Ford Focus Active X 2023 user experience

The 2022 facelifted Mk4 Focus, announced in Oct 2021, replaces the orginal Focus Mk4 (2018-2020) - only available in Europe - is to be the last production of the Focus line as Ford had previously announced it will be pivoting towards electric vehicles.

^{Focus Active X 2023 facelift}
I have previously driven a variety of family orientated Fords designed between ~1993-2015, including the Mk1 and Mk2 Monedo/Focus and Mk1 S-Max, there are a number of changes to adjust to and this is the experience of driving the facelifted Mk4 Focus Active X 2023.

Whilst the announced in 2021, the delivery of the car to end users was hampered by supply-chain issues resulting from Covid and the Russian-Ukraine conflict; as such, the facelifted version may be referred to as the Focus 2022 or 2023 given the delayed delivery but will be visibly different given the new grill and bonnet blue badge placement.

^{Focus Mk4 2018 vs Mk4 2022 facelift}
The instrument cluster in front of the steering wheel is digital but the immediate issue is that the rev limit dial and speedometer are in the wrong position; rev being on the right. For the cars without a digital cluster, the rev limit dial is on the left as you would expect. This spec provides tire pressure sensors but these are a little off compared to my old foot pump.

^{LHD instrument cluster with optional headup display}
There are 2 key items with respect to parking and stopping: the electric park brake and auto hold. The manual physical handbrake is replaced with a tab in the centre console that you engage by pulling up and release by press down - the auto hold is enabled with the button on the centre console behind the electric park brake.

The park brake does what you expect, but auto hold is a feature that engages the brakes automatically once the car comes to a stop meaning that the driver no longer needs to hold the brake pedal which is very useful for those that historically have problems with hill starts. Both the electric park brake and auto hold disenage when you lift the clutch/press the accelerator - this takes a little getting used to at first. When the auto hold is engaged an indicator is shown in the bottom right of the instrument cluster.

^{Interior cabin of LHD ST-line, notice the electric brake and auto hold buttons behind the shift lever on console}
The only difference between auto hold and electric park brake is that the former will be engaged automatically by the car itself when enabled whereas the electric park brake needs to be engaged just before the car ignition is stopped. The electric park brake can only be disengaged when the car ignition is on. The auto hold enabled/disabled setting is retained when the car is started next time.

The ride height of the Active X is higher than the standard Focus with the combination of slightly elevated (increase of 3cm at the front and 3.4cm at the rear) suspension and 18" wheels gives ~10cm ground clearance at the driver side. Whilst this height is not comparable to an SUV or even MPV, like the S-Max, it helps give the car a better experience when entering and leaving espcially for older passengers. The rear passenger leg room is just about sufficient but not great.

^{Focus ST-line side view}

Hardware

Boot space measures 100cm wide and extends 79cm into the car (with a loading lip depth of ~8cm) - and feels like other cars in this segment (particularly the VW Golf) but it gets full quick for the weekly shop. A mini spare wheel is available under the boot floor and is normally obscured by the removable subwoofer - whilst not perfect, at least there is wheel provided: the subwoofer takes ~10cm. The Active X variant has a subwoofer located in the boot which raises the boot floor and thus reduces slightly the storage available even compared to the Active (non X) variant (loading lip depth of ~17cm). The boot has a non flat loading lip and the removable parcel shelf in-place gives about 45cm clearance from boot floor.

Loading for vacation would be tough for a 4 person family - the boot, with rear seats up, will take 2 large (~80cm high) suitcases loaded width-ways across wihtout the loading shelf but after that, its a tough fit especially when comparing it to say, a S-Max that provides 116cm wide x 93cm deep boot. Alternatively, the boot will fit 3x IATA guidance sized cabin suitcases (56x45x25) loaded in length-ways, packed side by side on their short side. Furthermore, unlike the mk3 and earlier, the mk4 Focus hatchbacks do not have a hinge for the rear seats to be folded forward to allow an extended flat boot when the rear seats are down.

Internal door locking is a bit odd - there are no internal locking controls on the doors except for on the driver side, who can control the central locking. There are also no visible indicators from the outside whether the car is locked or not except if you enable the auto folding for the door mirrors. Furthermore, there is NO auto-lock feature for the car (ie when car is driving, all doors locked) but only auto-unlock for when car is stopped and driver door openned - the auto-lock feature is disabled in Europe.


However, when the driver engages central locking from the door controls it is not possible to open the doors externally, but it is possible to open the door from the inside. The traditional physical child locks are available - turn key in the rear door frames - and this needs the central unlocking before opening from the outside. The car has multiple sensors that will give indication for proximity to other obstacles, useful for parking, and displayed clearly on the Sync4 screen. There are other features like Lane Assist (enabled on the turn signal stalk) which can give tactic vibration feedback via the steering wheel when it determines the driver is vearing.

Under the bonnet, there is no engine cover but the battery appears to be positioned so that it can be easily swapped out rather than requiring first removal of the air filter.

Apple Carplay is available via Bluetooth as well as USB and works as you expect. When enabled, google maps is available which is displayed full size on the Sync4 screen and will be very useful when the Ford navigation subscription expires.

USB connectors are in 2 areas: the lower central console (in front of the gear knob) with USB-A and USB-C next to the 12volt outlet and 2 USB-C ports for the rear passengers located on the central column.

The 13" Sync4 touchscreen system (although some of the early or dealer only models can come with the older/slower/smaller Sync3 screen) is a key feature of the facelifted Focus. It is a connected system that provides status updates to a Ford cloud service to allow status updates to the mobile appls but also provides over the air software updates. The Sync4 system provides you with maps that are updated via over-the-air updates and for new vehicles, it comes with 1year subscription to live navigation. With the larger Sync4 screen, all the climate control and audio functions (except for the volume) is at the bottom the screen.


The only physical buttons under the Sync4 screen are split into the engine start/stop, audio on/off and volume knob, and a 4 button quick select panel: drive mode (also initiated by the directly on Sync4 screen) with Trail and Slippery modes unique to the Active series, max windscreen heating, engine auto start-stop (enabled by default and activated when car stopped, shift to neutral for more than 3seconds) and parking assist (from optional Parking Pack).

^{LHD physical buttons}
The Sync4 music system plays music from DAB radio, Bluetooth music and also from the USB ports using FAT32, but not exFat, formated USB sticks - the metadata from the music files, having observed support for MP3 and AAC, are scanned and indexed automatically.

Apps

The car has a modem for its data requirements; this also provides connectivity for smartphone apps that can monitor the vehicle location, unlock/lock door and obtain other status such as tyre pressure, fuel: there are two varients: Ford Pass and Ford Pass Pro, with the latter focused on business users that can more easily monitor up to five vehicles and uses an email as its key. The app requires a Ford website account registered against an email address; on the Ford website you can perform the majority of the same functions with some minor exceptions: website can add payment cards and app can active and unlock etc

When the car is new, the car connectivty remains requires activation which requires the VIN to be entered into the app, which will in turn ping the car. If you are the first to activate the car, you will need to enter the vehicle and follow/confirm the onscreen Sync4 notifications to complete the activation - subsequent users can be approved by the existing user, whilst they see a message in the app informaing them of the wait.

^{Ford Pass Left | Ford Pass Pro Right}
The list of existing authourised users (email) can only be see in the FordPass app which also allows uses to manage subscriptions associated with the car, such as live traffic updates. The lock status of the car is only visible on the FordPass Pro although both appls allow unlock/lock functionality. To remove authorised users there are two options: individual users removing the vehicle from their app or mass user removal by performing master reset on the Sync4 screen - this will require a user to activate the car again

One great feature is that the apps can display the car's last known location on a map and location valid for when the car was last parked/power available to the car.

Conclusions

The drive of the 2023 Focus is nice and shouldn't come to a surprise to other Focus drivers; having driven the original Mk1 and Mk2 models, this last model is equally fun to drive - the steering is very light but responsive. The 3 cylinder 1.0L engine has a slight growl to it although I would have liked it a little louder, especially on the motorway so its easier to shift up instead of scanning the rev counter. Torque is enough to pull the car up a hill without having to add too much gas and this is greatly helped with the auto hold feature.

The boot space for a hatchback variation comes with its usual constraints; there exists an estate version of the Focus variants and offers a flat loading lip and slightly wider (114cm vs 100cm) and another 20cm in depth for those that need the extra space and want to stay in the vehicle class rather than jumping to the SUV/crossover offerings.

Overall the last Focus facelift a handsome car, with its more aggresive front, and fun to drive although its size does come, as it always had done, with its practical limitations but after 25yrs on the market, this shouldn't be a surprise and certainly does not detract from the car.
^{Focus ST-line rear view}