Ford Focus Estate vs Honda Civic Tourer vs Seat Leon ST pt 1 of 4, Since Personal Trainer Deniz’s son was born a few months ago, she has been looking for a new estate to carry everything that she and her family need.
Personal Trainer Deniz Mustard experienced the biggest change in her life -- the birth of her son, Ozzy -- a few months ago. That, combined with her imminent return to work after maternity leave, means that she needs a bigger car; but, not only is space important, she is also looking for a car that will be nippy and easy around town, as well as capable of regularly tackling the long journey back to Scotland to see her family.
For our experts, the Focus is the benchmark in this class, but style is important to Deniz, and she immediately took a dislike to the car. She felt it looked like a van, with the front grille its only redeeming feature.
At least the interior was more to her liking; indeed, she describes the dashboard (with its mobile phone-inspired design) as ‘funky’, although she also added that she’d prefer something a few steps up from the Edge trim that came with our test car.
However, it wasn’t all good news, as she also reckoned there were a few shortcomings. First, she didn’t like the way the ISOFIX mountings were buried deep within the seat; and, secondly, she thought the mesh finish of the seats would soon get very dirty.
Likewise, although she was happy with the boot’s ‘massive’ capacity, she was disappointed that there was no extra stowage under the floor and reckoned that the seat-folding mechanism was ‘really hard to use.’
Perhaps most surprisingly – given that our testers always rave about how well the Focus drives – Deniz saved her harshest words for the way the Focus drove. ‘I said it looked like a white van and it drives like one, too,’ she said.
In particular, she didn’t like the gearchange or the lack of performance, and she thought there were too many numbers on the dials. This made it difficult to see at a glance how fast she was going, she said, and forced her to take her eyes off the road for longer than she wanted.
Ford Focus Edge Econetic 88g Estate
0-62mph 11.8 secs
Top speed 116pmh
Combined economy 83.1mpg
CO2 88g/km
List price £19.545
Price as tested £20,445
First published in Auto Trader Magazine
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| Ford Focus Estate vs Honda Civic Tourer vs Seat Leon ST pt 1 of 4 |
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