Ford Focus Diesel Sport

Mikoid

I just came from a test drive last night of their new 2.0 turbo diesel model, and I must say, the torque is astounding! It was exciting to feel the acceleration at such low RPMs, and when the turbo kicked in, it was a bit of a rocket.

There is a bit of vibration on idle, as expected from a diesel car, but once it gets going it's fine. It seemed like the engine and road noise were pretty well insulated.

I will be seriously considering this should I decide to upgrade in the near future!

nix

Getting serious na ha! Test drive na! How much is this car anyways?

shun_sakurai

Rational has posted a similar thread before. There you'll see the derv-burning hatchback is rated at 21 km/L. Whether this is repeatable in everyday conditions is yet to be found out, but on a steady 100 km/h cruise this seems plausible.

I believe the turbodiesel Focus costs above PhP1 million.

shun_sakurai

Double post.

Mikoid

I actually had no intention of taking the test drive but the salesgirl was really convincing. Kinda glad I did, actually!

slamm

It's priced quite well if you were to consider it against the Mazda 3 2.0 and Civic 2.0. It did hit 1M but just slightly over it (1.080M).

Now if only it had a 5/6 speed a/t variant as well.

I'd also seriously consider it if i were car shopping...

shun_sakurai

The real selling point for me is the 6-speed manual gearbox, to be honest.

I test-drove the gasoline Focus Sport a year ago and wasn't impressed with how sluggish the auto 'box was. There was a consistent delay in upshifts that just didn't gel with the rest of the car's good driving attributes.

slamm

shun_sakurai wrote: »

The real selling point for me is the 6-speed manual gearbox, to be honest.

Yup, it is the selling point (and thats what i would get too)... to think just a few years ago, 6-speeds were only Porsche and Ferrari material

However, market demands would still ask for a slushbox option as that's what majority of car buyers now look for.

I do think 21 km/L is achievable since my old school, 2.7L, cast-iron diesel engine pickup could already muster 10-11km/L in the city, what more with a lighter, smaller displacement, 6 speed, CRDI Focus.

blakedaddy

Does it have an a/t vairant?

glenchuy

slamm wrote: »

I do think 21 km/L is achievable since my old school, 2.7L, cast-iron diesel engine pickup could already muster 10-11km/L in the city, what more with a lighter, smaller displacement, 6 speed, CRDI Focus.

wow. as someone who's never owned a diesel anything (i had lancer box type, then galant box type during the gemini era), i'm surprised a diesel car can go 21km per lit. hwow. my turboed lancer goes a piddly 6km/lit.

rational

blakedaddy wrote: »

Does it have an a/t vairant?

No. Just this one variant. It's what I was looking for also.

Mods, could you merge this with the older thread?

glenchuy

does anybody have the specs for the 0-60 and 0-80 times?

ale828

i remember seeing in the ads its 0-60 time of around 9 sec.
but this doesn't do justice to the experience of its torque or pulling power. It lacks top end power but i was told could be remedied by chipping the ECU.

glenchuy

ale828 wrote: »

i remember seeing in the ads its 0-60 time of around 9 sec.
but this doesn't do justice to the experience of its torque or pulling power. It lacks top end power but i was told could be remedied by chipping the ECU.

9 sec is uh... slow . i've got to test drive one to experience it. my friend has a crosswind. di ako masyado sanay sa hatak ng diesel kaya medyo inaantok ako sa pag drive nito. hehe. nasanay sa gas engines.

BeerhandBop

"i'm surprised a diesel car can go 21km per lit."


that is the point of driving a diesel engine in the first place.

however, i'm doubtful about the 21 km/ liter real world figures. maybe it'd go down to 15 km/ liter.

shun_sakurai

glenchuy wrote: »

9 sec is uh... slow . i've got to test drive one to experience it. my friend has a crosswind. di ako masyado sanay sa hatak ng diesel kaya medyo inaantok ako sa pag drive nito. hehe. nasanay sa gas engines.

Front-wheel-drive cars aren't ideal for quick 0-100 km/h (or 0-60 mph) times anyway due to the drivetrain layout.

Like ale828 mentioned, the true measure of a diesel's performance is in its in-gear overtaking capability. This is why the 80-120 km/h acceleration time in top gear should be tested, not just 0-100. Such a test is more useful in real life situations than a simple clutch-burning, tire-shredding, axle-twisting standing start which FWD cars by design will never do well in.

If the Focus diesel is as torquey as it's touted to be, it should be an overtaking monster. You literally will not need to shift gears due to all the torque, as a proper high-torque engine should effortlessly pull from walking pace in a high gear.

"Running out of puff" at high RPM is a usual turbo tuning quirk, by the way. The philosophy of most turbo tuning I've noticed is you will not need to venture to redline, because the whole point of installing a factory turbo is to make more usable power in the midrange and improve daily drivability.

glenchuy

BeerhandBop wrote: »

"i'm surprised a diesel car can go 21km per lit."

like i said. never owned a diesel automobile. .

shun_sakurai wrote: »

"Running out of puff" at high RPM is a usual turbo tuning quirk, by the way. The philosophy of most turbo tuning I've noticed is you will not need to venture to redline, because the whole point of installing a factory turbo is to make more usable power in the midrange and improve daily drivability.

speaking of turbo, how's the lag? i assume, that since the focus has a high torque because of the diesel engine, that the turbo kicks in at low revs?

slamm

glenchuy wrote: »

speaking of turbo, how's the lag? i assume, that since the focus has a high torque because of the diesel engine, that the turbo kicks in at low revs?

Turbo lag is not minimized even if the engine is torquey but rather it's dependent on the turbo size and design, the bigger the turbo, the more air is needed to spool it up, the longer the lag. However, I do expect it would probably be not that noticeable in the Focus as you mentioned as the good torque numbers at the low to mid range of the engine powerband carry the car well enough unlike in a gas engine which has most of it's power and torque at over 4K RPM.

Is the 9 sec mark a 0-60kph or 0-100kph time? I'd go with what Shun also mentioned on the 60-100 or 80-120 times being more significant as these are the places where we need the power in the real world. Diesels, especially the normally aspirated ones have tendency to be slow when they hit high RPMs as all the power is in the low RPM range. Turbos help negate that.

I do expect the Focus diesel to be good on the track... torquey engine, 6 speeds and well balanced chassis.

shun_sakurai

glenchuy wrote: »

speaking of turbo, how's the lag? i assume, that since the focus has a high torque because of the diesel engine, that the turbo kicks in at low revs?

Three things influence turbo lag:
1. The size of the turbo - as explained by Slamm
2. The size of the engine
3. The way the turbo is tuned - which is why you should pay good money for proper tuning

Engines are nothing more than air pumps so the more air you get in and out of them, the more power you have. (That's why compressed-air engines make sense.) Turbos are a way of getting around this but you have to get them working before they deliver their power.

All things remaining equal, a larger engine produces more initial exhaust gas, so it will spin its turbos quicker than a small engine (hence less turbo lag).

That said, the Focus turbodiesel packs just two liters of displacement (that's not a very big engine), so I concur with Slamm: They probably used smaller turbos and tuned them accordingly to improve drivability. I'd expect turbo lag to be minimal, but only a test drive will confirm this.

marco_1

yez! i test drive it too last saturday sa ford alabang (after ko magpa PMS sa toyota), lakas ng hatak! though 1st gear @ 40, 2nd gear @80 pde na!