2017 Ford Focus RS

Call me snobbish or snooty but until a couple of years ago I would never have recommended a Ford to anyone. Well, looks like Ford has been working hard to change my perception about them & today I would happily line up to buy one of their performance cars. They have done such a great job with the Mustang GT, the Mustang GT350 & now their latest offering in the form of the hottest hot hatch on the market, the Ford Focus RS!! I know that we people here in the U.S don’t like wagons or hatches which is why these cars haven’t done well here. That’s about to change now. The Ford Focus RS or Rally Stage has a long illustrious history & they started making these cars back in the 80’s. Europe has been lucky as they have been driving RS’s for a long time. As a matter of fact these are made in Germany & will be imported to the US.

For starters, I think the RS looks absolutely brilliant particularly in the Nitro blue color. Its 19 inch wheels come wrapped in Michelin Pilot super sports which I think are one of the best performance tires out there. The huge Brembo breaks painted in blue peak out from behind those black menacing wheels & make the RS stop on a dime. Then there is the 2.3L engine from the Mustang eco boost but in this configuration it’s tuned to make 350 HP & 350 lbft of torque, making it one of the most powerful four cylinder motors on the market. The car sprints from 0-60 MPH in a mere 4.7 seconds which is genuinely quick. Ford has put in that extra effort to make the exhaust sound really good & the pops & crackles make this a really cool car. The intelligent all-wheel drive provides loads of grip to annihilate those corners at great speeds. You can change the throttle response & damper settings through the various driving modes. The suspension is unreasonably stiff in the track mode & some people will find it really stiff in the sports mode too. Folks who plan to track their RS will appreciate the stiff suspension. Then there is the “drift mode” which everyone seems to be talking about. Anyone can drift like a pro in this car but you won’t really be able to use it unless you are on a track. I have to commend Ford on putting only a 6 speed manual in this! You can’t have it any other way & that’s absolutely amazing!!

Since it’s a 5 door hatch, there is plenty of practicality with a decent boot & room for 5 adults. You can get those amazing Recaro seats, SYNC based navigation system, back up cameras with sensors & some other creature comforts. This is no luxury car, so the interior isn’t great. It’s not bad either.  The one strike against the RS is that its turning radius is ridiculously small. With a starting price of $35,900, the Ford Focus RS makes an exceptionally strong case for people who are on the lookout for affordable performance. The issue right now is that dealers are marking it up above MSRP & I have seen RS’s for which dealers are asking for as much as 20k above MSRP. I would wait till middle of 2017 for things to cool down & expect some decent deals.

The other cars to consider in this class of hot hatches is the Volkswagen Golf R… &….ammmm…can’t think of anything else. Did I mention that we Americans don’t like hatches! The Golf R is a great car too. It has an excellent interior & the ride is a lot more sorted out than the RS. It however isn’t as much fun as the RS either. Jeremy Clarkson has the RS in his list of the top 10 cars in 2016 & Matt Farah from Smoking Tire has bought one! These are professional auto journalists putting their own money down & that is the biggest endorsement the RS could get!