Brilliant Hire Car - Focus Hybrid EcoBoost

[SpikyMikey]

I like the steering wheel that you can fold flat. Brilliant idea.

They've borrowed that idea from commercials; trucks have had them for a while.
It's a great idea and only surprising that it took a while to trickle down to vans.

 

[HappytalkAgain]

I'm very pro-Ford post-Mondeo. I had one as a company car and that was night and day compared to the Cavs I'd had before. Similar attention to detail in the spring damper rates and so on.

I agree. We had a 2005 factory build ST220 in blue. Lovely car and remains my fav ever car to own. We only sold it in 2009 because Mrs Ant needed an Auto.

Then we had a 2018 ST-Line Edition estate on lease for 3 years. It was an excellent car.

 

[Londonscottish]

I agree. We had a 2005 factory build ST220 in blue. Lovely car and remains my fav ever car to own. We only sold it in 2009 because Mrs Ant needed an Auto.

Then we had a 2018 ST-Line Edition estate on lease for 3 years. It was an excellent car.

The last gen Mondeo was criminally underrated by just about everyone. I'd much rather have a top spec Mondeo than a base spec "premium" car.

 

[ToeKnee]

Fortunately for all you Ford fan boys, I still have a 19 plate Mondeo!

 

[Londonscottish]

Yesterday's trial was of he B&O amp settings; conclusion (as usual) is that factory is best. It's powerful but could do with better speakers (Morels, Focus, whatever) and no amount of "special settings" can ever change that.

Today I'm going to find out what the Sport driving mode does.

 

[HappytalkAgain]

Yesterday's trial was of he B&O amp settings; conclusion (as usual) is that factory is best. It's powerful but could do with better speakers (Morels, Focus, whatever) and no amount of "special settings" can ever change that.

Today I'm going to find out what the Sport driving mode does.

You know you’re on holiday and not working for ‘What Car’ right?

 

[Dryce]

The Lane Keeping Assist on my W177 works the same, and it's a PITA.

I found the A Class implementation quite brutal compared with some other cars.

It's one of the ones I really don't trust - I had one incident travelling over markings in roadworks while braking where the feedback ended up messing with my reading of the road and situational awareness.

Maybe it has improved in recent cars. The C, E, GLC, and GLE that I've driven in the last couple of years have been rather more civilised though still quite 'strong'.

 

[Londonscottish]

Any bother over there with the anti tourist protests??

Bollx. Three of the beaches recommended by a friend with a place are suddenly inaccessible - one of the roads in is now gated, the other had a gate with a security guard telling people to turn round. I suspect these are now local beaches for local people......the fourth one was full when we got there. Now in some shitty resort town.

****ing annoying.

In other news the Sport button makes the car go faster

 

[Darrell]

Bollx. Three of the beaches recommended by a friend with a place are suddenly inaccessible - one of the roads in is now gated, the other had a gate with a security guard telling people to turn round. I suspect these are now local beaches for local people......the fourth one was full when we got there. Now in some shitty resort town.

****ing annoying.

In other news the Sport button makes the car go faster

2 tier beaches ??

 

[Londonscottish]

2 tier beaches ??

 

[TC350]

2 tier beaches ??

Good old apartheid

 

[Londonscottish]

2 tier beaches ??

Found a decent beach in the end. Was later researching another one for tomorrow and it's also been taken over by the locals.

So it's a thing.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Fords are great. We knew this. Ride quality especially.

Apart from the plasticky interior and the appalling dealer service

Peak Ford was about 2016 ImHO.

That said the latest Kuga is a bit sheet.

Like EV’s, they’ve always been let down by first owner Corporate depreciation. 50-60% off in the first three years scares people.

 

[Mactech]

I have always had a great deal of respect for the Ford development engineers, but I have never actually owned a Ford!
When I was 'requested' by Tom Walkinshaw to head up the Jaguar XJ220 development, moving from a nice cosy job in motorsport, I had a couple former Ford guys to help me. Their last project had been the 4x4 Sierra Cosworth.
I learned a great deal from their methodology of road car development and one of the first questions I was asked was what did I want to do about CCD?
I knew what OCD was, but CCD turned out to be Customer Correlated Durability. Ford had developed a program of testing based on real usage of their huge customer base and the development testing reflected this well.
My problem was we had a whole bunch of deposits on cars but no real idea what customers would do with their 220's. In the end and given the compact timescale (in roadcar terms) of the project we formulated a program of accelerated durability run mainly at Millbrook, and something I named SAD.
Simulated Autobahn Durability ran the car through some really high speed (up to 180mph) testing with some heavy braking incidents and sections of low speed for the inevitable road works. The experience of the two Ford guys was a great help in successfully completing these programs.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

I have always had a great deal of respect for the Ford development engineers, but I have never actually owned a Ford!
When I was 'requested' by Tom Walkinshaw to head up the Jaguar XJ220 development, moving from a nice cosy job in motorsport, I had a couple former Ford guys to help me. Their last project had been the 4x4 Sierra Cosworth.
I learned a great deal from their methodology of road car development and one of the first questions I was asked was what did I want to do about CCD?
I knew what OCD was, but CCD turned out to be Customer Correlated Durability. Ford had developed a program of testing based on real usage of their huge customer base and the development testing reflected this well.
My problem was we had a whole bunch of deposits on cars but no real idea what customers would do with their 220's. In the end and given the compact timescale (in roadcar terms) of the project we formulated a program of accelerated durability run mainly at Millbrook, and something I named SAD.
Simulated Autobahn Durability ran the car through some really high speed (up to 180mph) testing with some heavy braking incidents and sections of low speed for the inevitable road works. The experience of the two Ford guys was a great help in successfully completing these programs.

View attachment 160213

Which begs the question: what did people actually do with them?

My only exposure to them was around 1999 when the …extrovert …bank CEO I was working for was contemplating buying one because they were silly (cheap) money, as an “investment.” He did buy it but I think it ended up in a cupboard. (Presumably Elton’s had the same fate, albeit from £495k new)

So what did Customers do with them? Like Ferrari owners, is there a suspicion that they ended up in well-lit garages and as garden ornaments, with only the briefest flurry of proper action?

 

[Londonscottish]

Fords are great. We knew this. Ride quality especially.

Apart from the plasticky interior and the appalling dealer service

Peak Ford was about 2016 ImHO.

That said the latest Kuga is a bit sheet.

Like EV’s, they’ve always been let down by first owner Corporate depreciation. 50-60% off in the first three years scares people.

I picked up my son in the middle of the night from the airport. He's studying mech eng and is inquisitive about how cars work and what they do. Within a mile he'd commented on the soundtrack and the ride quality.

My wife remains totally unconvinced . It's "just a Ford" as far as she's concerned. Some things never change.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

I picked up my son in the middle of the night from the airport. He's studying mech eng and is inquisitive about how cars work and what they do. Within a mile he'd commented on the soundtrack and the ride quality.

My wife remains totally unconvinced . It's "just a Ford" as far as she's concerned. Some things never change.

I only know one Ford car driver "this side of the Pond." He's a retired Police response driver.

Loves them & wouldn't drive anything else. Nuff said.

(Returns to checking Autotrader for a used luxury petrol Mercedes...in despair....)

 

[Mactech]

Which begs the question: what did people actually do with them?

Almost anything you can imagine. Don Law racing still has a few customers coming to him for service with cars with just a few hundred miles on them.
Famously, there was one found bricked up behind a wall in a large house with delivery miles on it.
At the other end of the scale is the car I driven most of my XJ220 miles in, prototype car 004. It was well over 200k miles before it was involved in a shunt a couple of years ago, and still on the back burner for restoration as Don and son Justin are still working hard on customer cars.
And....anything in between!

 

[Londonscottish]

Sport button ended up getting on my tits; too snatchy and too much regen. Gone back to factory, the engineers knew what they were doing.

 

[Mactech]

Sport button ended up getting on my tits; too snatchy and too much regen. Gone back to factory, the engineers knew what they were doing.

I think those outside the motor industry would find it hard to believe how many man hours, head scratching, detail testing and summit meetings goes into those sorts of calibrations....