2020 Ford Focus ST Review: Golf GTI drag race, 0-100 & 1/4 mile. We test Ford's automatic hot hatch!

CarExpert

For the first time ever, the Ford Focus ST is available with an automatic transmission and it's NOT a dual-clutch! Paul Maric does a detailed review on the 2020 Ford Focus ST Automatic, along with performance testing at the drag strip, PLUS a drag race against the Volkswagen Golf GTI! How does it go? Watch and find out!  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior: 01:05 Interior: 02:38 Infotainment: 03:56 Features: 05:14  Practicality: 06:19 On the Road: 09:52 Acceleration (0-100 & 1/4 mile): 11:53 Focus ST v Golf GTI Drag Race: 15:22 On the Road: 16:42 Verdict: 21:50  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you! #ford #review #focusst #dragrace  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  @fordofaustralia @ford

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. I've got some exciting news. The Ford Focus ST is finally available as

00:04 an automatic. There it is right there. I know, if you're a bit like me, you die a little

00:08 bit on the inside when people go for an automatic over a manual, especially in a hot hatch.

00:12 But research shows that in Australia, when presented with the option of an auto or a

00:15 manual in a hot hatch, 75% of buyers go the auto, which is why Ford has put so much effort

00:20 into making an automatic version of the Focus ST. It's priced at just under $45,000, and

00:26 both the auto and the manual are the exact same price. I think that does show you that

00:29 most people are going to go for the manual anyway.

00:31 But this car competes with cars like the Hyundai i30 N, the Honda Civic Type R, the Renault

00:36 Megane RS. There is a litany of competitors in this segment, and it's really hotly contested

00:40 because if you can't afford a full-fruit sports car, people come to these, and they are becoming

00:45 a really nice purchase option. Now, if you are a little impatient and you want to skip

00:48 ahead to other parts of this review, you can use the time codes up there, or just scroll

00:53 down to the description where you'll see the links to skip ahead. And if you haven't done

00:56 so already, I'd love it if you could hit the subscribe button and press the bell icon so

00:59 you can find out every single time a manufacturer makes a gearbox that us car lovers don't love.

01:05 Let's talk exterior. It's a pretty handsome looking car, isn't it, especially in this

01:09 blue. So you can pick from seven different colours, and aside from the base white and

01:13 a red, the rest are $650. I'm a really big fan of the design because it just, I don't

01:18 know, it's kind of matured, and that's what the Focus ST needed. It's gone from being

01:22 this loutish, hoon car to, you know, something that your mother would quite like to see you

01:27 in. So it's got that big mouth there for the four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine.

01:32 Up the front here you have full LED headlights with an LED daytime running light, and if

01:37 we squeeze around to the side here, you'll see the wheels. Now, these are impressive

01:41 because Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres are standard, 19-inch alloy wheels, 235mm wide

01:47 rubber. The brakes are 330mm rotors with floating calipers and then 302mm at the rear.

01:53 The thing that's worth keeping in mind with these brakes is Ford, well, Ford Performance

01:57 rather has designed them to withstand track use. So that means if you do a lot of track

02:01 days, these are going to last a tested time. Hyundai did a similar thing with the i30N,

02:05 and buyers love that sort of thing because they can take their cherished possession to

02:08 the track instead of just driving it outside all the time. In terms of weight, a little

02:12 over 1,500kg, it's lighter than the previous generation Focus RS and has better aero as

02:18 well. If you come around to the back here, privacy glass, and then a really neat looking

02:22 rear end. So you've got LED tail lights, so they help the car stand out nicely at night.

02:26 You get the ST badging on the back there, dual exhaust outlets and then this garnished

02:31 trim along the back. It's a really nice looking car. They've really integrated the spoiler

02:35 nicely and just given it a sporty look without being too in your face.

02:38 So what's the inside of the Ford Focus ST like? Built in Germany, I think that should

02:43 mean quality. It does look a little bit bland if I'm honest. There's a lot of black around

02:48 here. It is separated by some of these highlights, but it's just like black on black on black

02:53 on black on black. So I really wish they just allowed you to personalise it a bit and just

02:59 add a little bit of flair to it. But how well built is it? Let's get our hardness tester.

03:03 So this hardness tester we use because only motoring journalists care about how soft a

03:08 soft touch dashboard is, but this allows us to quantify it. It measures on a scale of

03:13 zero to 100, where zero is really soft and 100 is really hard. So let's try it out on

03:19 this dashboard here. That's pretty reasonable. It's about a 70 and then we'll try it here

03:25 on this centre console. That's really good. That's nice and soft, soft to the touch.

03:31 Now what about build quality? Hmm. Okay, so I found a couple of issues. Let's start over

03:36 here. That whole centre tunnel moves as you sort of move that around. And then this tray

03:41 here, which we've got keys in at the moment, is bent. So as a result of that, when you

03:46 go to put it into here, it doesn't sit flat. I know it's only a small thing, but seriously,

03:52 it's a brand new car. I don't understand how that comes bent already.

03:56 Let's talk infotainment. So this is Ford's SYNC 3 infotainment system. You can see a

04:00 full detailed review of that by clicking up here, but the basics of it are an 8-inch infotainment

04:06 screen. It's incredibly high resolution and it's very easy to use as well. I'll walk you

04:10 through it quickly. This is our main home screen. It's divided into sections with the

04:14 navigation. You get your phone and then also connectivity with your music. And if we dive

04:19 through the menus here, audio allows you to have AM, FM, DAB plus digital radio plus streaming

04:25 from your phone and Spotify. If we jump over to the phone menu, you can use the on-screen

04:30 commands or you can simply use the voice recognition system. This works incredibly well. One push

04:35 of that allows you to call anyone you want and enter full navigation addresses. And there's

04:39 also a clever function here, a do not disturb. So if you are driving, you don't want to take

04:43 any calls, hit that and nothing will come through. So you can just concentrate on driving.

04:47 The navigation is really clear and easy to use. It's quite quick, comes with traffic

04:51 overlays as well. Then on top of that, you have mobile apps that you can connect. So

04:55 Apple CarPlay and Android Auto is standard. Both of those systems use a connected wired

05:00 system. It's not wireless, but in that sense, once you do connect it, you don't really have

05:04 to touch anything. And then on top of that, you can also wirelessly charge your phone.

05:08 So while you do have it connected to Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, you slot it down

05:12 here and then it starts charging and away you go.

05:14 Let's talk about the other features that you get outside of that infotainment system. So

05:18 there is a 10 speaker B&O Play sound system. You get dual zone climate control with heated

05:23 front seats. You have radar cruise control with a traffic jam assistant and a self-steering

05:27 function that keeps the car in the lane going around corners. Auto dimming, rear vision

05:32 mirror, blind spot monitoring and in terms of safety tech, low and high speed autonomous

05:36 emergency braking with rear cross traffic alert thrown in for good measure. A really

05:41 good 180 degree reverse view camera with front and rear parking sensors. We've got the wireless

05:46 phone charging that we've already seen. Down the bottom here, you've got USB connectivity,

05:50 another USB port in the centre console, 12 volt outlet there as well. And then also a

05:55 hill holding feature and a stop start system for the engine.

05:58 You can also option a panoramic sunroof which is fitted to this car here. It's a $2,500

06:03 option. Gives the cabin a bit more ambience, brings a bit more light into it. This is what

06:07 the key looks like. You've got unlock, lock, boot and then on the back you have the ST

06:13 symbol. It's a proximity sensing key so you just keep that in your pocket. Grab the door

06:17 handle to unlock the car and then hit the push button to start.

06:20 Okay, let's talk storage. Where are you going to put your bottles? So up the front here

06:24 you have grip tabs for the bottles with little spring loaded sections on them. You can fit

06:29 two bottles in there plus a small coffee cup or something. And then inside the doors, they're

06:33 carpet lined and then you can throw a bottle in there and there's a little bit of extra

06:37 room on the side.

06:38 In terms of storing other things, we have our wonky tray there with a centre console

06:44 that's big enough for a wallet, keys, other sort of bits and bobs. Your phone can live

06:49 just here or it can live in that wireless phone charger. Then in addition to that you

06:52 have another tray just off to the side of it. Glove box is decent size with a storage

06:58 slot at the top for the manual and then enough room down the bottom for other bits and pieces.

07:02 Now in terms of comfort, these seats are interesting. So they're Recaro seats, they hug you in beautifully

07:08 and the good thing is that even for my body shape here, I feel perfectly in place. But

07:12 if you were bigger, you still have these outer sections that hold you in nicely. In terms

07:17 of long distance driving, it took us a while to get to where we're going today which is

07:21 the drag strip. You'll see that section shortly. But they're not really amazing for long distance

07:26 drives. I found that my back was a little bit sore after spending about two hours behind

07:29 the wheel. So while they are comfortable to sit in, I don't know that I'd want to be here

07:34 for a really long drive behind the wheel. But in terms of the wheel itself, it sits

07:38 really nicely in the hand. It's a nice thick wheel and then you have a flat bottom on it

07:41 as well with the ST branding there and then the paddle shifters nestled in behind it.

07:46 Let's talk back seat comfort. And we'll start off here with knee room. Not amazing. Toe

07:52 room, not amazing either. Obviously with these Recaro sports seats, especially when I have

07:57 the seat a little far back in my normal driving position, they kind of chew into a lot of

08:02 the leg room in the back because they are slightly bigger. They have bigger bolster

08:05 on the side and that means you are a little bit robbed of room back here but it is fine.

08:11 You'll be able to fit an adult if you need to. Headroom isn't great though. So I'm not

08:15 massively tall but my head is already touching the roof there so it's going to be a little

08:19 bit cramped if you do have taller passengers. You get a centre armrest here with two cup

08:24 holders and they slot into there with those retractable ends on them. And then these in

08:30 the carpet line door bins, the bottle fits into there. We'll point out that these doors,

08:36 they are super, super plasticky. Instead of being soft touch like they were with the original

08:42 Focus that came out, they've gone to like a hard finish on these for some reason which

08:45 is a little bit disappointing. You get matte pockets in the back of these two plus a 12

08:50 volt outlet but there aren't any air vents back here so you're going to be starved for

08:55 oxygen on hot days but you do get ISOFIX points on the outboard seats. So while you do get

09:00 a great sound system, you lose out on cargo capacity because under the cargo floor here

09:06 is the subwoofer for that B&O Play sound system. It's nestled in right there. So instead of

09:11 having 340 odd litres of space, you only have around 270 so it's all eaten up by that subwoofer

09:17 which is a great shame. Top tether points on each of the back seats and I'll show you

09:21 how they fold as well. You whip these out of position and then the seats fold like this

09:30 and then on top of that you can also remove this so that you do have a little bit of extra

09:35 room but there's nowhere for this to go so you're going to have to leave that at home.

09:38 We'll pop our bags in to see how well they fit. No problems at all. So while the boot

09:43 space is slightly compromised because of the subwoofer, you do still have enough space

09:46 for a big suitcase and then storage on either side with hooks as well if you need to tie

09:51 anything down. So we're driving the Ford Focus ST and powering this car is an interesting

09:58 engine. So it's a 2.3 litre EcoBoost. It's similar to the engine that was last used in

10:02 the Focus RS but also similar to the engine currently used in the four cylinder version

10:06 of the Mustang. This just has a little less power and torque. It produces 206 kilowatts

10:11 of power and 420 newton metres of torque and that's a fair bit for a front wheel drive

10:17 car which is why they've fitted it with these 235 millimetre wide tyres just to give it

10:21 that extra traction out on the road. In addition to that, underneath the car you have what

10:25 they call an ELSD. It's a mechanical limited slip differential with an electrically actuated

10:32 clutch and it allows it to vary torque between 0 and 100% locking across that front axle.

10:37 So it can be a true limited slip differential at the drop of a hat whenever the computer

10:41 says that it needs to be. This is the first time ever this entire package has been mated

10:45 to an automatic transmission. It uses a 7-speed auto but it's very different to what you'd

10:51 expect from a 7-speed auto because it starts life as an 8-speed. Ford then removed second

10:56 gear because second and third were too close together in terms of their ratios. So it is

11:00 now exclusively a 7-speed torque converter. No dual clutch business here, they kind of

11:04 ran out of money when it came to developing one for this platform and then of course you

11:08 can get for the same price a 6-speed manual transmission. One of the benefits of the automatic

11:13 is fuel consumption. It isn't really that thirsty, especially when you fit 7 cogs to

11:18 it. It uses a combined 8.6 litres of fuel per 100 kilometres but remember it lives on

11:23 a diet of 95-ron premium unleaded petrol so make sure you budget for that. How quick is

11:29 it? Well Ford claims a 0-100 dash of 5.7 seconds for the manual and 6 seconds flat for the

11:36 automatic. We had a drag strip at our disposal so we decided to go down there to see how

11:41 quick this was for 0-100, also how quick it was across the quarter mile and then how quick

11:46 it is against the Golf GTI which is kind of the default choice for a hot hatch in this

11:52 segment. This is what happened.

11:53 OK so automatic Ford Focus ST, official claim is 6 seconds 0-100 but what I want to do is

12:00 go through each of the modes. So right now I'm in comfort, I have stop start on, I'm

12:04 just going to pound the throttle and we'll see what happens and see how close we get

12:08 to the claim. So here we go.

12:17 A lot of wheel slip. So traction control lighting up there. Alrighty, just hit 100.

12:24 Let's see how we went there. 6.5 seconds, not bad for everything in comfort mode and

12:32 with the amount of wheel slip that we had. Let's give that another shot.

12:35 OK next up is sport mode. I'm going to leave all the stability controls on so one click

12:40 of that puts it into sport mode. I'll load it up a little bit and then just pound the

12:43 throttle and we will see what happens. Here we go, loading it up.

12:47 A little bit of wheel slip but properly stuck into it. Into second as well. And there is

12:58 100. OK how are we looking? 6.5 seconds again. OK I think it's time for us to step up the

13:06 ante here. We'll do sport mode again but this time with stability control off.

13:12 Next up it is sport mode but I'm going to put it into ESC sport. I think it's like a

13:16 limited stability control mode. It should let it get a little bit of slip off the line

13:20 before we shoot off. So let's see if it makes any difference. Here we go.

13:24 OK, that was a lot more wheel slip there. OK 80 and then 100 k's now. OK that is much

13:37 better. 6.2 seconds. OK final run here for the Focus ST Automatic is race mode but I'm

13:45 going to switch off stability control altogether. So you just push and hold, it comes up with

13:48 the message there. OK that is off. Let's see if we can get a better time now. Here we go.

14:02 OK that feels better, that feels really nice actually. Alright and there's 100. Oh that

14:08 is better. 5.8 seconds. That is really impressive. So 5.8 seconds in race mode with stability

14:15 control off. OK final run is quarter mile. I'm going to leave it all in the fastest mode

14:19 which was race mode with stability control off. Let's see how quick it is down the quarter

14:24 mile. Roll to a stop. Reset on that. Here we go. Load it up a bit.

14:31 Alright. A little bit of torque here. 90, 100. It's piling on speed nicely. 130, 140,

14:45 150, 160 and bang there it is about 170 k's an hour. Alright let's see what kind of time

14:55 we pulled there. OK 14.3 seconds across the quarter mile at 162.9 k's an hour and I'll

15:04 see if we got any better on our acceleration as well. Hopefully that was the same. OK slightly

15:11 slower on the acceleration at 6 seconds. So in theory if it matched its 0-100 time or

15:17 its best 0-100 time of 5.8 you'd probably get a flat 14 second quarter mile. OK this

15:23 is the one I've been waiting for. Golf GTI. It's kind of the default choice for a lot of people

15:26 when it comes to hot hatches. Let's see whether the new Ford Focus ST is quicker. That Golf GTI

15:32 is the performance so it has the mechanical limited slip differential, has the 2 litre

15:36 turbocharged petrol engine, it's got a dual clutch gearbox, it's been running as well,

15:39 it's warm, everyone's ready to go, we just need to do it. So let's get our countdown.

15:43 3, 2, 1, GO!

15:53 OK a lot of wheel slip there. This surface isn't amazing. There's 100.

15:57 Let's go. 140 we're ahead of him. We're pulling away so slightly. 160.

16:03 Bang there's 170. He was catching us just near the end there. So 0-100 in 6 seconds flat and

16:12 the quarter mile in 14.4 seconds. Can't even see how he went. James what time did you get there?

16:19 14.9 at 161.6.

16:22 OK so we were quicker by pretty much half a second. So the new Ford Focus ST, in automatic at the

16:31 very least, is quicker than the Golf GTI performance. But keep in mind there is a new

16:35 Golf GTI coming so obviously it will be quicker again but really impressive job here by Ford

16:41 with the Focus ST. There you go, pretty impressive. This automatic is a good gearbox,

16:47 especially when it comes to trying to go as fast as you can in a straight line.

16:50 So I already went through the drive modes when we did the drag races but what's it like out here

16:54 on country roads? So everything's in comfort mode at the moment, in the normal mode.

16:58 I think someone forgot to tell them what comfort and normal actually means because this is really,

17:05 really firm. It's far too firm for a car that you want to live with day to day. But one push of the

17:10 S button on the steering wheel activates sport mode so the steering feels like it gets a little

17:13 heavier and the throttle response is sharper. Now it is way firmer, it is sort of throwing us

17:18 around all over the place here but let's have a look at how this gearbox goes. So the sport mode

17:22 is sharp enough and upshifts are quick but if you do decide to go manual and take over using

17:28 the paddle shifters, downshifts are really slow. Like it's, I'm not expecting it to be DSG quick

17:36 because it is quick on upshifts but downshifts seem like they take a long time to come in.

17:41 But it is quick, I tell you what, it is piling on speed. This engine has in sport and race mode

17:50 anti-lag. What it does is to keep the turbocharger spooled, when you're off the throttle,

17:55 it continues that ignition cycle on the exhaust side so it keeps the turbocharger spooled so that

18:00 if you do have it locked in a gear, and here I'll pop it into third gear and we'll just go on the

18:06 throttle, let off, there's no real engine braking and as a result of that you're always getting

18:11 more throttle. It's actually really impressive, I haven't driven a hot hatch that feels this

18:15 responsive before. Ford even says that once you crawl this off the line it is as responsive as

18:22 a Focus RS. What about race mode? You flick that into race mode and it feels like it's getting

18:27 firmer. Eagle, can you just look up the number for my chiropractor, I'm going to have to give

18:32 them a call tomorrow. It is much much firmer now, the throttle response is sharper and it's holding

18:38 gears more, it's also putting the stability control into a limited slip mode so it's able

18:43 to give you a little bit more traction loss but it is still taking control of everything.

18:48 This thing is absolutely hammering. So anti-lag, ELSD, you've got all the acronyms and all the fun

18:56 stuff that you need but what's it actually like when you throw it around a bit? It's pretty

19:00 remarkable actually, so you've got a lot of feedback through the steering, it is slightly

19:04 heavy but you get a lot of communication, the brake pedal feels great, those rotors pull up the

19:09 car in no time but then on top of that Ford has developed these for track days which means if you

19:15 do do track driving they are going to withstand a punishing, just like the i30N, they wanted to

19:20 make sure those brakes were good for enthusiasts who actually want to drive their car. So that

19:24 whole package is great but it really is let down by the ride, it is so firm and if you're like most

19:30 people who are going to go out on a country road to go fang their car on a weekend, it's this type

19:35 of thing that's going to end up upsetting you because if you hit a mid-corner bump it just

19:39 starts shuffling the car around but if you put those things to one side it has a tremendous

19:44 amount of traction and that ELSD system is giving you the ability to get all of the traction you

19:49 need, all of the torque that you need to the ground without having an inside wheel start

19:53 flaring up and doing a skid like you had in the old Focus ST. As we continue driving this car,

20:00 I'm really not loving this gearbox, I'm not a huge fan of dual clutch transmissions in city cars

20:05 because they just tend to not be very good but in sports cars they serve a purpose and they work

20:09 well generally, especially for going for faster drives. This auto is just, I don't know, it's just

20:15 a bit slow and it feels like a bit of an afterthought, yes it is good in and around the city

20:19 but it just doesn't have any emotion, I'm not hearing any backfiring, any cracks and pops.

20:23 You get that in the manual, you get that in the i30N, I just don't get anything here and it's,

20:39 I don't know, I just feel like it's a missed opportunity. Ford really should have focused

20:43 a bit more, pardon the pun, on this automatic transmission to give this car a bit more soul

20:47 and emotion. And the other downside to this automatic transmission is that it doesn't have

20:52 launch control. You get launch control in a Golf GTI for example in the auto but you don't get it

20:57 here and you do get it in the manual, so it is another downside to picking the automatic over

21:02 the manual. Okay, back to normal, quiet, sort of comfort mode. What is this like as a daily driver?

21:10 So visibility out of the cabin is great, it's just like a normal Focus in that regard, I can

21:14 see perfectly out the front, decent-sized wing mirrors, visibility out the back is good as well,

21:18 so if you are going to be commuting to work this has all the creature comforts you need

21:22 from a daily driver. But if you go beyond the city limits it really is just going to do your

21:27 head in with all this droning. The Michelin Pilot Sport 4S is a pretty noisy car to start with,

21:32 but as speeds reach about 100km/h on this coarse chip surface there is a fair bit of noise inside

21:37 the cabin. I don't know whether you'd fix it by getting a different set of tyres or whether it's

21:41 inherent to the Focus ST, but yeah, it is getting pretty full on here and if you do a lot of highway

21:47 driving, especially out in the country, it's something you're going to have to think about.

21:51 So the Ford Focus ST, I want to love it, but I don't know, I just don't love it, especially here

21:56 in automatic. The automatic gearbox is such a letdown, it is fine in the technical sense that

22:01 you can live with it day to day, but it just doesn't have the cracks, the pops, the motion,

22:05 you know, the soul that you expect from a car like this. It's a hot hatch, I don't know, it's just

22:10 not there and it's also let down by a couple of those niggly quality and build fit and finish

22:14 issues inside. If you are looking at this, yes, it is technically capable, the LSD is great,

22:20 it handles beautifully and when it is in the Sport and the full Attack mode, you'll be able to go do

22:25 track days confidently and have some fun with it, but as a day to day car, remember, it is pretty

22:29 firm for what it is and if you go with the automatic over the manual, you're going to miss

22:33 out on all the theatrics that you'd expect from a bonafide hot hatch like this. So let me know in

22:38 the comments below what you think. Have you got one of these on order? Have you driven this? Do

22:42 you own the previous generation Focus ST and would you go manual or automatic? Let me know in the

22:48 comments below and if you enjoyed this video, I'd love it if you could hit the like button,

22:51 follow it up with a subscribe and also press the bell icon so you can find out every single time

22:56 we drive something new, but until next time, take it easy.

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