Review of the new Ford Focus ECOnetic - Business User's View

I've often thought that there's not much point in a motoring journalist testing an affordable family estate like that provided by Ford's Focus range. This practical compact model is totally alien to the kind of driving and lifestyle that most would-be Clarksons desire. Yet it's exactly the kind of car most modern families - and businesses - need.

At the end of the day, the needs of business people and parents aren't that different: it's about space, durability and cost and whether you're running a fruit and veg stall or a modern household with 2.4 children and a Labrador, the basics you need from your vehicle are similar. That's the genius of the Focus and its ilk.

We've just added the frugal ECOnetic version of the car to our long term test fleet. Later, we're going to be letting my sticky-fingered kids crawl all over the car on the school run but before subjecting it to all of that, we thought we'd use it in the way that a potential small business customer might. The kind of company that might want this Focus, we think, is the kind that regularly needs to transport both people and large packages. While a courier company would have a van and a taxi company a normal MPV, others will want something able to do both. Something perhaps like this Focus Estate.

One such company is Vivid Broadcast based near Horsham in Sussex, the film production organisation we work with to produce our road test videos. Managing Director Rory Springthorpe was interested to see if this versatile runabout would work on a business day-to-day level. After around 1500 miles behind the wheel, he thinks it very well might. "Yes, of course it's not the most trendy thing to be seen in but the Focus has grown on me," he says.

"It works well as budget family transport and it also seems to fulfil the needs of a small business quite effectively too."

"It's fantastic for moving crew and kit around, plus I can easily fit in long items - tripods, timber and so on. The practical interior offers plenty of room for big items, though of course you can't load this vehicle up as you would if it were a van because there's of course no bulkhead to stop things flying forward into the driving area."

But then, this is a small estate, not an LCV, with all that entails. Clever stowage ideas for example. There are plenty of additional areas of storage dotted around the cabin in numerous cubbies and compartments. Rory has his views on this too. "At first glance, yes, it's true that there are lots of little compartments to put things in. In regular driving though, you tend to find that many of these little cubbies are rather small and that things that get put in them tend to find out easily."

The Vivid team have appreciated the way that the 60:40 split rear seats fold down to create a flat load floor. This can boost the 482-litre boot capacity to a practical 1,525-litres. The various fixtures and fittings are sturdily built but the design does lack a little sparkle. The tough plastics of the otherwise impressive dash hint at the Focus's working class roots but all thought that they would be sure to stand the test of time.

But what about the 'ECO' part of this car? What separates the ECOnetic from a regular Focus? For starters, there's a start/stop system to cut the engine when the car is stopped in traffic. There's also a regenerative braking function to capture energy that would otherwise be lost under deceleration or when coasting. Ford's Eco Mode system is also included with a number of features to help you become a more efficient driver. Low rolling resistance tyres are fitted. And a special low viscosity transmission oil developed by BP is used for greater efficiency and faster shifting.

Compared to a conventional Focus, the ECOnetic rides 10mm lower at the front and 8mm lower at the rear to help aerodynamics. Also improving airflow around the vehicle are a reshaped under bumper skirt, blanking plates inserted at the inside edges of the air-intake and a rear spoiler. These measures help the ECOnetic achieve a low drag coefficient of 0.31, meaning the engine has to work less hard to move this Focus along.

All these aerodynamic appendages have the happy side-effect of making this Ford quite a sporty car to look at. The skirts and spoilers are precisely the sort of thing we're used to seeing on hot hatchbacks like the Focus ST. The thin tyres give the game away a little but ECOnetic package definitely enhances the looks of the normal Focus, even in the estate form we're using.

An extra dimension is added to the driving experience by the ECO mode. This system monitors major parameters relevant for optimal fuel consumption that can actively be influenced by altering driving behaviour. These parameters include gear shifting, anticipation (driving as consistently and smoothly as possible) and motorway driving (driving at the most efficient speed on motorways and country roads).

As a result of this monitoring process, Ford Eco Mode generates a driver profile with a scoring scheme for these driving parameters, and offers information on how to improve fuel economy over time. This ongoing process can be translated into driver advice that can help make the best of the vehicle's technology. Because the system calculates your environmental performance on the fly, you find yourself constantly trying to better your score but driving in a more efficient manner. It doesn't sound very enjoyable but trust us, you'll be at it as well after even the briefest spell with the car.

The ultimate aim of the Focus ECOnetic is saving fuel and the Vivid team's business users found that it does this extremely well. The official economy figure of 74mpg would be remarkable in the kind of driving most of us do day to day but in Vivid's hands as well as ours, the Ford has consistently recorded economy over the 60mpg mark which is extremely good going for a family sized car.

Overall then, a car that would make a lot of sense as practical day-to-day business transport. "It surprised me", remarked Vivid Broadcast's Rory Springthorpe when we grabbed the keys back. "The Focus has certainly come a long way." You can't argue with that.

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