2016 Ford Focus ST Review
05-17-2016, 12:52 PM
#1
2016 Ford Focus ST Review
Focus ST review
Inspired by adrs2k, I wanted to write a review for a car that I think would serve many S2000 users well as a daily driver or even as a fun only car.
Background:
I've had car fever for several years. I've owned my S2000 for 8 years now, and it has served me well in everything I've asked of it. It was my only car for many years, it's been autocrossed, been on numerous mountain drives, and for a few years now its been able to live life as a garage queen. I've been daily driving a GE8 Fit Sport for the past several years, and while its been a fantastic and reliable vehicle, I've simply grown tired of it. Its loud, underpowered, isn't particularly comfortable, and nothing I did to the car made it more livable in daily commuting. The Fit was approaching 110,000 miles, and while it was generally reliable, I feared the little engine was overworked for the size of the car and soon enough I feared it would start having issues here or there. A life situation change as well as other factors finally pushed me over the edge and so I began to start looking at cars more seriously.
The Field
Being in my early 30's, I'm at an odd 'car place'. I want quiet and comfortable, but sporty and fun. I want something engaging to drive but also like the idea of floating along the road. I wanted plenty of room with 4 seats, but also to feel like I was sitting in a cockpit as part of the car. I wanted plenty of power but without horrible MPG. I wasn't sure if I wanted a new car or a 'cheaper' better used car. As such, my list of car candidates was as long as it was eclectic...
2013 and up Hyundai Genesis Sedan
2008 E90 BMW M3
2012 and up VW GTI / Golf R
2013 and up Focus ST
2013 and up Lexus IS250/350
2002 BMW E39 M5
2013 and up Honda Civic Si Sedan
2013 and up Honda Accord Sport
2013 and up Toyota Avalon
2015 and up Subaru WRX/STI
2010 or newer Cadillac CTS V
2010 and up Acura TL / RL
I test drove many of the cars through the years, between friends and random dealership visits during my extreme car fever sessions.
Hyundai Genesis sedan is a really nice car. Hyundai has come a long way in the past few years, and frankly I think they offer the nicest luxury sedan with the best features for the best price. It has plenty of power even in the V6 configuration, and the R spec is just bonkers. Its extremely quiet and refined, gets decent gas mileage, and they can be had used with low miles for $25k. Frankly this car was at the top of my list, and after test driving one I loved most everything about it. But it fell short in several areas. The interior quality, while nice, is still a step behind most of the big luxury players. It feels too much like a regular Hyundai with some nicer trim and material. And the back seats don't fold down, which was a bit of a surprise. I don't need much room often, but I like having the option of being able to bring large objects home without having to make a special trip in our CRV.
BMW M3 and M5 were always emotional cars for me. A 4 door V8 muscle car as a daily driver is exciting to me, but to put it shortly I am scared of BMW ownership costs. I don't like the image of the brand, and for one reason or another I always talked myself off the cliff. I like the idea of owning an E90/E39, but not the idea of actually owning and maintaining one.
I share a similar sentiment about owning a Volkswagen. The GTI is always been an appealing car, it drives wonderfully, has plenty of space, good power, good gas mileage, etc. Then you start reading about the horrible issues people have with these cars. Plastic water pumps, LSPI issues, electronics gremlins galore, and the recent 'issue' with the brand, and adding all that up pushes me away.
Lexus, Honda, Toyota are all cars that are really great daily drivers, but they are all a dime a dozen, have little to no character, have mixed sportiness and power. They are all 'good choices', but not exciting choices. They are safe choices, and were my fall back plans, but I continued to look elsewhere.
Cadillac CTS V is a similar story to the M cars, great cars in theory but terrible MPG and luxury ownership costs scare me.
Focus ST was a car that initially checked all the boxes for me. I was never really entertained by American cars, but they have made noticeable strides in both looks and overall fit and finish. A friend purchased a 2013 new, and I was amazed at how wonderful of a car Ford has seemingly built. I now had a close friend with a car I liked, so I could sit and wait for a few years too see how his car holds up. I didn't love the looks, but it was nice enough for the performance offering.
2016 Focus ST, wait a Ford...???
Never in a million years did I think I would own an American vehicle. And now here I am, 3 years later, a friend with a 2013 ST, 35k miles and not a lick of any issue, still grinning ear to ear each and every time he drives it.
I went out to the Ford dealerships to look at a 2016. I loved the facelift they did in 2015, and now I was in love with the looks. I arrived at the dealership and they had a 2016 Oxford White Focus ST in the trim that I would be interested in. I took the whole family with me including the car seat for the kid. The Focus is on the smaller size of vehicles in terms of rear leg room, so I needed to make sure I could adjust my seat to a comfortable position and still have my 2 year old's rear facing car seat fit comfortably. I was worried at first, but we installed the seat in the middle of the rear bench, and had room to spare to the front seats. I sat down in the rear seat next to the car seat and was happy with the space. I'm 6'2" and 200 lbs, and I fit comfortably in the rear with both head and leg room to spare. Sweet!
The trim I wanted was the ST3 package, which included Sync 3 with navigation and the powered, heated Recaro seats. The moment I hit the seat, I felt like the car was giving me a warm welcome hug, saying 'Hi there stranger, I'm ready to play'. The seats are extremely well bolstered and supported. I'm not sure if it was in my head, but the leather was much softer than I remember in the 2013 my friend purchased. The Recaro's are a love hate thing, and I'm on the love side of the spectrum. These are some of the best seats in any production car I have ever sat in.
I made all my adjustments, set the wheel position, seat belt height, and added a little more lumbar support. I played around a little with the Sync 3 system and it was snappy and responsive. There was zero input lag. I turned on the radio and found my favorite radio station, and slowly turned up the volume. It immediately presented the HD radio symbol, and the noise coming out of the speakers was amazing. The lows hit hard, and the highs are clean and crisp. I'm a bit of an audiophile, and while it isn't the best I've ever heard, it certainly is a very capable system. So far, the car was hitting all my check boxes.
We took it out for a test drive and it reminded me immediately why this was the car for me. Power is everywhere and it pulls hard most of the way up to redline, with the biggest punch coming from the mid range torque hit. Peak torque of 270 lb-ft hits at 2500 rpm and then peak power of 252hp is at 5500 rpm. The first impression is the car is not only fast, but extremely smooth. Rowing through the gears is wonderful and has an excellent mechanical feel to it. The S2000 has an excellent transmission, but the ST isn't far behind. My test drive was limited to a few acceleration and hard braking events, and when we pulled back into the dealership I was struggling to hide the hysterical inner laughter. Wow what a fun little car!
We sat at the desk, worked the numbers, and settled on $26,500 plus TTL. The car was fully loaded, ST3 package with moonroof, upgraded wheels (I could take them or leave them), door edge protective stripping, all the interior floor mats. With zero percent financing, I walked out of there extremely happy.
I love everything about the car, its extremely quiet and refined inside the cabin, the stereo and infotainment system is responsive and easy to use with excellent voice recognition, the car has power everywhere and zips around effortlessly in any gear. The rear seats fold almost completely flat and its a hatchback, so there is tons of room. There are soft touch materials throughout most of the front cabin, and the car is finished out with real CF trim pieces.
For the price I paid, I feel like there is no better car on the market.
Full review (after 3000 miles) and pictures in the next post.
Inspired by adrs2k, I wanted to write a review for a car that I think would serve many S2000 users well as a daily driver or even as a fun only car.
Background:
I've had car fever for several years. I've owned my S2000 for 8 years now, and it has served me well in everything I've asked of it. It was my only car for many years, it's been autocrossed, been on numerous mountain drives, and for a few years now its been able to live life as a garage queen. I've been daily driving a GE8 Fit Sport for the past several years, and while its been a fantastic and reliable vehicle, I've simply grown tired of it. Its loud, underpowered, isn't particularly comfortable, and nothing I did to the car made it more livable in daily commuting. The Fit was approaching 110,000 miles, and while it was generally reliable, I feared the little engine was overworked for the size of the car and soon enough I feared it would start having issues here or there. A life situation change as well as other factors finally pushed me over the edge and so I began to start looking at cars more seriously.
The Field
Being in my early 30's, I'm at an odd 'car place'. I want quiet and comfortable, but sporty and fun. I want something engaging to drive but also like the idea of floating along the road. I wanted plenty of room with 4 seats, but also to feel like I was sitting in a cockpit as part of the car. I wanted plenty of power but without horrible MPG. I wasn't sure if I wanted a new car or a 'cheaper' better used car. As such, my list of car candidates was as long as it was eclectic...
2013 and up Hyundai Genesis Sedan
2008 E90 BMW M3
2012 and up VW GTI / Golf R
2013 and up Focus ST
2013 and up Lexus IS250/350
2002 BMW E39 M5
2013 and up Honda Civic Si Sedan
2013 and up Honda Accord Sport
2013 and up Toyota Avalon
2015 and up Subaru WRX/STI
2010 or newer Cadillac CTS V
2010 and up Acura TL / RL
I test drove many of the cars through the years, between friends and random dealership visits during my extreme car fever sessions.
Hyundai Genesis sedan is a really nice car. Hyundai has come a long way in the past few years, and frankly I think they offer the nicest luxury sedan with the best features for the best price. It has plenty of power even in the V6 configuration, and the R spec is just bonkers. Its extremely quiet and refined, gets decent gas mileage, and they can be had used with low miles for $25k. Frankly this car was at the top of my list, and after test driving one I loved most everything about it. But it fell short in several areas. The interior quality, while nice, is still a step behind most of the big luxury players. It feels too much like a regular Hyundai with some nicer trim and material. And the back seats don't fold down, which was a bit of a surprise. I don't need much room often, but I like having the option of being able to bring large objects home without having to make a special trip in our CRV.
BMW M3 and M5 were always emotional cars for me. A 4 door V8 muscle car as a daily driver is exciting to me, but to put it shortly I am scared of BMW ownership costs. I don't like the image of the brand, and for one reason or another I always talked myself off the cliff. I like the idea of owning an E90/E39, but not the idea of actually owning and maintaining one.
I share a similar sentiment about owning a Volkswagen. The GTI is always been an appealing car, it drives wonderfully, has plenty of space, good power, good gas mileage, etc. Then you start reading about the horrible issues people have with these cars. Plastic water pumps, LSPI issues, electronics gremlins galore, and the recent 'issue' with the brand, and adding all that up pushes me away.
Lexus, Honda, Toyota are all cars that are really great daily drivers, but they are all a dime a dozen, have little to no character, have mixed sportiness and power. They are all 'good choices', but not exciting choices. They are safe choices, and were my fall back plans, but I continued to look elsewhere.
Cadillac CTS V is a similar story to the M cars, great cars in theory but terrible MPG and luxury ownership costs scare me.
Focus ST was a car that initially checked all the boxes for me. I was never really entertained by American cars, but they have made noticeable strides in both looks and overall fit and finish. A friend purchased a 2013 new, and I was amazed at how wonderful of a car Ford has seemingly built. I now had a close friend with a car I liked, so I could sit and wait for a few years too see how his car holds up. I didn't love the looks, but it was nice enough for the performance offering.
2016 Focus ST, wait a Ford...???
Never in a million years did I think I would own an American vehicle. And now here I am, 3 years later, a friend with a 2013 ST, 35k miles and not a lick of any issue, still grinning ear to ear each and every time he drives it.
I went out to the Ford dealerships to look at a 2016. I loved the facelift they did in 2015, and now I was in love with the looks. I arrived at the dealership and they had a 2016 Oxford White Focus ST in the trim that I would be interested in. I took the whole family with me including the car seat for the kid. The Focus is on the smaller size of vehicles in terms of rear leg room, so I needed to make sure I could adjust my seat to a comfortable position and still have my 2 year old's rear facing car seat fit comfortably. I was worried at first, but we installed the seat in the middle of the rear bench, and had room to spare to the front seats. I sat down in the rear seat next to the car seat and was happy with the space. I'm 6'2" and 200 lbs, and I fit comfortably in the rear with both head and leg room to spare. Sweet!
The trim I wanted was the ST3 package, which included Sync 3 with navigation and the powered, heated Recaro seats. The moment I hit the seat, I felt like the car was giving me a warm welcome hug, saying 'Hi there stranger, I'm ready to play'. The seats are extremely well bolstered and supported. I'm not sure if it was in my head, but the leather was much softer than I remember in the 2013 my friend purchased. The Recaro's are a love hate thing, and I'm on the love side of the spectrum. These are some of the best seats in any production car I have ever sat in.
I made all my adjustments, set the wheel position, seat belt height, and added a little more lumbar support. I played around a little with the Sync 3 system and it was snappy and responsive. There was zero input lag. I turned on the radio and found my favorite radio station, and slowly turned up the volume. It immediately presented the HD radio symbol, and the noise coming out of the speakers was amazing. The lows hit hard, and the highs are clean and crisp. I'm a bit of an audiophile, and while it isn't the best I've ever heard, it certainly is a very capable system. So far, the car was hitting all my check boxes.
We took it out for a test drive and it reminded me immediately why this was the car for me. Power is everywhere and it pulls hard most of the way up to redline, with the biggest punch coming from the mid range torque hit. Peak torque of 270 lb-ft hits at 2500 rpm and then peak power of 252hp is at 5500 rpm. The first impression is the car is not only fast, but extremely smooth. Rowing through the gears is wonderful and has an excellent mechanical feel to it. The S2000 has an excellent transmission, but the ST isn't far behind. My test drive was limited to a few acceleration and hard braking events, and when we pulled back into the dealership I was struggling to hide the hysterical inner laughter. Wow what a fun little car!
We sat at the desk, worked the numbers, and settled on $26,500 plus TTL. The car was fully loaded, ST3 package with moonroof, upgraded wheels (I could take them or leave them), door edge protective stripping, all the interior floor mats. With zero percent financing, I walked out of there extremely happy.
I love everything about the car, its extremely quiet and refined inside the cabin, the stereo and infotainment system is responsive and easy to use with excellent voice recognition, the car has power everywhere and zips around effortlessly in any gear. The rear seats fold almost completely flat and its a hatchback, so there is tons of room. There are soft touch materials throughout most of the front cabin, and the car is finished out with real CF trim pieces.
For the price I paid, I feel like there is no better car on the market.
Full review (after 3000 miles) and pictures in the next post.
05-17-2016, 12:53 PM
#2
Full review
Summary:
For those that don't want all the details, the summary of the car is it excels at everything it does. It has power, comfort, refinement, gets excellent gas mileage, has a great infotainment system and looks sharp. For the price, its very hard to beat as a whole package.
Interior:
The Focus I chose is the highest available trim, the ST3. Entering the car is accomplished with a keyless key fob. As you approach the car and grab the door handle the car immediately unlocks itself. Keyless entry/ignition is one of those things that once you have it, you aren't sure how you ever lived without it... When you open the door you are greeted with a brushed aluminum door sill with the ST logo.
Next you see the beautifully stitched Recaro all leather buck seats. The seats are all black with white accent stitching. The leather is soft and supple, and there are Recaro and ST logos embroidered into the backrest. The seats are a love hate relationship with ST owners. When I first sat in them I loved them, they feel like they are literally hugging you. The bolstering is aggressive but very supportive and make no mistake about it, these seats work. At any speed in any corner, my butt doesn't move an inch. After a few hundred miles, I was definitely starting to worry a little bit about the thigh/hip bolsters. On extended drives, I would start feeling the lower bolstering. Thankfully, the seats fully broke in around 1000 miles, and now they are perfect even on extended drives. I commute about 2.5 hours every day, and I'm definitely noticing I'm less fatigued and much more refreshed when I get to my destination. On those cold mornings, the heating elements in the seat are a welcome addition.
The steering wheel is also beautifully designed. Its covered in the same soft leather as the seats, has a nice thick luxurious feel, flat bottom, and very comfortable raised grips at 10 and 2. In the ST3 trim, it's also heated! I've used it once to confirm it works, but its a nice feature. It has all the controls you need on the wheel, including phone, stereo, and car menu controls.
The shifter is a pleasant surprise in the car. In the ST3 trim it has a carbon fiber shift knob with painted gear box indicators and an ST logo. This is all finished of in a thick coat of clear that provides a glass smooth surface. The knob is sized perfectly for my big hands, and rowing through the gears feels very mechanical and yet buttery smooth. There is a little notch as you first try to enter the gear, but shortly afterwards the gear lever feels like it just falls into the gear. It's a very nice manual box...
The best thing about the ST interior is everything is well placed and all the little things really add up an enjoyable experience. All the buttons are easy to reach and very well laid out. There is LED lighting in the footwell and door that you can change the color and intensity. When you open the door all the LEDs light up red. When you sit down in the seat and close the door the digital display between the gauges builds and flashes an ST logo that comes in and out. There are boost and oil temp gauges finished off in a nice CF trim, and the gaps between panels are very small. While the interior isn't world class, its very well laid out, well designed, and well finished. It's a great place to be for several hours.
The drive
All the controls are in an excellent location. The start button is located on the right side behind the steering wheel. When you first power up the car, you hear a faint grumble. If you aren't listening to it, you might miss it. The car is really quiet inside, but more on that later.
At first the clutch feels very firm and yet somewhat spongy, but after a few miles it makes sense. The car is extremely easy to drive aggressively as well as in horrible traffic (living in LA, I feel I have a good gauge of what horrible traffic is). The car has a crawl/anti stall feature that I'm not used to having, and accidentally learned about one day when my foot slipped of the clutch accidentally about half way engaged. If you are in first gear and let the clutch out somewhat slowly, the car revs the engine to keep it from stalling then all of a sudden you are rolling in first gear. That's right, you don't need to give the car any gas at all and just need to not use the clutch as an on off switch, and it'll take care of the rest!
As I previously stated, the car is very smooth and refined. Shifting gears is effortless, and the dual mass flywheel almost knows where to drop and temporarily hold the RPMs to make sure gear shifts are seamless. It's very difficult to make the car jolt going from one gear to another.
For putzing around town and in traffic, you never really need more than a quarter throttle. The car's power band is well suited for daily driving, and the shift indicator on the digital display lets you know shift points up and down for very tame driving.
If you give the car more than 1/4 throttle, the car comes to life. Ford included a sound symposer that opens a pathway from the intake to the interior when you are pushing the throttle harder. Without it, the car feels quiet and comfortable, you wouldn't know there was 250hp under the hood ready to be unleashed. When the sound symposer kicks in it gives you that reminder that you're driving something special. The intake sound is intoxicating, subdued but yet has that growl that says 'feed me more air!!' Then shortly after the first intake blip, the turbo spools up and the car just surges away. Passing semis (and frankly anything on the road) is effortless. Full boost and torque kicks in around 2500 rpm and the car pulls hard until about 6000 rpm. Redline is 6700. I can't imagine why I would ever need more oomph than the ST provides. I can be doing illegal speed in no time, and from a roll the ST is lightning bottled up.
The first time you take a corner aggressively, you are introduced to what may be the best handling front wheel drive car of all time. There is little to no understeer, the car has gobs of grip with the upgraded Eagle F1 tires, and the weirdest sensation for a front wheel drive car: it rotates on command! The deserves all the praise it has garnered, while it won't ever replace a well balance rear wheel drive car the ability to rotate the car with a little bit of throttle lift is incredible. The car is on rails, it's light (3250 lbs) and playful, and does what you want, how you want it, when you want it. The steering is quick and precise, and I feel like I can place the car exactly where I need to it be. I've yet to autocross the car, but my experiences in the California mountain roads help me conclude this is an enthusiasts car and a drivers car. Well done Ford, well done.
The overall ride quality is good. The suspension is firm, but not jarring. I never feel like the car is throwing me around on the horrible LA highways. I definitely feel most road imperfections, but its very livable and certainly more comfortable than even a stock S2000. The suspension holds the car pretty flat in the corners and weight transfer is pretty smooth and uneventful. Its a very well balanced setup between performance and comfort.
At night, the headlights turn with your steering input. It's a small, but nice feature that help you look through the corner with more lighting and really helps guide your vision and the car through the corner. It's sorta weird at first, seeing the light move as you enter the turn, but I've stopped noticing it, and just enjoy the feature. More than half a turn or so of the wheel engages the headlights to their correct position, and they remain there until you straighten the car back out. Again a small, but nice feature.
Infotainment:
The Sync 3 system is a great addition to the car couples with the 355 Watt, 10 speaker Sony sound system. Bluetooth connection is immediate and the integration is fantastic. When I fire up the car, my phone immediately connects and continues playing my library automatically from where it left off. After adjusting the built in equalizer, I am extremely happy and impressed with the sound from the system. Bass hits are low and clean, mids and highs are crisp and clear, and the only limitation is when the sound is cranked up to ear bleeding levels. Reasonable volumes spit out some wonderful sounds, and are on par with my audiophile requirements to clarity and frequency response. The stereo coupled with the quiet and refined interior make my commute that much more enjoyable.
The system also has all the standard features you would come to expect. Radio channels come through clear and the system is HD capable. It has Sirius XM, a CD player with MP3 capability, and soon Apple Carplay and Android auto support is incoming.
The navigation is also very easy to use, wonderfully designed, and very seamless. You enter or say the entire address like you would enter into Google Maps, it immediately finds the destination, you set it and go. It predicts duration and route options, and even gives you traffic delay warnings on you route. The search feature is also shockingly good, you enter the name of what you're looking for and the system finds the POI almost immediately. The system is as good as using Google Maps on your phone. A nice feature is when the gas light / warning comes on, the navigation will automatically highlight and name (and obviously show) all gas stations visible in you available navigation view. Very upscale in my mind...
The verdict:
For the money and performance and features, the ST is very hard to beat. It feels very upscale and feels like a lot more car than what you pay for it. It offers an excellent mix of fun and practicality, and could easily replace the S2000 if you are limited to one vehicle. That being said, its a completely different animal and a perfect complement to the S2000 in the stable. I couldn't be happier having both, and can't imagine a better combination of cars at a reasonable price for a driving enthusiast.
Pros:
Easy to drive
Playful
Fast
Comfortable
Great MPGs
Roomy and tons of cargo capacity
Cons:
Sound symposer should turn on/off with the sport setting
Turning radius is atrocious
Gas tank is only 12 gallons
Heel/toe is impossible with the pedal placement
Addendum: why not the RS?
I'm sure some of you are thinking, why didn't he get an RS? Well for me the RS seems like total overkill for daily driving. It has more power, worse gas mileage, higher running costs (awd, clutch packs in the diff) and on the whole is supposedly firmer and less compliant. As a second car to enjoy on the weekend, I think an RS would be great. As a daily driver, it's a little too extreme based off the reviews. And frankly I don't think it's worth the $40k asking price plus dealer mark ups. It's a seriously cool car, just not on my DD radar.
And now the pics! Sorry for how dirty the car is...
Summary:
For those that don't want all the details, the summary of the car is it excels at everything it does. It has power, comfort, refinement, gets excellent gas mileage, has a great infotainment system and looks sharp. For the price, its very hard to beat as a whole package.
Interior:
The Focus I chose is the highest available trim, the ST3. Entering the car is accomplished with a keyless key fob. As you approach the car and grab the door handle the car immediately unlocks itself. Keyless entry/ignition is one of those things that once you have it, you aren't sure how you ever lived without it... When you open the door you are greeted with a brushed aluminum door sill with the ST logo.
Next you see the beautifully stitched Recaro all leather buck seats. The seats are all black with white accent stitching. The leather is soft and supple, and there are Recaro and ST logos embroidered into the backrest. The seats are a love hate relationship with ST owners. When I first sat in them I loved them, they feel like they are literally hugging you. The bolstering is aggressive but very supportive and make no mistake about it, these seats work. At any speed in any corner, my butt doesn't move an inch. After a few hundred miles, I was definitely starting to worry a little bit about the thigh/hip bolsters. On extended drives, I would start feeling the lower bolstering. Thankfully, the seats fully broke in around 1000 miles, and now they are perfect even on extended drives. I commute about 2.5 hours every day, and I'm definitely noticing I'm less fatigued and much more refreshed when I get to my destination. On those cold mornings, the heating elements in the seat are a welcome addition.
The steering wheel is also beautifully designed. Its covered in the same soft leather as the seats, has a nice thick luxurious feel, flat bottom, and very comfortable raised grips at 10 and 2. In the ST3 trim, it's also heated! I've used it once to confirm it works, but its a nice feature. It has all the controls you need on the wheel, including phone, stereo, and car menu controls.
The shifter is a pleasant surprise in the car. In the ST3 trim it has a carbon fiber shift knob with painted gear box indicators and an ST logo. This is all finished of in a thick coat of clear that provides a glass smooth surface. The knob is sized perfectly for my big hands, and rowing through the gears feels very mechanical and yet buttery smooth. There is a little notch as you first try to enter the gear, but shortly afterwards the gear lever feels like it just falls into the gear. It's a very nice manual box...
The best thing about the ST interior is everything is well placed and all the little things really add up an enjoyable experience. All the buttons are easy to reach and very well laid out. There is LED lighting in the footwell and door that you can change the color and intensity. When you open the door all the LEDs light up red. When you sit down in the seat and close the door the digital display between the gauges builds and flashes an ST logo that comes in and out. There are boost and oil temp gauges finished off in a nice CF trim, and the gaps between panels are very small. While the interior isn't world class, its very well laid out, well designed, and well finished. It's a great place to be for several hours.
The drive
All the controls are in an excellent location. The start button is located on the right side behind the steering wheel. When you first power up the car, you hear a faint grumble. If you aren't listening to it, you might miss it. The car is really quiet inside, but more on that later.
At first the clutch feels very firm and yet somewhat spongy, but after a few miles it makes sense. The car is extremely easy to drive aggressively as well as in horrible traffic (living in LA, I feel I have a good gauge of what horrible traffic is). The car has a crawl/anti stall feature that I'm not used to having, and accidentally learned about one day when my foot slipped of the clutch accidentally about half way engaged. If you are in first gear and let the clutch out somewhat slowly, the car revs the engine to keep it from stalling then all of a sudden you are rolling in first gear. That's right, you don't need to give the car any gas at all and just need to not use the clutch as an on off switch, and it'll take care of the rest!
As I previously stated, the car is very smooth and refined. Shifting gears is effortless, and the dual mass flywheel almost knows where to drop and temporarily hold the RPMs to make sure gear shifts are seamless. It's very difficult to make the car jolt going from one gear to another.
For putzing around town and in traffic, you never really need more than a quarter throttle. The car's power band is well suited for daily driving, and the shift indicator on the digital display lets you know shift points up and down for very tame driving.
If you give the car more than 1/4 throttle, the car comes to life. Ford included a sound symposer that opens a pathway from the intake to the interior when you are pushing the throttle harder. Without it, the car feels quiet and comfortable, you wouldn't know there was 250hp under the hood ready to be unleashed. When the sound symposer kicks in it gives you that reminder that you're driving something special. The intake sound is intoxicating, subdued but yet has that growl that says 'feed me more air!!' Then shortly after the first intake blip, the turbo spools up and the car just surges away. Passing semis (and frankly anything on the road) is effortless. Full boost and torque kicks in around 2500 rpm and the car pulls hard until about 6000 rpm. Redline is 6700. I can't imagine why I would ever need more oomph than the ST provides. I can be doing illegal speed in no time, and from a roll the ST is lightning bottled up.
The first time you take a corner aggressively, you are introduced to what may be the best handling front wheel drive car of all time. There is little to no understeer, the car has gobs of grip with the upgraded Eagle F1 tires, and the weirdest sensation for a front wheel drive car: it rotates on command! The deserves all the praise it has garnered, while it won't ever replace a well balance rear wheel drive car the ability to rotate the car with a little bit of throttle lift is incredible. The car is on rails, it's light (3250 lbs) and playful, and does what you want, how you want it, when you want it. The steering is quick and precise, and I feel like I can place the car exactly where I need to it be. I've yet to autocross the car, but my experiences in the California mountain roads help me conclude this is an enthusiasts car and a drivers car. Well done Ford, well done.
The overall ride quality is good. The suspension is firm, but not jarring. I never feel like the car is throwing me around on the horrible LA highways. I definitely feel most road imperfections, but its very livable and certainly more comfortable than even a stock S2000. The suspension holds the car pretty flat in the corners and weight transfer is pretty smooth and uneventful. Its a very well balanced setup between performance and comfort.
At night, the headlights turn with your steering input. It's a small, but nice feature that help you look through the corner with more lighting and really helps guide your vision and the car through the corner. It's sorta weird at first, seeing the light move as you enter the turn, but I've stopped noticing it, and just enjoy the feature. More than half a turn or so of the wheel engages the headlights to their correct position, and they remain there until you straighten the car back out. Again a small, but nice feature.
Infotainment:
The Sync 3 system is a great addition to the car couples with the 355 Watt, 10 speaker Sony sound system. Bluetooth connection is immediate and the integration is fantastic. When I fire up the car, my phone immediately connects and continues playing my library automatically from where it left off. After adjusting the built in equalizer, I am extremely happy and impressed with the sound from the system. Bass hits are low and clean, mids and highs are crisp and clear, and the only limitation is when the sound is cranked up to ear bleeding levels. Reasonable volumes spit out some wonderful sounds, and are on par with my audiophile requirements to clarity and frequency response. The stereo coupled with the quiet and refined interior make my commute that much more enjoyable.
The system also has all the standard features you would come to expect. Radio channels come through clear and the system is HD capable. It has Sirius XM, a CD player with MP3 capability, and soon Apple Carplay and Android auto support is incoming.
The navigation is also very easy to use, wonderfully designed, and very seamless. You enter or say the entire address like you would enter into Google Maps, it immediately finds the destination, you set it and go. It predicts duration and route options, and even gives you traffic delay warnings on you route. The search feature is also shockingly good, you enter the name of what you're looking for and the system finds the POI almost immediately. The system is as good as using Google Maps on your phone. A nice feature is when the gas light / warning comes on, the navigation will automatically highlight and name (and obviously show) all gas stations visible in you available navigation view. Very upscale in my mind...
The verdict:
For the money and performance and features, the ST is very hard to beat. It feels very upscale and feels like a lot more car than what you pay for it. It offers an excellent mix of fun and practicality, and could easily replace the S2000 if you are limited to one vehicle. That being said, its a completely different animal and a perfect complement to the S2000 in the stable. I couldn't be happier having both, and can't imagine a better combination of cars at a reasonable price for a driving enthusiast.
Pros:
Easy to drive
Playful
Fast
Comfortable
Great MPGs
Roomy and tons of cargo capacity
Cons:
Sound symposer should turn on/off with the sport setting
Turning radius is atrocious
Gas tank is only 12 gallons
Heel/toe is impossible with the pedal placement
Addendum: why not the RS?
I'm sure some of you are thinking, why didn't he get an RS? Well for me the RS seems like total overkill for daily driving. It has more power, worse gas mileage, higher running costs (awd, clutch packs in the diff) and on the whole is supposedly firmer and less compliant. As a second car to enjoy on the weekend, I think an RS would be great. As a daily driver, it's a little too extreme based off the reviews. And frankly I don't think it's worth the $40k asking price plus dealer mark ups. It's a seriously cool car, just not on my DD radar.
And now the pics! Sorry for how dirty the car is...
05-17-2016, 01:11 PM
#3
Thanks for the review, I always enjoy reading what goes into the decision for each different car. Look forward to pictures and more info, I may be in the market for a daily soon, and like everything I've seen on the FoST.
05-17-2016, 01:28 PM
#5
Moderator
glad I inspired you. Good write up. It sounds like we were for the most part in the same boat. We both wanted a more luxurious grown up car that still wants to be playful and fun. 
05-17-2016, 05:59 PM
#7
I'm planning on leaving this one stock, I have my S2000 for the mod bug. The ST is the DD and will be seeing 20k miles a year or so.
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05-18-2016, 06:25 AM
#9
That's a great looking car and it sounds like a perfect daily driver.
05-18-2016, 06:51 AM
#10
Nice! I have only been casually browsing since a new car purchase is probably another year off, but right now I'd be choosing between the Focus ST and VW GTI. I haven't driven either so that would probably help narrow it down. Honestly, I think the GTI is a little more appealing to me but I have the same concerns about VW.