$70k of Ford Focus

No, not one $70k Focus, that would be insane. Rather, this is a personal journey of me apparently deciding that all I want to drive is the Ford Focus.

It started innocently enough back in 2010, when we picked up a 2003 Focus Wagon. It looked like this:

It was an automatic, which I wasn't terribly fond of, but it did great as a car shaped car. Since we had a 1 year old and soon to had another on the way, it did its job admirably. It even converted my wife to a wagon lover (I needed no such persuasion). We drove it through 2017 when we moved from Ohio to South Carolina and it needed essentially nothing the whole time. We sold it right before we moved and my wife snagged a 2018 Elantra once we landed in SC.

We took my 2010 Scion XD when we moved. A few months later in 2018, I managed to total it when I made a turn I thought was clear. I was wrong. I had just moved out of retail and was starting at my current job, so I was both strapped for cash and in desperate need of a car. In walking distance to our Charleston apartment was a Carmax, which is where I found myself purchasing this 2012 base hatch with an auto. Somehow, I took 0 pictures of it, but it was just like this:

The car itself was fine, but the automatic was the biggest pile of garbage I've ever had the displeasure of interacting with. It was borderline dangerous. I would absolutely not recommend any Focus or Fiesta with an auto unless you hate the person who will be driving it. Like really hate them. Wish them harm hate them.

After a few years the apocalypse came and my company went fully remote. My salary had increased to the point that I could afford something fun, and I always wanted a Focus ST. In 2021 I found myself back at the local Carmax, where I picked up this 2017 ST in white. I actually hate white as a car color but it was a 1 owner with all of the options I wanted:

It was absolutely a fun car. Faster and nicer than anything I'd previously owned. Charleston is kind of a crap town if you're into driving, but working remote gave me the mobility to go wherever I wanted. We ended up in Rural VA, about 45 minutes west of VIR. Twisty roads in the Appalachian foothills are definitely a way more fun place to drive. I installed a blowoff valve because I'm a ricer at heart but otherwise left it completely stock. To be honest I did basically 0 fun events with it. No autocross or anything. Just a fun DD.

Earlier this year I realized that the trade in on the ST was more than I thought it would be and interest rates were lower. Sooooooo.....

I'm now the owner of a black 2017 Focus RS with 55k under its belt. I really wanted it in blue but so does everyone else. Like the ST, I saw a one owner with the options I wanted and went for it. I definitely prefer black to white. I've only put 100 or so miles on it but this is looking like an awesome time. The exhaust popping is worth every penny to me (once again, ricer) and getting the back end loose on a hatchback is wild. I had the recaro seats in my ST and don't really notice a huge difference in the RS. I'm 6'2" and 220 pounds and I find them super comfortable. The suspension is as stiff as they say, but since I only drive 3000 or so miles a year these days I can live with that.

No real plans. I need winter tires and I'll surely pop on a blow off valve and mud flaps (for real, I'm just an old ricer) but otherwise it'll stay stock. As it's now the family car it needs to reliable haul the now teenagers around. I do plan on immediately hitting some local autocrosses when then season ramps up though, it should be a hoot.

I did more truck stuff with my 04 ZTW wagon than most. It was a good car.

In reply to Appleseed :

It is a literal crime that America didn't get the ST wagon.

Congrats and thanks for the write up.

An RS + twisty mountain roads + teenagers in the house = can I be your insurance agent?  I owe my wife a trip to Paris and the commission from your premium could really help out a GRM bro in need. 

Seriously now, that's a great car, especially for the region you live in.  
 

Still kind of irks me that Ford FINALLY brought the RS to the States ... and then it was gone after a few short years.  Oh well, at least they did it.
 

Nice RS! I was at a track day in my Cayman S, and ended up behind a Focus RS a couple of times. The cars are dead even down the straights, and the RS wasn't that much slower in the turns. Eventually I was able to get by him because after a couple of laps, the RS starts to heat soak and the fun gets shut down. So not a good car for track work, but for everything else it should be fine. I talked to the driver afterwards, and he said that the heat soak is a known issue with those cars. He installed bigger coolers, which bought him one more lap before the issue reared it's head.

I've also seen a RS autocross, and again the times are pretty close to a Cayman S, so you have a good car for dodging cones.

In reply to Coniglio Rampante :

Luckily/Disappointingly neither of the kids have the slightest bit of interest in learning standard despite my pestering. Though I was the same way at that age. It wasn't until I started driving and went to an autocross that I really started thinking about manuals.

For what it's worth, Ford didn't put the PowerShift behind turbo engines.

Because they made no auto STs (Fiesta or Focus) this means that if you want the 6F35 auto, you need a 1.0 Ecoboost powered car.  Or an Escape, which is a tall Focus.

I don't recommend.

When the PowerShift trans works right, it's acceptable. The '17 Focus I spent time with today shifted flawlessly. (Hyundai uses a very similar trans, albeit with a wet clutch.  Same clutch actuators as Ford's version uses)  It's hard to get them to work right, though.  Still a better idea than a 1.0.

I for one get the unnatural love for the Focus platform. Light and playful is hard to find nowadays. 

Well CarMax warranties cars for 90 days or 4,000 miles. Today is day 90 and I've put 650 miles on it. Everything seems great so far so I'll just hope it stays that way.

I didn't intend to buy a set of all seasons so fast but tire rack had the wheels I wanted on clearance so here we are. Got me some mudflaps too:

What's it like so far?

There are plenty of faster cars out there but this is definitely the fastest I've owned. The amount of go you get when mashing the gas pedal feels real nice.

Gas mileage is pretty hilariously bad. I do basically 100% highway driving and I'm averaging 20.8mpg. The tank is small enough that after about 200 miles the low fuel light kicks on.

In regular mode the suspension is totally livable for me. It doesn't seem much stiffer than my ST was. In sport mode it's basically unusable. Super stiff and bouncy. Luckily the suspension mode can be adjusted independent of drive mode so you're not forced into the harsh ride. The suspension button being at the end of the turn signal stalk is a weird choice though.

Ergonomically it's a Focus. Not real different than a base hatch. Love the recaros though. I was a bit worried since they seem a bit divisive but they fit me just fine. It has a couple of used car rattles I'll need to address now that it's warm enough to be outside.

I used to burn my shins on the center exit exhaust of the ST when getting stuff out of the hatch, glad that's no longer an issue.

When I bought it I heard a racket from the back that turned out to be an insane amount of change under the back seat. It ended up being about $10 in american change and another hundred or so foreign coins, mostly European. I would love the story there.

Still need to hit up an autocross with it. Now that the season is starting up I got no excuse.

Time for a burble tune. I love these little things hough I wish they made a fiesta RS. 

PubBurgers said:

...this is a personal journey of me apparently deciding that all I want to drive is the Ford Focus.

This kind of silliness is exactly what's great about this place.

Thanks for the update.  It never crossed my mind about burning the lower legs on a center-exit exhaust.  Learned something new.

Yes, the story behind that amount of change would be something to know, but is likely lost to history.

I like the wheels and mudflap look.

wearymicrobe said:

Time for a burble tune. I love these little things hough I wish they made a fiesta RS. 

When I was ST shopping the singular reason I didn't get the Fiesta ST was not being able to comfortably fit my kids in the back. The Fiesta is much more my size preference in a car.

Fiesta ST's also seem to be holding value really well. They don't seem to be going for any less than their Focus counterparts.

Attended my first autocross in 8 (how can that be right!?) years yesterday. Also rolled 1,000 miles since I owned it on the way home.

I had read an old thread here that someone wrote up who seemed to have big time understeer problems autocrossing an RS. I did not have that experience. I had planned to try a run in drift mode but the car was tail happy enough that I just left it in track mode.

I also used the launch control for the first time (and second, and third). Boy that whole experience makes it worth the price of entry. After some clunky menu navigation to enable launch control you mash the medal and the car limits revs to 5k. It makes some real glorious noises before you dump the clutch, do a massive AWD burnout, and rocket off not bothering to lift for the shift into second.

I finished mid pack on some cheapo all seasons, but being competitive wasn't really on my mind. I'll probably run my performance summer tires on the factory wheels for the next event.

Most of my autocross experience is in tiny old Hondas. It will definitely take some time to figure out higher power AWD. Being able to mash the pedal coming out of corners sure is nice though.

I took this picture because I thought it was funny how huge the RS looks next to the miata then realized it also included the cars I was cross shopping when I bought my RS (GR Corolla and Golf R):

How heavy is the clutch pedal compared to other cars you've driven?

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Not bad. It's really not noticeably different than my ST was and I drove that in Charleston, SC traffic for a few years with no complaints. Worth noting that I didn't DD either though as I was already working from home when I bought the ST.

Recently rolled 1,500 miles total driven, owned for 6 months, and hit up my second autocross in the RS.

I struggled a bit and DNF'ed my first 3 runs after missing a couple of gates. Got 2 clean runs to end. I put the summer wheels/tires back on for this one. The all seasons have a 500tw rating and the summer tires 240. I thought that might cut down on things going literally sideways when I mash the gas and was surprised to find it made almost no difference.

My past autocross experience was mostly in low power FWD cars where you'd treat the throttle more like an on/off button. Higher power AWD is definitely going to take me some time to get used to. I keep finding myself going sideways when I mash the throttle, which is hugely entertaining but probably not terribly fast. Will definitely need more practice here, which means more autocross, oh noooo. I did all of my runs with track mode and sport suspension enabled.

The course had a sharp turn right after the start so no reason to use launch mode. A quick rev and clutch dump and it's still a highly dramatic launch.

Outside of autocross my wife and I have been low key competing to see if the RS or her 2.7L 4 cylinder 2021 Tacoma can get better gas mileage. It's not going well for me. Right now I'm averaging 22.2mpg to her 23.3.

I also had to evict a mouse from the airbox, which happened in my ST too. I live super rural and only drive the car a couple/few times a week so I just took the airbox lid off (which sounds rad) and check under the filter periodically to make sure noone moved back in.

Nothing too exciting planned outside of hitting up more events. I think shift knob, BOV, and an exhaust are the next items on my list. Don't think I'll be doing any real modifications outside of that for now.

Also after 6 months this is still me:

I can relate to that pic...it's an uncomfortably accurate portrayal of me.

Interesting that the tires didn't make much difference performancewise.  Are the AWD nanny programs working overtime?

In reply to 4cylndrfury :

The biggest problem with the car right now is the driver. Cornering grip might be better, not totally sure, but when I applied power they broke loose just as easy as the all seasons.

Got a noisemaker in the mail last Friday. Got it installed and now I get additional fun turbo noises:

Less fun was during the early half of a 150 mile round trip yesterday when at 60mph the dash lit up with "ABS off, traction control off, AWD off, Drive mode selection off". Nothing seemed obviously amiss so we finished our running around and drove it home. 

Some research says this is a common fault with a bad wheel speed sensor. Seemed a little suspicious that it happened right after I was playing around in a wheel well. When we got it home I popped the passenger wheel off again. The wheel speed sensor looked fine but I unplugged it and reseated it and that seems to have solved the issue. Will need to drive it some more to be sure. I'm guessing I must have accidentally tugged on the sensor wire when I was installing the BOV. Fingers crossed we're in the clear.

At 8 months, 2500 miles, and 23.4mpg average now.

Went to my third autocross with the RS and took home 2nd in DS, which I was more than thrilled with:

I'm still getting used to throttle application. When I was autocrossing old Hondas the throttle was basically an on/off button. I find reigning myself in on the RS leads to much faster times. There were a few very sharp corners on the course and it was the first time I really made note of the understeer, but it's still not bad overall and the car is still more than happy to break the back end loose in track mode.

My prior issue that lit up the dash did turn out to be a wheel speed sensor on the left rear. $50 for a scan tool to tell me the problem and $40 for the part and I'm golden.

I've found myself dailying it recently while we shop for a third car for kid/family. I seem to be topping out at around 23.6mpg on a mostly highway commute. It's still definitely an economy car interior but I'm not too put off by that, maybe because I've been driving Focuses for too long. The Recaros are a big complaint in these. It's still going fine for me with one exception: I always have to do some readjusting after getting in before I feel like I'm properly in the seat. Every time. My leg also rests on the bolster in a way I don't care for if I'm needing to use the clutch a lot.

This past weekend was the end of the autocross season. I did I think 5 events this year and plan on more for next year. I took home 1st in D street for the past two events, and second the event prior. The class isn't huge though, there are usually about 6 drivers and 1 to 2 of them are on the competitive side. I end up middle of the pack in PAX. Seems like BRZ/86 is the hot D street ride.

I'm going to keep in D street. I may spring for the one allowed sway bar replacement but that's about it. I have briefly looked into some 200tw tires but for the price of a set for 19" wheels I'll gladly wear out what I have.

The car itself just rolled over to 60k miles last week. I'm nearing a year of ownership and something like 5k miles that I've put on it. In that time it needed an oil change, a wheel speed sensor, and I put in a new set of plugs. The plugs must have been changed out before since there were some autolites in there. It very likely might have been my imagination but I thought I was feeling some hesitation at full throttle occasionally and that seems to have gone away with the new plugs. Still not convinced it wasn't all in my head though.

It looks like 23-24mpg is right where things will settle out for me with normal, mostly highway driving. 
We picked up a Mazda 3 a couple of months back for general run around duties and swapping between an automatic 3 and the RS really highlights the massive brakes and bonus 200 horsepower.

With autocross season finished it's back to the winter wheels and ricer getup.

I'm a sucker for roof boxes/racks on cool cars that don't normally have them, and this is no exception. Wicked!

I was shocked to see that you can get a trailer hitch for the RS and ST. However I keep wondering if all the aftermarket exhaust would create fitment issues.