Review of the new Ford Focus ECOnetic - Long Term Test

You can almost feel the guilt welling up inside you when you stomp the throttle pedal in some cars. As the rev-counter needle lurches toward the red zone and the surge of acceleration forces you back into the seat, you should be enjoying the thrill but too often these days other thoughts creep in and spoil the experience. All that fuel being sucked into cylinders and exploded for your pleasure is brought into sharper focus by our increased environmental awareness and the simple fact of what it costs at the pumps. It's a shame in many respects but there are ways to lower guilt levels and still enjoy the drive. Could the Ford Focus ECOnetic be one?

The Ford Focus is a genuinely enjoyable driver's car, probably the best in the class if we're talking about ordinary family hatchbacks from mainstream brands. The ECOnetic, meanwhile, is the Ford Focus at its most fuel efficient and that throws up an interesting mix of qualities. Could the Focus ECOnetic be an environmentally friendly car that you can still have fun driving? We secured the long term use of one to put the theory to the test.

So 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.

"The ECOnetic body kit arguably makes the car look better too"

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.

Otherwise, we're dealing with a standard Ford Focus, the 1.6-litre TDCi diesel engine no different from the 108bhp units that serve elsewhere in the Focus range. Perhaps it could use an extra dose of refinement but for a relatively relaxed diesel, engine performance is quite adequate. We had concerns over the performance of the ECOnetic's low rolling resistance tyres but, certainly in the dry, there seems to be very little difference. This Focus retains the alertness and agility that makes the whole model line a hoot to drive. It corners with good balance and resists the urge to lean admirably.

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 we've found that it does this extremely well. The official economy figure of 74mpg would be remarkable in the kind of driving we do day to day but the Ford has consistently recorded economy over the 60mpg mark which is extremely good going for a family sized car.

The 1.6-litre TDCi engine was very efficient to begin with given the economy of around 60mpg that it offers in other Focus models, so you could argue that ECOnetic trim doesn't actually add a huge amount. The crucial thing is that it doesn't take very much away either. You lose none of the practicality of the Focus and driving dynamics suffer only marginally, if at all. The ECOnetic body kit arguably makes the car look better too. If you enjoy driving, it's definitely a low guilt option and if you thought going green meant making sacrifices, it might be time to think again.

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