Focus ST as a daily?

I just picked up an ST1. I love it. For a cheap fun fwd car with a veneer of practically, it's hard to beat. We hated the recaros, so we got the base car with normal seats. The turn-in is great. Boost everywhere. Its surprisingly fun.

I'm not a fwd guy and never imagined I'd own a hot hatch. But it was so much more playful than the SUV penalty boxes I was test driving, it became a very easy choice

chief8one wrote: I'm probably one of the few that went for a test drive and was not impressed. I was going to buy a new ST1 for daily driving and lots of autocross duty. In brief I felt that the visibility was horrible while driving and I could not imagine trying to autocross the car. I felt that the A-pillars were huge and I was constantly moving my head back and forth looking around them to turn. Also, I felt that the rearview mirror was right in my line of site and was also finding myself looking around it to drive. Lane changes were difficult and I felt it had a lot of blind spots period. I had every intention of buying one that day too. I also did not want the ST3 due to the seats/sunroof and extra weight/things to malfunction and or outdate in the future.

Completely disagree. I had no visibility issues with the car at all. The A pillar is no bigger than pretty much any other car built in the past 25 years.

Option bundling kills these cars for me. I love my gadgets, so I'd want the ST3 with MFT, sunroof, etc. But the Recaros are an absolute deal-breaker for me. I can't sit in them for more than 30 seconds.

No power past 4500rpm? That's a woefully undersized turbo then. Weak sauce....

docwyte wrote: No power past 4500rpm? That's a woefully undersized turbo then. Weak sauce....

The FoST pulls like a freight train from just off idle to about 4500rpm, after which it really starts to tail off. Maybe I overstated it by saying it's a "waste of gas", but the meat of the power band is down low. Show me an affordable engine that has an equal and huge power band from 1200rpm to 7000rpm. I prefer low end power than a peaky engine that is completely flat below 5000rpm.

I hate engines that peter out on the top end. I'd much rather have a 2000-6000 rpm powerband than a 1200-4500 one.

Or whatever. I want pull up top and mid range. I could care less what it does right off idle. It's a small displacement, forced induction motor. It's never going to have the punch that a NA, higher compression motor will have off idle/throttle response.

For instance on my B5 A4 ('97) that weeny little K03 acted like that. It sucked! Motor was so much better with the K04...

Tom_Spangler wrote: Option bundling kills these cars for me. I love my gadgets, so I'd want the ST3 with MFT, sunroof, etc. But the Recaros are an absolute deal-breaker for me. I can't sit in them for more than 30 seconds.

Buy an ST3 then find someone with an ST1 that wants Recaro's. Swap plus he gives you $500. Profit

I would. But then, I'd drive this thing daily.

A buddy of mine has a Focus ST with the Recaros, and he's not a small dude. There's an easy "mod" you can do to cut a little of the foam out and make them much more comfortable.

I would, and I'd love the luxury. But then again, I daily this all summer, with no AC, no interior, and coil overs.

You have collectively failed to talk me out this idea. Enablers, the lot of you.

Edit: I replaced the picture since the original one was taken when it getting dark out.

captdownshift wrote: I can't think of a single reason not to do it.

18" wheels. That's a dang good reason.

Klayfish wrote: Show me an affordable engine that has an equal and huge power band from 1200rpm to 7000rpm.

(That's more horsepower there than an ST with the Motorsport tune, and the torque curve is so flat you can't really feel any peaks or valleys anywhere)

I prefer low end power than a peaky engine that is completely flat below 5000rpm.

For cut-and-thrust traffic use, I agree. Teh Volvo has spoiled me with its instaboost and how you just go.

This thread is not helping me not want a FoST. At all. Everyone's glowing reviews and even the annoyances make it sound like the car I want.

Pity that it's not available with an automatic. And that the exhaust system precludes the use of a trailer hitch.

I can't help you with the automatic, but there are hitches available. I'm planning on one myself.

Congrats OP. What trim did you end up with?

Hitches are theoretically possible. There exists at least one that crams between the bumper and the exhaust.

Armitage wrote: You have collectively failed to talk me out this idea. Enablers, the lot of you. 

Looks just like my old one.

It was really a great daily driver. Just all around nice car to drive. Easy to drive, but also fun.

In reply to cmcgregor:

Thanks! It's a '17 w/ST2 package. This is my first new car, so I figured I'd get a few upgrades. Ford incentives and Memorial Day deals worked out to be pretty good; the dealer beat x-plan pricing by about $1k.

I tried all three types of seats and found these fit really well. It'd be nice if you could option it up without getting the sunroof though. I didn't get navigation, but the sync 3 lets you display your phone's nav and other apps right on the screen so that's pretty awesome.

In reply to Harvey:

I've only got a handful of miles on it but I'm really enjoying the driving experience so far. It's quite the opposite from the GTO with the quick steering and darty nature. The summer tires it came with are pretty grippy but I haven't pushed it hard yet to see what they can do.

In reply to Armitage:

Looks like my co-workers car. It's mainly his daily but he does some local autocrossing with it.

BTW - the current (May 2017) issue of GRM has a Tech Tips article on the '12-'17 Focus ST.

In reply to Ian F:

Haha, yea I just cracked it open for the first time today and saw that article. Somehow GRM knew even before I did apparently.

Very nice! They're great looking cars. This is everything the new Civics should look like and don't. I'm leaning on DD#1 to replace her old Impreza wagon with a FoST. I haven't convinced her out of AWD yet, though.

I cant stand the recaros and I am a skinny guy who fits bride racing seats in my miata. Everything else however I liked about the car (my good friend has one as a DD and autocrossed it a number of times and I have driven/ridden in it quite a bit)

I will agree the hatch area is pretty dang small

The ST2 comes with cloth seats that have leather covering the high traffic areas. They have high bolsters making entry/egress a little more difficult than normal but they fit like a glove and are super comfortable at least for the short drives I've taken. One thing I noticed about every one of the other STs I've test driven in the past (new and used) is that they all had crazy torque steer. In this car I haven't felt it at all. Maybe all the other cars were on the all season tires, or did Ford change something for this model year?

Yeah, the seats seem to be a love or hate deal. I love them since I'm a twig and so I fit properly. An friend of mine sometimes calls "not shotgun" because his shoulders are too wide for the Recaros.

On torque steer, the tires have a pretty big impact. I just switched from the stock Goodyear Eagle F1s to Pilot Super Sports, and there's quite a bit less. The tires could very well be the difference.

Now that I've put about 800 miles on the car, here are some thoughts:

• Did a pair of 5 hours drives and didn't experience any discomfort from the Recaros

• Took a while to get the seats adjusted correctly for visibility, pedal, and wheel comfort. Did not feel natural at first having my head in the same plane as the B pillar after coming from the GTO with its massive long doors, but am used to it now.

• Visibility is fine. The blind spot mirrors are a nice touch.

• Sync 3 is pretty good but not perfect. Sometimes my phone won't pair. May be the phone though. Interface is not super well thought out but the screen is responsive and the system is fast enough to not be annoying.

• Android auto is nice. Google voice assist is as good as you would expect and the maps are sharp and navigation is great. It re-routed me on the fly around some delays. It doesn't appear that you can connect to android auto via wifi, only USB. When the phone is connected to the car, it won't do anything else. Also a minor annoyance is that if you search for a location in google maps on the phone and then connect to auto, the search isn't carried over. Nor can you copy/paste an address out of another application. If you stop at a rest area and bring your phone with you, you need to re-enter your navigation parameters when you reconnect. If you leave the phone connected, even while the engine is off, it remembers what it was doing when you resume driving.

• Turn-in is amazing. When you see a turn coming, you don't have to preload the steering to get the suspension to settle out before the car starts turning. The instant you turn the wheel, the car changes direction. .95g as-delivered from the factory is pretty great for a FWD. The steering is very light though. I didn't notice how light until I went back to my FD and GTO and thought there was something wrong at first because of how heavy they felt.

• Brakes are nice and linear. Other newer cars I've driven with overboosted brakes have weird grabbiness that make it difficult to brake smoothly but I've had no such issues with the ST.

• As others have said, the trunk is smaller than it would seem once you start trying to fill it up with boxes.

• Car is zippy but not fast. Which is good, because I think I'll be less likely to get into trouble daily driving it.

So all in all, no buyer's remorse yet. I've enjoyed my time with the car so far both on short and long trips.