Focus ST owners; Please share your experience!

You know I enjoy how the Focus ST and RS look on the outside butttttttt the interiors (IMO) are terrible. They scream 1999 Ford Taurus Jelly Bean. It's bad when a Subaru or Honda Fit interior looks and feels light years ahead. 

I have a ‘15 ST3 in performance blue which makes it a one year model post facelift (got replaced with Kona blue). 20K miles and needed nothing other than oil changes. I daily it in stop and go traffic, clutch is easy to modulate and shifter is nice and positive - tired the a few short shifter setups (ford racing and mountune) and hated both but it’s down to personal preference. 

Stock ride is indeed busy but Mountune club sport setup has cured that problem and improved handling as well, highly recommended. Accessport now includes traction control (timing based afaik but don’t quote me on that) so you’re not solely relying on brakes. That plus a ‘traction bar’ has helped immensely with torque steer. That’s not to say traction is not limited but at least the car wants to go straight-er while spinning the wheels:) I have a tune from Stratified and those guys seem to know what they’re doing. 

All in all a fun and reliable car. Downsides are (i) build quality isn’t exactly stellar; expect some rattles and creaks and potentially questionable body panel fitment (ii) turning radius is horrible; expect plenty of 3 point turns. Visibility hasn’t bothered me but mine came with backup camera.  Recaros are not for everyone but I have gotten used to them. 

In reply to dxman92 :

I gave them a quick look on the web and all the ones I saw were in the 30k range.  I don't think I can afford that.

DirtyBird222 said:

You know I enjoy how the Focus ST and RS look on the outside butttttttt the interiors (IMO) are terrible. They scream 1999 Ford Taurus Jelly Bean. It's bad when a Subaru or Honda Fit interior looks and feels light years ahead. 

Having recently driven a base '18 Focus and comparing it to my '16 RS?  Huge, huge differences in fit and feel between the two.  I do wish they used something other than black on my car, but honestly since it also hauls my toddler?  I'm glad since the mess doesn't show up quite as bad :)

More and more I look at the ST and RS vs the GTi and R as the modern day equivalents of the Omni GLH-T/GLH-S vs the original GTi/Audi Quattro.  Ze Germans were better cars in many ways, but weren't as good at stirring your soul without a lot of effort on the owner's part to change them.  Luckily, the ST/RS are so much better built than those older American hot hatches that you can get similar levels of fit/finish without going full German (The RS is built in Europe and it built to a higher standard of fit/finish than the rest of the Focus lineup).

Klayfish said:

I owned a '13 ST3, and had the Ford Racing tune done.  I loved and hated the car simultaneously.

Loved the razor sharp steering, the Recaros are absolutely awesome, the torque was silly levels of fun, just an incredibly fun car to drive spiritedly.

Hated the small fuel tank, Suburban size turning radius, engine was dead flat if it fell off boost, "squirrel on caffeine" personality sucked in traffic, Ford TouchMySelf system is glitchy

The two things keeping me out of one are the seats (I'm too big right now) and the puny fuel tank. With my commute, I'd be filling up every 3 days. No thanks. 

In reply to Stefan :

I'd hope there is a difference when you're paying what could be two base Focii for the RS lol. 

Tony Sestito said:

Klayfish said:

I owned a '13 ST3, and had the Ford Racing tune done.  I loved and hated the car simultaneously.

Loved the razor sharp steering, the Recaros are absolutely awesome, the torque was silly levels of fun, just an incredibly fun car to drive spiritedly.

Hated the small fuel tank, Suburban size turning radius, engine was dead flat if it fell off boost, "squirrel on caffeine" personality sucked in traffic, Ford TouchMySelf system is glitchy

The two things keeping me out of one are the seats (I'm too big right now) and the puny fuel tank. With my commute, I'd be filling up every 3 days. No thanks. 

Eh, I get about 230-250 miles per tank.  My wife gets about 300 in her 4-cylinder Highlander.  Considering her commute, that's about an extra day's worth of gas if I commuted the same.  I also run it a bit lower on fuel than she does since it is a smaller tank.

DirtyBird222 said:

In reply to Stefan :

I'd hope there is a difference when you're paying what could be two base Focii for the RS lol. 

Of course and I did because I felt it was worth it.  To each their own.

I'll give my feedback - 16 ST1 owner. I am tall (6'5") and found the Recaros uncomfortable after about 20min but admit they're very cool. I love my car. It's a perfect, fun commuter. I drove it back to back with the Fiesta and did find the Fiesta to be a "better" car - more balanced, power/brakes/grip all matched, and it was more willing to play. I liked the added interior space on the Focus and also liked the musclecar mentality of the Focus compared to the 5-door Miata feel of the Fiesta. I definitely feel like the engine dominates the driving experience on the Focus - probably a bit too much for the FWD setup. I liked the brash styling and more aggressive (feeling) driving experience of the Focus compared to the GTI.

I have 34k miles on it and had the crank position sensor go bad but it didn't strand me and was fixed under warranty. I get 28mpg combined.  Getting ready to replace the brakes (see below) but no other issues. Yes, the tank is small (11gal from full empty).

My Focus has been excellent at ice autocross but the brake were woefully inadequate at Road America. After a warm up and maybe two hot laps they were fading, bad. Four sessions in and they were done. Smoking, pedal going almost to the floor, slow to stop from 25mpg done. I thought turning everything off meant turning off the EBD but nope.

I plan on keeping the car a long time - I really love it. 

Great info everyone, thanks!!

In reply to Stefan :

I drive a Silverado and fill up every 3-4 days.   Whoo hoo 

In reply to Wiscocrashtest :

The brake fade issue you're experiencing is due to the brake-based "limited slip".  With an open differential, the only way it controls wheelspin is to brake the spinning wheel, rapidly leading to overheating the pads.  Two methods of mitigating that are higher temperature pads, or more radically, a real limited slip differential.  OS Giken works really well, but is expensive and bumps you out of stock class in autocrossing.

Or you could upgrade to an RS. 

jstein77 said:

In reply to Wiscocrashtest :

The brake fade issue you're experiencing is due to the brake-based "limited slip".  With an open differential, the only way it controls wheelspin is to brake the spinning wheel, rapidly leading to overheating the pads.  Two methods of mitigating that are higher temperature pads, or more radically, a real limited slip differential.  OS Giken works really well, but is expensive and bumps you out of stock class in autocrossing.

Or you could upgrade to an RS. 

Or at least the larger RS multi-piston brakes and better pads.

Some better pads/fluid and perhaps some cooling might help, but it is RA and it is a pretty flowing and demanding track.

I think if you drove it again on RA and adjusted your driving style to a more point and shoot style driving line, you wouldn't invoke the EBD quite as bad.  Point and shoot tends to be the more common FWD driving style used and it helps alleviate some of the inside wheel spin issues. 

In reply to Wiscocrashtest :

This seems appropriate:

Stefan said:

jstein77 said:

In reply to Wiscocrashtest :

The brake fade issue you're experiencing is due to the brake-based "limited slip".  With an open differential, the only way it controls wheelspin is to brake the spinning wheel, rapidly leading to overheating the pads.  Two methods of mitigating that are higher temperature pads, or more radically, a real limited slip differential.  OS Giken works really well, but is expensive and bumps you out of stock class in autocrossing.

Or you could upgrade to an RS. 

Or at least the larger RS multi-piston brakes and better pads.

Some better pads/fluid and perhaps some cooling might help, but it is RA and it is a pretty flowing and demanding track.

I think if you drove it again on RA and adjusted your driving style to a more point and shoot style driving line, you wouldn't invoke the EBD quite as bad.  Point and shoot tends to be the more common FWD driving style used and it helps alleviate some of the inside wheel spin issues. 

Along these lines, the RS caliper upgrade is pretty reasonably priced as far as these things go ($1125 MSRP). Alternatively, a real front LSD is $1k also. Both available from Ford: https://performanceparts.ford.com/focus/

Thanks for the tips. What I'm planning on doing this season is the RX-8 brake upgrade. As in buy an RX8 for the track and leave the Focus for commuting. 

A coworker has a FoST (not sure what year).  One comment during lunch today about it was the gas mileage - around 26 MPG for his mostly hwy commute. That surprised me.  Otherwise, it seems like a decent car the times I've been in it.

I am a skinny guy and find the non recaro's much more comfortable. The recaro's just flat out hurt me