Ford Focus Titanium 2019 Review

It wasn’t that long ago small cars were Australia’s biggest sellers and empty-nesters were going to downsize from their Ford Falcons and Holden Commodores into luxury versions of them like this Ford Focus Titanium.

Of course, it didn’t happen. SUVs became the default Australian new car choice. Grey nomads bought them in droves and set off around Australia towing caravans and spending the kids’ inheritance.

Which left semi-prestigious small cars like the Ford Focus Titanium to mop up a few sales here and there.

Ford first adopted the Titanium name in Australia for Focus when the third generation popped up in 2011 and it continued its role as the premium model in the range when the fourth generation launched in December 2018.

Priced at $34,990 (plus on-road costs), it’s a hatch-only model – remembering the new Focus is also offered as a wagon. Like the Focus Trend, ST-Line and Active models, it drives its front wheels via a 1.5-litre 134kW/240Nm 1.5-litre three-cylinder turbo-petrol mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission.

Underpinning all that is a chassis combining an independent front suspension with a torsion beam rear-end, rolling on 18-inch low-profile Michelins. Steering is via electric-assist and braking via discs all-round.

All pretty straight forward then. It’s in the equipment where the Titanium differentiates itself from its brethren.

Standard gear exclusive to Focus Titanium includes leather upholstery with heated front seats, a nine-speaker Bang & Olufsen audio system, configurable ambient cabin lighting and those 18-inch alloys.

The Focus Titanium also includes adaptive cruise control, speed sign recognition, lane centre assist, evasive steering assist, blind-spot monitoring with rear-cross traffic alert and adaptive LED headlights.

These safety features are optionally available in the lower grades.

Safety stuff the Titanium shares with some or all other Focus models includes a full suite of airbags, automated emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian and cyclist detection, lane-keep assist, a reversing camera with rear parking sensors, hill-start assist and a post-impact braking function.

Other shared gear includes an 8.0-inch touchscreen with digital radio, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, SYNC 3 infotainment and voice control, LED daytime running lights, a headlight cornering function dual-zone climate control, automatic headlights and wipers, an auto-dimming rear view mirror, keyless entry and start and wireless phone charging.

The Focus Titanium comes with a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty and service intervals are every 15,000km or 12 months. The base price for the first five services comes out at $1541, although some consumables come on top of that.

A temporary spare tyre is standard, as is a five-star ANCAP safety rating.

Among many others, logical opposition includes the aforementioned $36,990 (plus ORCs) Mazda3 G25 Astina, the $33,635 (plus ORCs) Toyota Corolla ZR Hybrid and $35,490 (plus ORCs) Hyundai i30 Premium.

Apart from the big wheels and as bit of chrome the Titanium is a pretty innocuous looking small car. A mate stood next to it in the driveway and asked where this week’s test car was!

Step inside and it’s a similarly understated deal. Swathed in black up to the pillars, only some flashes of faux-metal in the dash and doors brighten things.

There are some soft-touch materials, such as the dashboard and a soft pad on the transmission tunnel to rest your left knee. It’s also appreciated how both the door armrest and padded centre console lidded bin are at just the right height to rest elbows.

The SYNC 3 infotainment array is straight-forward to interact with, the steering wheel adjust for reach and rake, there’s reasonable storage and – importantly – decent knee and headroom in the back for adults.

A comprehensive trip computer sits between the analogue dials in the instrument panel. Combine that with all the drill-downs in the infotainment set-up and it can take a while to fully understand what’s at your disposal.

The leather-look seat trim is a bit vinyl-ish in its appearance, but the front buckets are seats are supportive and the bench acceptable. There are three child seat top tether hooks.

Add in a large – for the category – 377-litre boot and the Focus Titanium comes across as a well-thought out package.

And then you try and change gear. Uh-oh.

This is achieved via a rotary dial on the centre console. Turn the dial to select drive, reverse, park and so on. If you want to change manually there are flappy paddles on the steering column.

The paddles are fine and complement an enthusiastic engine and sweet chassis that we’ll deal with in a second.

But the dial! A generously sized Ford engineer once explained to me it was designed to release more space in the centre console for over-sized drink holders and the like – he was American. He was talking about the Endura SUV, which has the same set-up, but presumably the thinking behind it is the same.

There are initial issues with simply reaching down to the right place and selecting the right gear, but that’s an acclimatisation thing that will be resolved with familiarity.

The big issue is a lag built into the system. Select reverse, back out into a gap in the traffic stream, rotate to drive and press the throttle and wait and wait. It’s the same going from D to R.

It’s annoying anytime and disconcerting if you’re trying to make a manoeuvre in a tight timeframe.

The engine is easier to like. It’s got as burbling rasp typical of triples, but is still darn smooth. Turbocharging ensures you’re not lacking for response, especially with peak torque kicking on from as low as 1600rpm.

The good news is the auto behaves much better once you’re up and running. On a steep climb at a steady 90km/h it slipped back and forth through the top few gears surreptitiously.

Fuel consumption is claimed at 6.4L/100km, but you’ll more likely see returns in the 7.0-8.0L/100km bracket in the real world.

The Ford Focus has traditionally had a reputation as among the best small cars to drive and the fourth-generation is no different.

Light steering – it heavies marginally in Sport mode – provides a reassuringly positive turning experience. You can feel what’s going on out there. Combine that with a tight body attitude and flowing the Focus Titanium through a series of bends is a really enjoyable experience.

As long as they are smooth.

We’ve commented before on the stiff ride of the new Focus and the combination of 18-inch wheels and the torsion beam– the third generation Focus had an independent rear-end – make the Titanium unhappy on bumpy roads. The French rubber also gets voluble on coarse surfaces.

You’d really want to test drive this car before you committed to it. Think of the way the Titanium is pitched as a small luxury car and the chassis set-up really doesn’t make sense. IRS or adaptive dampers would help, but that would blow the cost out.

The Focus Titanium’s standard safety gear also delivers semi-autonomous capability. You can take your hands off the steering wheel for a few seconds at a time and as long as the road has distinct line markings and is relatively straight then it tracks along quite happily.

Wasn’t that long ago these sorts of capabilities came only in cars that cost a fortune.

The Ford Focus Titanium comes across as being fundamentally good, but marred by some significant glitches. The auto’s lag is an issue and the ride quality simply does not marry with this car’s intended purpose.

There’s a lot here to like and some stuff here that you really need to sample for yourself. Test before buying.

Price: $34,490 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 1.5-litre three-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 134kW/240Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Fuel: 6.4L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 148g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety Rating: Five-star ANCAP (2018)