As a sports family car developed and built by Ford in Europe, Fox has developed for more than 20 years. Since its first landing in the Chinese market in 2005, Fox has become synonymous with "sports models" in the domestic auto market. Like its English name "Focus", it has become the focus of the entire car market. I still remember the classic hatchback Fox with the 2.0L naturally aspirated engine + Mustang with the same manual transmission, which became the "dream car" of countless young people once it was listed.
In 2022, the new Focus is finally available, and on August 11, Auto Jun had the honor to participate in the test drive of the new Focus. According to the manufacturer's previous publicity, the new Focus has not fully compromised to comfort like BMW, but has also carried out a series of upgrades for the control, so let's see if Fox's "old ji" can still be "determined to be in a thousand miles"?
New power combination, performance upgrades
For most models, it only takes urban or high-speed test drives to experience its driving quality and handling feeling, but for the new Focus, only the winding and steep mountain road is its "alchemy". Therefore, in order to fully test its comprehensive strength, we drove a new Fox to Puhong Road, which is located in Dujiangyan, which is known as "Chengdu Qiuming Mountain".
As a mid-term modification model, the changes of the new Focus are mainly focused on the power part, the new Focus is equipped with a new EcoBoost 1.5T turbocharged engine + 6-speed manual transmission power combination, the maximum horsepower 177Ps, peak torque 243N·m, 100 km/h acceleration of only 7.6s. From the parameter point of view, the performance improvement of the new Focus is more obvious. So is it actually as surprising as the parameters?
On the car ignition, the first surprise is the exhaust sound, as a small displacement turbocharged engine, the sound wave emitted by this EcoBoost 1.5T actually has a feeling similar to the large-displacement natural suction engine "boiling water", very heavy, the sports atmosphere is very thick.
First of all, this 6AT gearbox is one of the biggest surprises of this time.
In the starting stage, the torque converter of this 6AT gearbox locks the clutch quite quickly, which also makes its starting stage quite smooth, followed by the increase in speed, in the standard mode, the gearbox upshift intention is very positive, accompanied by a strong sense of push back, the speed unconsciously goes to 70km/h, and at this time continue to step on the throttle, there is still a continuous feeling of pushing back.
It is worth mentioning that this 6AT gearbox can even achieve the purpose of "locking" for a short time in the sport mode to a certain extent. For example, the manual mode 2 gear can accelerate to 80km/h and maintain about 10s, bringing the dual enjoyment of sound and power.
This design is quite rare in the current AT transmission, except for Mazda's 6AT and BMW's 8AT can be locked in the true sense, the rest of the AT gearbox basically no longer has the function of gear locking.
But at the same time for the sake of daily driving considerations, the adjustment of this gearbox is not fully performance- and under the standard mode and economic mode, it can be clearly felt that this gearbox deliberately reduces the downshift speed in order to be smooth and fuel economy, so if your driving style is more aggressive, then I recommend that you directly use the sport mode.
Speaking of transmissions, let's talk about this 1.5T engine, although the maximum torque output speed of this engine is 1750-4500rpm, it does not have the usual turbo lag feeling on most small-displacement turbocharged models, all thanks to the unique "Over Boost" supercharging function on this engine.
How to understand "Over Boost" supercharging? To put it simply, the new Focus in the initial stage and rapid acceleration stage, the engine's turbocharging system and fuel injection, throttle angle will enter a more efficient working state, the intake volume in a short period of time (15s) further increased, and finally make the engine torque increase again, bringing a more enjoyable acceleration experience in a short period of time, so that the push back feeling is continuous.
Compared with the old model, the new power combination on the new Focus, the performance performance is obviously more outstanding, which makes it have a rare performance performance in the same class of models, of course, only rely on strong performance, it is far from making the new Focus a sports benchmark, after all, the strong power needs a sporty suspension and a solid chassis calibration.
All-round upgrade, the new Fox is still a pure "driving machine"
After talking about performance, then we will officially enter the "running mountain" link. After getting in the car, adjust the driving mode to sport mode, manually shift gears, and officially go up the hill.
Thanks to the abundant power performance, the new Fox does not need to change gears frequently in the gearbox to maintain power output during the uphill process, and in manual mode, you can basically rely on the three gears of 2, 3 and 4 to run the entire mountain road.
First of all, in the driving experience, the new Focus impressed me the most was the steering system.
Although the lighter steering feel will make the communication between people and vehicles no longer as direct as in the past, it is fortunate that accurate directivity can still give the driver confidence in where to play.
At the same time, it is worth mentioning that since the ST-line hatchback version of our test drive is equipped with Michelin PS4 high-performance tires with front and rear 235/40R18, the performance of this tire is quite good in the process of splitting, whether it is grip or quietness is the performance of the "ceiling" in this level of sports tires.
In terms of chassis suspension, the new Focus features a front McPherson + rear SLA long short arm blade independent suspension system. The biggest advantage of this suspension system is that it can effectively reduce the lateral force of the suspension system, thereby improving the dynamic stability of the rear.
In addition, Changan Ford also replaced the ST-line version and the S-EDITION version with a short spring and an exclusive front and rear stabilizer bar, and the addition of the short spring also made the suspension of these two models reduce by 10mm again, which also brought more extreme handling performance.
In addition to the hardware improvements, the new Focus also has a certain improvement for the software (intelligent electronic control system). For example, the TVC cornering torque intelligent distribution system, when cornering, the vehicle computer will provide the most suitable torque distribution for the two front wheels, so that it maintains the most stable attitude to corner.
The combination of this series of chassis suspension systems gives us the original impression of a "driving machine".
How high are the limits of the new Focus?
To be honest, with my driving skills, I can't try its limits, even at a speed of 70km/h ring tire to split an uphill sharp bend, the new Focus still does not have understeer (push head), after all, I believe that at this stage, there are few models that can drive the PS4 to the ring tire under normal conditions, and this is the charm of the new Fox.
Unlike the general civilian front-drive car, the rear of the new Focus is not only excellent in follow-up, but also very agile, of course, this is also due to the relatively short body of the hatchback version. And this driving experience reminds me of a model, that is, the "Carnival ST" that also originated from the European Ford, it is no exaggeration to say that in addition to the lack of manual transmission, the driving experience of the new Focus is basically the same as that of the Carnival ST.
Of course, for the new Fox such a sports model, running faster needs to be able to brake, according to the official statement, in order to improve the braking effect, the new Focus uses the combination of the front 308mm ventilated brake disc + the rear 302mm brake disc, which is lighter than the brake disc on the old model, and also has a more excellent heat dissipation effect, which also makes its 100 km braking distance only more than 34 meters, which has fully reached the braking standard of the performance car.
From the actual feeling, the new Focus brake system does have a very good anti-thermal attenuation ability, in the high temperature weather of more than forty degrees, after dozens of feet of heavy braking, the thermal attenuation of the new Focus is not obvious, and the brake foot feeling has not become soft.
But in terms of the adjustment of the brake pedal, the new Fox is indeed a little too sensitive, as long as the right foot is on the brake pedal, there will be an obvious braking effect immediately, we do not deny that this tuning method is indeed very suitable for intense driving, but in the driving process of the urban road, such a brake foot feeling is indeed not so friendly for the driver, for the first time to drive the new Focus consumers, also need a certain amount of adaptation time.
Epilogue:
At the end of the day's test drive, there was indeed a feeling of inexhaustibility, and for me, it had been a long time since I had driven a new car that could make me so happy. Although many new cars in recent years have advertised themselves as "sporty" and "handling", all this is limited to vision, and once you get started, it is another matter.
In the current domestic auto market, there are fewer and fewer models that still insist on sports, and in this new era of car consumption in which even the former driver's car, the BMW 3 Series, has begun to compromise on comfort, the only consistent one is probably Fox.
In terms of the future of the new Fox, I am reminded of the words of Huang Xia, the four talents of Hong Kong, in his doctoral dissertation "On the Rise and Fall of Chinese Pop Music": "Do not believe that the world is deaf!" Yes, such an excellent model, I believe that the market and consumers will not be invisible.