Ford Focus vs Sonic

[Swordsmith]

Waiting impatiently for repairs, I'm stuck in a rental Focus. Been driving it around for several days, and wanted to put down some thoughts, pro and con, on Focus vs Sonic.

First off, when I picked it up, I drove over to the garage and unloaded my Sonic into it. The Sonic was admittedly packed, both rear seats down, and stuff filling the space about 2/3rds the way to the ceiling most of the way down. This was not the case with the Focus... I had to repack three times to get everything in, and that meant floor to ceiling all the way back. I don't know what the official cubic foot compare is, but the space is just... not as accessible, not as easy to fit things into. The seats don't go all the way down, the footwell space is cramped, there's a dip from back seat to the hatch floor. The hatch cover doesn't fit anywhere once you remove it, and it's difficult to do so in the first place.

Meanwhile, the driver's seat feels cramped to me at a mere 5'6", while on the passenger seat my 6'3" son is forced to sit half sideways. The rear seating area was even worse, no way he was going to make it in there even before the packing debacle. Seriously, this car is the next size class up from the Sonic, both hatchbacks, and it feels more like I'm in a smart car. My girlfriend's comment when I picked her up for a ride later was "I can't lean over to... kiss... you in this", and she's fairly limber.

The windshield wipers crisscross over each other, moving opposite directions, I can't tell you how annoying and distracting that is to me. I guess that may be a matter of taste though.

Steering is sluggish, and it wallows in the turns, I guess that's what they call body roll? Anyway, after the Sonic it felt more like my other Ford.. an F150.

So what's good about it? Well lots of little things, actually, that the Sonic could pick up on.

One, the E-Brake is a big solid handle right next to the shifter, not down behind in there where ours is, hard to get to and feeling kind of wimpy and unprotective.

Two, the power windows... all four are automatic, instead of just the driver's, and they work better; one touch always starts them travelling, a second touch in either direction stops them. Chevy needs to copy this system, a vast improvement over theirs.

Three, rain sensors; the windshield wipers go on automatically when it rains, stop when it stops. Nice touch, nearly as worry free as our auto lights (Focus has automatic lights as well, but they aren't noticeably different than ours)

Four, KEY system, allows you to program the car so it is far more annoying than stock, for example keeping the beeping up constantly and muting the stereo system until seatbelts are on, if you have kids who are driving age, there are a bunch of things like this you can do to make it annoying for them to drive like, well, irresponsible kids. Or like me.

Five the AC system lets you set a specific temp, and lets you control passenger side and driver side separately.

I also got the chance to experiment with an automatic with manual shift option, and I liked it. I don't know how it compares with the same system on the Sonic, but I honestly think this technology is almost ready to release to the driving public. OK I hated having to shift linearly, and each shift was a little sluggish, and sometimes the car would decide no, it really didn't like being told not to shift (up AND down, it was picky in both directions), but overall, not nearly as bad as when I left it in Auto.

 

[$ub$onic]

What did you break on your sonic?

 

[Thaifight-R]

lol I was just talking to a Focus ST owner the other day, and he had the same comments about interior space. haha

We compared trunk space, interior space, and gas mileage, and he was pretty jealous. XD

 

[FloSonic]

Too funny, I also ran into a guy at Shell with a new white ST. Asking about my ride and tried bragging up how much horses his 2.0 had. But then stopped talking when I mentioned I hit 46mpg last weekend on my trip to GA. LOL Owned. :banana:

 

[Insanika]

Reinforces my choice NOT to buy the black Focus I was looking at. Glad I got the Sonic.

I agree with most of your observations, but at 5'6" myself, I felt cozy and comfortable in the driver's seat. It felt just like my Vibe. You want to see a car that REALLY sucks for driver space, sit in the Dart.

EDIT: LOL it **'d out co.ckpit.

 

[Swordsmith]

Funny you say that, my GF said she thought the car was probably intended for women, as it has a more enveloping feel. I have no idea what she meant, but here we are, both 5'6" and reporting different impressions of the c*ckpit space. Maybe there's something to it after all. Still, can you imagine being substantially larger and squishing into that cocoon of a driver's seat?

 

[Foxbox]

I'm at least 6'1, 200lbs and have no issues sitting in the driver's seat, passenger seat or the back seats.

That goes for both the ST and regular Focus. Been in both more times than I can count from short drives to multi hour road trips.

 

[Swordsmith]

Digging around on the net for compares, I just found one from 2012, base model to base model, that says Sonic gets 25/35 while Focus gets 26/38. That is 1.8 Sonic, of course, but I don't know enough about the Focus to know whether they also have a better option for a little more money. Anyway, point is it doesn't seem like mpg is really a point of contention between the two, both seem pretty comparable.

Official passenger space volume is also within a hair, Sonic 90.6, Focus 90.7 (both hatchback). The car is so much larger and you get one tenth of a cubic foot more volume? But I swear that doesn't even tell all the facts, there's really -less- room, because of the way things are set up.

The hatch area on the Sonic is a little small. On the Focus this area is bigger, but that comes at the cost of passenger space, and the seats fold down badly, so the combined volume is just not as useable as it should be. The Sonic is TARDISlike in its ability to fit large payloads into a tiny box, the Focus is the opposite, small space in a large package.

 

[Insanika]

I understand the enveloping feel. That's a good description. I thought the space was poorly used when I compared my Vibe to it.. You could sit fine in the back seat of the Vibe, even with a front seat all the way back. Knees cleared the back of the front seats fine. In the Focus it appeared you'd have to dig your knees into the backs of the front people to sit properly.

 

[Foxbox]

Like I said, I'm at least 6'1 and have room to spare. Idk how someone that's maybe a few inches taller would have to sit sideways.

You just have to choose your seat accordingly (in any car honestly). If the driver is my height (or taller) I'm not going to sit behind them and be completely comfortable. Sit behind passenger and have them adjust their seat forward a bit. That allows plenty of room to sit in comfort in a compact econobox.

The ST with Recaro seats has a indentation in the back of the seat so your knees have extra room. It's an awesome design imo and makes sitting in the back not a burden. I can't recall if the regular Focus has that or not, I'll verify later.

 

[Swordsmith]

More nice details on the Focus; the doors have reflectors in them, so when open, there are red reflectors shining out at any headlights headed towards them. I am going to figure out how to add these to my Sonic doors.

There is a small information display in between the tach and speedo dials that is far more informative than the idiot lights the Sonic uses. I'm looking in particular at the "door ajar" display, which is on the Focus a picture of the car showing exactly WHICH door is open, as opposed to the generic red light on the Sonic.

The display also shows whether you are in PRNDorS, the latter being manual, and when in manual, shows which gear you are in. I haven't seen the auto Sonic in action so I don't know if we get a similar display, but it is handy.

 

[bkmitchy600]

So, we're talking about a rental Focus? What trim level? I would imagine that it would have some nicer features than the Sonic for almost $3k more MSRP. Easier to compare the Sonic to the Ford Fiesta. Those are both sub-compacts.

I did sit in a brand new 2013 Ford Focus SE before I bought my 2013 Sonic LT and wasn't overly impressed with their base model. Felt like you got more with the Chevy Sonic. I even like the 6 speed manual on the Sonic instead of the 5 speed. And since Ford did away with the SEL trim it's either the base SE, the $24k ST or the $25k Titanium.

I forgot exactly what, but I think the 2014 Sonics will have some nice, little upgrades. I know the sunroof will be available as a package instead of just a trim level.

 

[Insanika]

The one I drove had the interior LED upgrade, so when you had a door open, it had LEDs on it that changed color depending on how many doors were open, or something like that.

I remember being briefly impressed.

 

[AndrewGS]

When I worked for Enterprise I hated driving the Focus and Fiesta, mostly because of the crappy DCT. They ALL engage with the feel of a 14 year old Asian girl trying to learn how to use a clutch.

I wouldn't mind a Focus ST with it's manual but you can't get the upgraded stereo with satellite radio unless you also want the Recaro seats that cost a ton and aren't made for my fat ass.

 

[Swordsmith]

The rental was a 2012 Focus SEL.

It did have the LEDs that Insanika describes, blue when closed, red when open (I don't think it had anything to do with number of doors) and footwell lighting... lots and lots of internal lighting, really, and a control for all of it up over your head. I didn't play around with it much but it was sort of mildly cool and I might do some of it in my Sonic, principally the footwell part.

In full auto the car was hopeless, unable to get up and go whether I stomped on the pedal or gradually pushed it in, no guts, no glory, and shifting way too early and taking forever to do it (where forever is measured in fractions of a second... with a mac truck bearing down on you those fractions get really really long). But in manual auto it wasn't bad, really, underpowered, sure, but at least it was willing to try, and I can't expect E85 turbo performance out of an untuned NA gasoline engine.

The thing I really disliked was how much it seemed to wallow, I guess it's called body roll? Back in the sonic everything is so crisp and surefooted, this is the same thing I found when going from Fiesta to Sonic when I was doing test drives. It is also what makes me want to beef up the Sonic suspension and get RS steering, because if I could have something even crisper than the stock Sonic ride, I think I might be even happier. The Focus just drove that point home, and I got to drive it around much longer than that Fiesta... a week versus twenty minutes, and no dealer sitting in the seat next to me keeping me from pushing the envelope to see where the edges lay.

 

[ChrisJ]

More nice details on the Focus; the doors have reflectors in them, so when open, there are red reflectors shining out at any headlights headed towards them. I am going to figure out how to add these to my Sonic doors.

There is a small information display in between the tach and speedo dials that is far more informative than the idiot lights the Sonic uses. I'm looking in particular at the "door ajar" display, which is on the Focus a picture of the car showing exactly WHICH door is open, as opposed to the generic red light on the Sonic.

The display also shows whether you are in PRNDorS, the latter being manual, and when in manual, shows which gear you are in. I haven't seen the auto Sonic in action so I don't know if we get a similar display, but it is handy.

Ford has been known for over 20 years to make gauges that are essentially idiot lights. Temperature gauges whos needles stay dead centered unless something is very wrong. I wouldn't expect much from the Focus in regards to "better than the Sonic's idiot lights". I agree on the door ajar light but cost is a factor with the Sonic.

Next, the automatic Sonic displays a letter or number where our upshift light is. P,R,N,D or M1,M2,M3,M4,M5,M6. I may not be 100% on the order but this is what I remember from my old Sonic.

Reflectors on the doors? My 87 Grandprix had a dual rectangular light on the doors that was half red and half white. My 2006 Grandprix had a single round red reflector. IMO the large rectangular dual color lights where by far the best.