Test drove a Ford Focus ZX3 SE today....
Well I decided I would start doing some test drives of cars in the $20k range in order to get a feel for what you get for that kind of money. Primarily this is so I can decide whether I want to buy a $20k car for a winter beater or buy a used $20k car which would retail for closer to $30k new. Peace of mind on the new car is a nice thing to have…..
Anyway, dealership experience was quite good actually, the dealer had about 20 mustangs on the front of the lot, including 6 convertibles (all red), I thought those were rare right now??
So I got a good look at a ZX3 which is the 3 door focus (Sorry no pics it was raining). The interior is spacious, with tons of trunk room, the back seats on the other hand do not fold well at all, they are too ‘poofy” and barely fold down to about 30 degrees. The centre console is very cheap feeling and looking, black hard plastics with an armrest that just seemed like it was built by a high school shop class. The dash on the other hand has a nice textured look to it, which looks like it is made of soft material, it isn’t but I didn’t expect it to be, the audio and HVAC controls are well laid out with a aluminum accented dash piece which was nice.
The seat bolstering is very squishy which I didn’t like, the seats were comfy though but not very supportive. There is a crank to raise and lower the seat, I lowered it all the way and still felt like I was sitting up high in a truck, not my style. I don’t think Shnak would fit I didn’t have that much headroom left in the car with the seat all the way lowered, I was surprised. The car I test drove didn’t have tilt or telescoping steering, as a result I felt like the wheel was too far from me, I’ve never had this problem before so that I found odd. I sat in one in the showroom with this feature and it seemed like I could get a better grip on the wheel.
Driving impressions I was actually allowed to take the car out on my own
, which of course meant I could go NUTS hahhahah j/k. The dealership is located near the country so I found a few good roads that were windy and 80km/h as well as a short highway run.
The pedals are HORRIBLE was my first impression, the clutch is WAY too close to the brake pedal, my knees were touching together when pushing the clutch in, VERY annoying. The shifter was pretty darn sloppy with long throws. On the other hand, the steering felt nice, just the right feel, the engine pulled fairly strong to the imaginary redline (as there was no tach), it was pretty peppy.
I went up a twisty hilly road, and the car seemed to float a bit it was scary, the suspension absorbs the shocks well and the ride was fairly quiet, it was a little scary on that roller coaster type of road; even my g/f commented it didn’t feel right. There is a lot of body roll in the car.
Overall it is not a bad car, I didn’t expect a super luxury car but it was quiet and peppy, I was pleased with it. The ergonomics of the pedals was bad and really my only gripe.
By here’s my surprise……….
So I got a price on the car to see how much this would cost me. The car was a ZX3 SE with 5spd manual, A/C and power windows and mirrors. No ABS, drum rear brakes
juts a basic car. Total? $21,600 Before taxes. So $22,000 after admin and air tax and gas tax and tire tax and whatever else tax they want to add.
That’s A LOT for a basic car IMO. For that kind of money there is this
’05 Camry Or this
’05 Impreza Or even this!
05 Altima There are just sooooo many better options for the money. At 16k this car would be worth my time but at $22k, no way.
