a very nice journey and to be honest, I wouldn’t ever recommend buying a high performance Ford.  The Mustang had massive delays, and the RS has had the same.  Forgetting OH’s personal delays after the car failed to be built on original build date due to lack of parts, putting it back another month…  It’s home now, but not without its problems.  The paintwork is utterly terrible and it seems to be quite common on all of them.  Little dark patches underneath the clear coat so they can’t be polished out.  And how the hell this car got through PDI God only knows, with some ‘dings’ in the passenger door that he is still waiting to be rectified.  The dent man said it’s where the skin has been glued to the impact bars, so it will be easily sorted, but this should have been done before he picked the car up.  The dealer apparently didn’t even notice them – it was us that pointed out the blinking obvious when we collected it!

It’s been up on axle stands for half it's ownership  getting the wheels painted – was done once, but the silver didn’t adhere to the black properly so was flaking off.  They were sent back to be redone last weekend and should be home tonight to go back on.  So it’s only got 400 miles on it so far and not even been driven in proper anger yet.  As you can imagine, a 9 month wait for a car that has caused nothing but agony.  I just hope it’s all sorted soon so he can start enjoying the blinking thing and see what all the fuss is about!

From what we can tell so far, normal driving it's very quiet and you could forget you are in a hot hatch.  Stick it in Sport mode and the throttle response massively improves.  Definitely the mode to be in.  The suspension stays in normal mode when you switch driver mode to Sport, but another button pressed switches that into Sport aswell.  And you can certainly feel that change too.  The ride becomes a lot firmer and feels like you are bouncing along down the road.  Will be keeping that in normal mode for the main part!  Obviously Track, Drift and Launch control have yet to be tested, but I'm sure they will be once it's got some mileage on it!

It sounds great on cold start up, but that quickly quietens down after a minute or so which is a shame.  And the exhaust certainly pops and crackles nicely.  You do have to be pushing on quite hard to hear them, but OH and I have had fits of the giggles a few times now, like a pair of teenagers!  Ha ha!

Anyhow, we're in it for the long haul so hopefully things get better soon, and here's an arty shot to diffuse all the negativity!  Ha ha!!

[Brian1612]

Not a massive fan of them design wise and find them too tame looking. He has definitely picked the best looking colour though, love that blue! Really like the silver wheels though, greatly improves the looks over the black ones. Imagine it is properly quick though?

[FRZ]

When I first opened this post and saw the picture my first thought was I hope that's been put together better than the new Mustang but after reading  further it seems not.

We burst out laughing at the build quality of the Mustangs on the Ford stand at Goodwood. They were shocking, everything about them a eemed cheap and nasty. The convertible version was particularly bad, there was no tension in the roof at all, it was sagging everywhere and the detail of where the roof folded into the body looked like it came from a 1980's Rover.  Ford have completely trashed the Mustang brand with that car.

I much prefer the Focus but I would struggle to live with the quality issues.

[Dal]

I love the colour and the model in general. But with all those faults already, I would be looking to reject the car under the Consumer Rights Act. 

[als 180]

Great review on Top Gear.

[jaysrs4]

Unfortunately the Ford brand is a shadow of its former self. It can't even fall back to decent racing pedigree anymore, so the issues you speak of can't be counter balanced, or something you can put up with.

Present company accepted, I can't for the life of me think of how  anyone can find passion for a new car sporting a blue oval, it does absolutely nothing for me. Hope you enjoy it though.

[Dal]

Unfortunately the Ford brand is a shadow of its former self. It can't even fall back to decent racing pedigree anymore, so the issues you speak of can't be counter balanced, or something you can put up with.

Present company accepted, I can't for the life of me think of how  anyone can find passion for a new car sporting a blue oval, it does absolutely nothing for me. Hope you enjoy it though.

You mean other than the 1st and 3rd in class victories at this years Le Man. 50 years after they took all the podium positions at the same race, a race they only entered to annoy Ferrari because Enzo wouldn't sell the brand to Ford.

I agree the quality isn't what it should be, but let's be honest whose is, BMW, Audi, Mercedes? hardly, have a look at their customer satisfaction scores. And Fiat doesn't exactly excel in that area either.

[595girlie]

It certainly does seem like Ford have their priorities wrong on these latest cars.  For them it's all about the marketing and showing off to the press how amazing the car is, but yet the poor sods that have put their money down are being forgotten about.  Don't get me wrong, the majority of people who own them (on the forums) can't give enough praise for how amazing they are to drive.  It's just the complete lack of communication from Ford to dealers who can't then give any information to the customers.

In their minds, the RS is the top of the mountain, all the marketing of this then sells the ST models, those that can't afford the RS get the next best thing - still a great car, just not quite the one at the top of the pile.  And then they introduce the ST-Line...  A rebadged Zetec S.  But because it has ST in the name it will sell more as people have something to associate that too... 'I've not got an RS, but I've got and ST..' ignoring the fact that actually, they haven't!  It's a 1litre fiesta with some sporty bumpers and different wheels.  Just like the S-Line and M Sport and 'AMG' Mercs all on lease deals.

Anyhow, the wheels are home and getting a couple of coats of Gyeon Rim before they will go back on the car at the weekend.  FWIW, the wheels were nothing to do with Ford.  It was personal choice to get these painted at Lepsons; just unfortunate that the paint didn't stick creating another issue that we could have done without!  Grr....!!

[Martin]

Hi Clare

Sorry to hear of all your problems , maybe Ford have spent to much time listening to there own advertising and " unlearn service  forget Ford" 

As for Lepsons I know they are local to me but I would not use them out of choice

Martin

[fpan]

Nice car but shame about the problems, I guess you have seen this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssZdCrIudMo

I have used Lepsons before and they did a splendid job in my forged Prodrive wheels.

Did they strip the current colour completely or painted on top?

[sandys]

Lepsons did quite a poor job on my esseesse wheels, paint just chipped all the time, wouldn't recommend.

I need another job done but wouldn't know where to go to get a proper job done, so if you fid some one good, please share

[AUCTEMERAC]

Matt Farah on the Smoking Tyre had his for about a week before he put a different exhaust on. I thought he seemed pretty underwhelmed in general in his review, even though it was quick.

[jaysrs4]

Unfortunately the Ford brand is a shadow of its former self. It can't even fall back to decent racing pedigree anymore, so the issues you speak of can't be counter balanced, or something you can put up with.

Present company accepted, I can't for the life of me think of how  anyone can find passion for a new car sporting a blue oval, it does absolutely nothing for me. Hope you enjoy it though.

You mean other than the 1st and 3rd in class victories at this years Le Man. 50 years after they took all the podium positions at the same race, a race they only entered to annoy Ferrari because Enzo wouldn't sell the brand to Ford.

I agree the quality isn't what it should be, but let's be honest whose is, BMW, Audi, Mercedes? hardly, have a look at their customer satisfaction scores. And Fiat doesn't exactly excel in that area either.

Errrm hardly an accessible recent accolade though is it? The new Ford GT couldn't be further removed from the Ford brand that was always supposed to be a car for the 'people'!

Pretty pathetic it's taken one of the biggest vehicle brands in the world 50 years to claim a podium at LeMans in my opinion. Ford's used to be exciting because people like Nigel Mansell (although he wrote his off) Andy Rouse and Ari Vatanen,  drove one in anger at the weekend and you could jump into one yourself, many you could see driving round Britian's roads of a week day.

What of the 'common' Ford now? The most exciting thing I've seen a Ford do these days is go through a BP car wash. Sounds like you may not even have got that much excitement from yours yet!

[Dal]

Unfortunately the Ford brand is a shadow of its former self. It can't even fall back to decent racing pedigree anymore, so the issues you speak of can't be counter balanced, or something you can put up with.

Present company accepted, I can't for the life of me think of how  anyone can find passion for a new car sporting a blue oval, it does absolutely nothing for me. Hope you enjoy it though.

You mean other than the 1st and 3rd in class victories at this years Le Man. 50 years after they took all the podium positions at the same race, a race they only entered to annoy Ferrari because Enzo wouldn't sell the brand to Ford.

I agree the quality isn't what it should be, but let's be honest whose is, BMW, Audi, Mercedes? hardly, have a look at their customer satisfaction scores. And Fiat doesn't exactly excel in that area either.

Errrm hardly an accessible recent accolade though is it? The new Ford GT couldn't be further removed from the Ford brand that was always supposed to be a car for the 'people'!

Pretty pathetic it's taken one of the biggest vehicle brands in the world 50 years to claim a podium at LeMans in my opinion. Ford's used to be exciting because people like Nigel Mansell (although he wrote his off) Andy Rouse and Ari Vatanen,  drove one in anger at the weekend and you could jump into one yourself, many you could see driving round Britian's roads of a week day.

What of the 'common' Ford now? The most exciting thing I've seen a Ford do these days is go through a BP car wash.

I accept your point. However, the same could be said for every other manufacturer. How much would a BTCC car cost when Mansell tried to knock down the Dunlop bridge? Probably less than £50k. Look at today's top performers and ask yourself the same question. Only today it's not half as popular as it used to be and no one associates the cars with their showroom counterparts. It's why most manufacturers don't bother.

[buckwits]

Hi Clare, never been a Ford fan myself, a guy at work bought a new Ecosport, total piece of shit, the bumpers are a different shade to the rest of the car and I could park my Abarth in the gap between the tailgate and the rear panel. Obviously the dealership didn't want to know but as we know that's not an exclusive trait to Ford dealers they are all scum. Anyway how are you and your little beast getting on?