A Ford Focus for the active and the inactive driver

Ford Focus Inactive is a less exciting-sounding badge, Sean O’Grady concedes, but it does suit the vehicle much better

The Aston Martin-style grille treatment works very well, while the front and rear wings feature balancing, rather sensuous curves (Pictures by Ford)

The Ford Focus Active is basically a Ford Focus with jacked up suspension, bigger bumpers, some black plastic cladding stuck round the wheel arches and sills, bigger tyres, a set of roof rails and some durable cloth trim for the seats. It is, then, a sort of missing link between the conventional hatchback car (ie the Focus proper) and the small SUVs we see so often on the roads nowadays (in Ford’s case that’ll be the Kuga). In fact many of those small SUVs are “crossovers”, mid-sized between a regular car and a proper SUV. So the Ford Focus Active is a cross between a crossover and a hatchback. (If that makes any sense.)

And Ford call this “Active”, like its siblings the Fiesta Active and Ka+ Active. You can see what the marketing team are up to. It’s for active families. People who enjoy water sports, say, or snorkelling. Maybe a bit of skiing, uphill or downhill. Or rugby league, for that matter.

(Ford)

No doubt the Focus Active will suit such sporty, outdoors types very well, but the reality is that it’s much better suited to the distinctly inactive business of urban life, which of course mostly consists of sitting in traffic jams. You see, all the cladding and the soft raised suspension work supremely well on our badly potholed city streets, and it is just that little better at crashing into speed bumps. The automatic hold on the (electric) handbrake, such as when you’re on a slope at the lights, works smoothly and also makes things a little easier. I quite like targeting the ones that are visibly eroding as fast as the Greenland ice cap, trying to knock another chunk out of them. It makes a boring journey just that bit more enjoyable, I find. Open any of the four doors on a Focus and a little protective barrier pops out to shield the paintwork on your car and those alongside. The stop-start system keeps the pollution and the fuel bills down. Ford Focus Inactive is a less exciting-sounding badge, I concede, but it does suit the vehicle much better.

The spec

Ford Focus Active 1.0T

Price: £24,200 (as tested, range starts at £21,900)
Engine: 1.0l 3-cylinder petrol; 6-speed manual
Power output (PS): 125
Top speed (mph): 122
0 to 60 (secs): 10.3
Fuel economy (mpg): 44.1​
CO2 emissions (g/km): 107

Elsewhere it is more or less the same set-up as the rest of the Focus range, a model that is still one of the country’s best sellers. Thus, it is a very good-looking car, perhaps too much taken for granted given its ubiquity. The Aston Martin-style grille treatment works very well, while the front and rear wings feature balancing, rather sensuous curves, complemented by a deep crescent swage line through the lower part of the doors. It’s a bit reminiscent of the Mazda style, and that is no bad thing. Similarly, the styling around the windows echoes the distinctive BMW 1-series look – again, no bad thing. So, a handsome blend, and they’ve chosen to pick out the F O C U S badge in individual chrome lettering on the tailgate, which adds a little bit of a premium feel.

(Ford)

The interior is hard wearing, another plus for families with messy kids, or adults, and you can spec as much as you like. The standard equipment levels aren’t all that generous, though, and the materials used around the cabin are a tiny bit inferior in feel and quality to those you’d encounter on, say, a VW group product. Like every new car the Focus Active has a DAB radio, but, like some others, the vast number of stations, organised into “ensembles”, is just bewildering.

(Ford)

Like every other Focus, too, the Active version is mostly a very pleasant car to drive, with excellent handling and a positive feel to the steering. The biggest flaw in this Focus by far is the turbocharged three-cylinder 1-litre “Ecoboost” engine. It has the power and the responsiveness, but certainly not the refinement of a traditional four-cylinder motor. The thrumminess is pretty wearing, and it makes too much noise when pushing it up through the gears, which is a great pity. The idea, as with other three-cylinder motors on the market, is that a small capacity unit suitably boosted with a turbo will provide the best coalition of fuel economy and performance. That’s probably true, but it still leaves us with a slightly flawed Ford.