Ford Focus long-term test review: report 4

The car Ford Focus 1.5 TDCi Ecoblue ST-Line Run by Claire Evans, consumer editor

Why it’s here The latest Focus is a big seller and good enough to have been shortlisted for What Car?'s 2019 family car award. It's therefore important to find out what it’s like to live with 

Needs to Dispatch the daily commute in a fun yet frugal manner and dispel the popular myth that all diesels are evil

Mileage 8915 List price £22,850 Target Price £20,983 Price as tested £25,200 Test economy 54.6mpg Official economy 80.7mpg Extras Convenience Pack (£750), Driver Assistance Pack (£500), Sync3 DAB navigation system with 8.0in colour touchscreen (£350), Ford Pass Connect (£250), Frozen White metallic paint (£250), rear privacy glass (£250)

14 May 2019 – Adapting the tech to suit the driving conditions  

As the morning rush-hour traffic has quietened down, I’ve been able to do more of my commute along A-roads and through towns rather than the motorway. That’s great, but it highlighted a shortcoming of the Focus’s Pre-Collision Assist system that warns me and then applies the brakes if it thinks the car is going to crash into a vehicle or pedestrian in front of it.

While I really appreciate having it as a back-up for motorway driving when other cars could brake suddenly or cut in too close in front of my car, on crowded urban roads it flashes up warnings on the dash as I’m going around other vehicles and road furniture, such as bollards and islands.

Knowing the Ford system can be tweaked to be more or less sensitive, I navigated through the steering wheel Driver Assist menu to turn it down. The system was already set to Low, and although I can’t turn off the alerts, I’m deactivating the automatic emergency braking just for the heavily built-up parts of my commute.

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