A Mommy Story

So far this summer, the old car has been holding up well. With an odometer closing in on the 200K mark, I’m amazed that it’s still going, yet still cautious enough to never put the kids in that car for any long trips. I know it has little life left to it, but I’m hoping it’ll give us some time to decide what its replacement will be.

I’ve already been scouting the different auto websites looking for our next great family car. While I love looking at the photos, it’s so hard to get a good idea of how the car will be without actually driving it. Even worse, most dealers will only let you test drive it for a short drive – who can know from that short of a trial that this car won’t leave them with a stiff neck or sore butt two hours into a trip to Chicago?

After the brakes fiasco with NTB (still ongoing, by the way), I received an e-mail from Ford asking if I wanted to give any of their family cars a try. And they made me laugh by referencing my brakes post and apologizing if their outreach was “too soon” after dealing with such auto woe.

I explained to Ford what I was looking for, and they offered to loan me two vehicles for five days each: the Ford Focus Hatchback and the Ford Fusion Hybrid. These two vehicles have been on my replacement car short list, so I was excited to try them out. Also, it’s been years since I owned an American car – I was curious to see how the quality has changed since the spirit of my Dodge Spirit left this earth and moved on to the great highway in the sky in 2000.

Short answer: I was totally blown away by both of these Ford cars.

(Not into cars? You can stop here and just take my word for it. Otherwise, keep reading for the long answer.)

The Ford Focus
The first car that arrived in my driveway was the Ford Focus hatchback. I test drove a Ford Focus the first year it was produced, and at the time I wasn’t impressed. The new Focus, however, is nothing like the one I tried all those years ago.

Sitting in the driver’s seat for the first time, I could only think, OMG, how will I figure out all of these controls? Then when I turned on the car and saw the touch screen come to life, I was momentarily transformed into a cave person, staring in wonder at the shiny, magical technology in front of me.

Then the blogger in me snapped back to life and I began playing with all of the controls. Actually, most of the car is pretty intuitive. The touch screen computer controls nearly everything: music, climate control, navigation. Below the touch screen are the manual controls for the audio system and climate control, in case touch screens are intimidating to you. The steering wheel also has controls on it for the audio system, bluetooth phone capabilities, and voice-activated SYNC.

I must stop at this point to declare I LOVE the voice-activated SYNC feature. It may just be the coolest feature ever. Say you’re listening to your iPod (plugged in using your USB sync cable) and decide that you really want to hear the song Mama Mia? Just activate the voice command system by touching the control on the steering wheel, then tell it “Play song Mama Mia.” It repeats the command back to you, and then? It finds and plays the flippin’ song!

You can also use voice commands to find songs by an artist, album, or playlist, as well as using it for assistance with the navigation system. I’ve heard others complain that the system doesn’t work as well if you have an accent, but this accent-less midwesterner wouldn’t know.

On the road, the Focus is a great car to drive. The steering is sensitive and responsive, it can accelerate quickly in most situations and despite being a “small” sedan, there’s plenty of leg room, even in the backseat. The hatchback is also a welcome addition to this car. It’s easy to open, and provides a variety of options for hauling big things. Going to IKEA? You’ll want the hatchback. With the back seats down, you can fit a lot of Swedish modern design in there.

What I liked:
– SYNC is a tech-lover’s dream come true in a car
– small in size, yet plenty of room for adults or car seats in the back seat
– up to 40 miles to the gallon on the highway!!
– ultra comfortable driver’s seat that can be adjusted a million different ways
– fun to drive: with the onboard technology and the responsiveness of the transmission, I really enjoyed driving this zippy little car
– USB ports in the center console allow you to plug in media devices and keep them concealed so you don’t have to unplug and hide them at each stop

What I didn’t like:
– while acceleration is great, it does hesitate a little on a really hot day when the A/C is on full blast (of course, I hesitate a little on really hot days, too)
– not a tremendous amount of headroom if you’re a tall person or like to sit up high in the driver’s seat
– the trunk space feels a little small when the back seats are in use: lots of height in the space, but not a lot of width or depth