campfamily
Well-known member
I’ve had my FFE for two weeks now, and have driven it a little less than 500 miles. I thought I’d share my thoughts on the car, mostly positive but a few minor negatives.
Overall, I’m very happy with the car. It feels very well put together, with high quality materials and excellent fit and finish. This is the first American car I’ve owned in the past 15 years or so, and it’s really amazing how far they’ve come in automobile quality. My last American car (a 2000 Dodge Durango) was nowhere near this level of quality. The “feel” of the switchgear is very nice, almost to the level of my BMW, and again, far superior to other American cars that I’ve driven recently (GM really sucks at this). The car is extremely quiet, as I had expected, with little noise other than a bit of tire roar and some minor wind noise. The driving qualities of the car are similarly excellent, although I'm a bit disappointed at the acceleration. The pickup is instantaneous, as you'd expect, but then the acceleration kind of peters out. The steering feels nice, the car tracks and steers very well, and the brakes feel good. There is a lot of space inside for passengers; I’ve had four adults (including the driver) in the car, and nobody had to amputate any body parts to fit inside. I am very impressed with Sync; I had experience with it when using it in rental cars, and I continue to like it. The way it works is very intuitive, and it doesn’t take long to figure out what to push to do what you want. One thing I don’t like about it is the propensity for the screen to show fingerprints; maybe I just have oily fingertips?? But, it is much worse than the touchscreen in my wife’s Nissan. Given that a lot of Sync functionality requires using the touchscreen, this is one of my annoyances with the car. The sound quality out of the Sony radio is very good; that was a bit of a surprise to me, I was not expecting it to be as good as it is. It links very easily to my iPhone 6, and then displays what is playing (I use Pandora) on the touchscreen.
The electric consumption for my first drives is about where I was expecting. My commute is about 55 miles round trip each day. In the morning, it is primarily highway driving with little traffic; typical speed is about 75 to 80 mph. Coming home, I am in heavy stop and go traffic for about 10 to 15 miles, the rest of the drive is about 50 to 60 mph. When I get home, I have about 30 miles remaining on the Guess-o-Meter. I installed a GE WattStation Level 2 charger at my house the weekend after I bought the car, which recharges the car in a bit over two hours. I’m averaging right about 240 Wh/mi so far. My first few charges were a bit higher than that, but that was because I was learning how to drive it, plus everybody, from my relatives to my in-laws to my neighbors, wanted to drive the car. Since I used 250 Wh/mi in my calculations for justifying buying the car, I feel I’m right where I want to be.
A few things that I think Ford could do to improve the car and the experience. First, the MyFordMobile app is horrible. About all I’ve found it’s good for is telling you when the car will finish charging, and where the car is currently located (kind of fun when my wife was using it over the weekend; how did you know I was at the mall???). The Trip and Charge Log only shows the last trip and last charge. Why doesn’t it keep a history? The Trends doesn’t really tell you anything. So, I just “achieved” reducing CO2 by the equivalent volume of a house. Whoopee. I haven’t been able to get the Trip Planner to work. The Charge Settings is very nice, allowing me to pre-condition the car before I leave in the morning, but given that I could do that from the car as well, the app isn’t really giving me anything more than what I already have. Ford could really benefit from completely revamping this app. Maybe they need to go hire some 15 year old high school students to do it for them!!! I’ve already mentioned the fingerprints on the touchscreen. I am amazed that Ford didn’t include an auto-dimming mirror and Homelink as standard equipment; they’ve put just about every other option in the car, why did they leave that one out? The tires don’t have much grip. As others have noted, it’s very easy to spin the front tires on take off, but more worrying, I had to put the brakes on pretty hard a couple of mornings ago when traffic stopped unexpectedly. I was amazed how quickly I was getting squealing from the tires. The tires never actually locked up, and I didn’t feel the ABS engage, but the tires did squeal a bit. Going around corners is about the same, it doesn’t take much to get the tires to squeal. The penalty, I guess, for low rolling resistance. And, the metal panels on the car seem to be awful thin. I noticed washing the car that it was very easy to deform certain areas with very little pressure. My father-in-law was leaning on the left front fender looking under the hood at the “motor”, and he slightly deformed the top of the fender. I know weight control is crucial for maintaining sufficient range, but I have to wonder if Ford went a bit too far in certain areas. Anybody know if this is common to all Ford Focus models, or is the metal thinner in the Electric? Another annoyance is how hard it is to fold the rear seats. First, with the front seats set for a normal six-foot tall person, the rear seat bottoms won’t fold up all of the way. So, to get the seats to fold down flat, you first have to move the front seats forward. Then to get the rear seatbacks to fold down, you have to remove the rear headrests. However, they are too big to come off when the seatbacks are upright. So, you have to fold the rear seatbacks forward partially, and while holding that with one hand, remove the rear head rests. That is nearly impossible to do with only one hand, so you end up holding the rear seatback with your shoulder, and then remove the headrest. Come on, Ford!! Poor design, in my opinion. I do have to note that this isn’t unique to the Electric version of the Focus, it is common to all versions. Once down, however, there’s a ton of space back there. My Level 2 charger in the box fit great back there when I went down to Lowe’s to pick it up. And, finally, the design of the charge port door is silly. It feels flimsy, not at all like the rest of the car, doesn’t close easily and quickly, and after the initial “hey, this is cool”, is just a royal PIA. I’d rather have a flap. I’m convinced that will be the first thing to break on my car.
As far as storage space in the car, I know many people have commented about the amount of room taken up by the batteries in the storage compartment. I’ve found that the useability of the remaining storage area is much better if you remove the storage bin (my son calls it the coffin!!) that Ford puts back there. With the bin in place, my backpack / laptop bag wouldn’t fit back there, unless I balanced it on the top of the battery compartment. Without the bin, I can fit all kinds of things in that area, including a car cover. My storage bin is taking up room in my garage right now; if anybody is interested in having a 2nd one, or if for some reason their car didn’t come with one, give me a holler; for a 6 pack of good stuff, I’d let you have it. I did find something out kind of cool that isn’t mentioned in the owner’s manual and I didn’t know about. If you lift up the lid, then pull the handle back towards the rear of the car, a couple of “legs” pop out of the lid, which then makes the lid horizontal when it is closed, at the same height of the battery compartment. Cool if you want to have a completely flat area behind the rear seat.
So, bottom line, would I do it again? Resoundingly yes. The car is rather a kick to drive, particularly in a “point and shoot” situation; response is instantaneous. As I mentioned before, I wish it had a bit more acceleration, but it certainly is acceptable for most conditions. And, I’m sure I will like it even more once my carpool stickers arrive and I can drive in the carpool lane.
Keith
Overall, I’m very happy with the car. It feels very well put together, with high quality materials and excellent fit and finish. This is the first American car I’ve owned in the past 15 years or so, and it’s really amazing how far they’ve come in automobile quality. My last American car (a 2000 Dodge Durango) was nowhere near this level of quality. The “feel” of the switchgear is very nice, almost to the level of my BMW, and again, far superior to other American cars that I’ve driven recently (GM really sucks at this). The car is extremely quiet, as I had expected, with little noise other than a bit of tire roar and some minor wind noise. The driving qualities of the car are similarly excellent, although I'm a bit disappointed at the acceleration. The pickup is instantaneous, as you'd expect, but then the acceleration kind of peters out. The steering feels nice, the car tracks and steers very well, and the brakes feel good. There is a lot of space inside for passengers; I’ve had four adults (including the driver) in the car, and nobody had to amputate any body parts to fit inside. I am very impressed with Sync; I had experience with it when using it in rental cars, and I continue to like it. The way it works is very intuitive, and it doesn’t take long to figure out what to push to do what you want. One thing I don’t like about it is the propensity for the screen to show fingerprints; maybe I just have oily fingertips?? But, it is much worse than the touchscreen in my wife’s Nissan. Given that a lot of Sync functionality requires using the touchscreen, this is one of my annoyances with the car. The sound quality out of the Sony radio is very good; that was a bit of a surprise to me, I was not expecting it to be as good as it is. It links very easily to my iPhone 6, and then displays what is playing (I use Pandora) on the touchscreen.
The electric consumption for my first drives is about where I was expecting. My commute is about 55 miles round trip each day. In the morning, it is primarily highway driving with little traffic; typical speed is about 75 to 80 mph. Coming home, I am in heavy stop and go traffic for about 10 to 15 miles, the rest of the drive is about 50 to 60 mph. When I get home, I have about 30 miles remaining on the Guess-o-Meter. I installed a GE WattStation Level 2 charger at my house the weekend after I bought the car, which recharges the car in a bit over two hours. I’m averaging right about 240 Wh/mi so far. My first few charges were a bit higher than that, but that was because I was learning how to drive it, plus everybody, from my relatives to my in-laws to my neighbors, wanted to drive the car. Since I used 250 Wh/mi in my calculations for justifying buying the car, I feel I’m right where I want to be.
A few things that I think Ford could do to improve the car and the experience. First, the MyFordMobile app is horrible. About all I’ve found it’s good for is telling you when the car will finish charging, and where the car is currently located (kind of fun when my wife was using it over the weekend; how did you know I was at the mall???). The Trip and Charge Log only shows the last trip and last charge. Why doesn’t it keep a history? The Trends doesn’t really tell you anything. So, I just “achieved” reducing CO2 by the equivalent volume of a house. Whoopee. I haven’t been able to get the Trip Planner to work. The Charge Settings is very nice, allowing me to pre-condition the car before I leave in the morning, but given that I could do that from the car as well, the app isn’t really giving me anything more than what I already have. Ford could really benefit from completely revamping this app. Maybe they need to go hire some 15 year old high school students to do it for them!!! I’ve already mentioned the fingerprints on the touchscreen. I am amazed that Ford didn’t include an auto-dimming mirror and Homelink as standard equipment; they’ve put just about every other option in the car, why did they leave that one out? The tires don’t have much grip. As others have noted, it’s very easy to spin the front tires on take off, but more worrying, I had to put the brakes on pretty hard a couple of mornings ago when traffic stopped unexpectedly. I was amazed how quickly I was getting squealing from the tires. The tires never actually locked up, and I didn’t feel the ABS engage, but the tires did squeal a bit. Going around corners is about the same, it doesn’t take much to get the tires to squeal. The penalty, I guess, for low rolling resistance. And, the metal panels on the car seem to be awful thin. I noticed washing the car that it was very easy to deform certain areas with very little pressure. My father-in-law was leaning on the left front fender looking under the hood at the “motor”, and he slightly deformed the top of the fender. I know weight control is crucial for maintaining sufficient range, but I have to wonder if Ford went a bit too far in certain areas. Anybody know if this is common to all Ford Focus models, or is the metal thinner in the Electric? Another annoyance is how hard it is to fold the rear seats. First, with the front seats set for a normal six-foot tall person, the rear seat bottoms won’t fold up all of the way. So, to get the seats to fold down flat, you first have to move the front seats forward. Then to get the rear seatbacks to fold down, you have to remove the rear headrests. However, they are too big to come off when the seatbacks are upright. So, you have to fold the rear seatbacks forward partially, and while holding that with one hand, remove the rear head rests. That is nearly impossible to do with only one hand, so you end up holding the rear seatback with your shoulder, and then remove the headrest. Come on, Ford!! Poor design, in my opinion. I do have to note that this isn’t unique to the Electric version of the Focus, it is common to all versions. Once down, however, there’s a ton of space back there. My Level 2 charger in the box fit great back there when I went down to Lowe’s to pick it up. And, finally, the design of the charge port door is silly. It feels flimsy, not at all like the rest of the car, doesn’t close easily and quickly, and after the initial “hey, this is cool”, is just a royal PIA. I’d rather have a flap. I’m convinced that will be the first thing to break on my car.
As far as storage space in the car, I know many people have commented about the amount of room taken up by the batteries in the storage compartment. I’ve found that the useability of the remaining storage area is much better if you remove the storage bin (my son calls it the coffin!!) that Ford puts back there. With the bin in place, my backpack / laptop bag wouldn’t fit back there, unless I balanced it on the top of the battery compartment. Without the bin, I can fit all kinds of things in that area, including a car cover. My storage bin is taking up room in my garage right now; if anybody is interested in having a 2nd one, or if for some reason their car didn’t come with one, give me a holler; for a 6 pack of good stuff, I’d let you have it. I did find something out kind of cool that isn’t mentioned in the owner’s manual and I didn’t know about. If you lift up the lid, then pull the handle back towards the rear of the car, a couple of “legs” pop out of the lid, which then makes the lid horizontal when it is closed, at the same height of the battery compartment. Cool if you want to have a completely flat area behind the rear seat.
So, bottom line, would I do it again? Resoundingly yes. The car is rather a kick to drive, particularly in a “point and shoot” situation; response is instantaneous. As I mentioned before, I wish it had a bit more acceleration, but it certainly is acceptable for most conditions. And, I’m sure I will like it even more once my carpool stickers arrive and I can drive in the carpool lane.
Keith
