Ford Focus Titanium X
"There’s no doubt the Ford Focus Titanium X is very well equipped. But with Focus depreciation, unless someone else is paying for it, it’s not a good buy."
Ford has ambitions to be thought of as more than a manufacturer of mass-market cars. The Focus Titanium X is Ford’s attempt to take on the likes of the Audi A3 and BMW 1 Series as well as top-specification Volkswagen Golfs.
The Focus Titanium X certainly has the equipment and the engines to do so, as well as the prices. Every version costs more than £20,000. The trouble is, you’ll lose almost two-thirds of that in depreciation over three years, so tread carefully.
The engine range is made up of Ford’s turbo Ecoboost petrol range plus 118bhp 1.5-litre and 147bhp 2.0-litre diesels. Unique Titanium X features include 17-inch alloy wheels, an automatic parallel-park system including sensors front and rear, xenon headlights, multi-coloured mood lighting in the cabin and electric front seats with heaters and part leather upholstery.
Good points
The Ecoboost engine gives the Focus a power unit that’s the equal of its outstanding chassis. Now it not only has great steering and handling, but an engine that delivers superb driveability to let you exploit it all. A stop-start system cuts fuel consumption in traffic and makes the car potentially capable of 51mpg.The luxury features fitted as standard with Titanium X spec certainly make the car a match for the Audi A3 or BMW 1 Series. There are plenty of options to take it even more upmarket: bigger wheels, electronic aids to prevent you swapping lanes into the path of another car, a road sign recognition system, automatic high beam adjustment and self parking. They’ve only just become available on BMW and Mercedes models – now a mid-range Ford has them.
Bad points
The killer will be depreciation. The secondhand market doesn’t recognise that the Titanium X is a special, small-volume Focus. It just sees it as a Focus. So expect to lose close to two-thirds of its value over three years.Boot space, as with any Focus, is average at best.Comments around the EcoBoost engine's real world economy regularly float around; if you're heavy footed, don't expect as good a figure as Ford claims its petrol engines can do.
What you get
- Alloy wheels
- Folding rear seats
- Electric folding wing mirrors
- Alarm
- Rear parking sensors
- Tyre pressure sensors
- Passenger & Driver airbag
- Front side airbags
- Curtain airbags
- Auto climate control
- Leather steering wheel
- Electric driver's seat
- Heated front seats
- Front electric windows
- Single CD player
- AUX stereo input
- DAB Radio
- Cruise control
- Stop/Start
- Automatic wipers
- Reversing camera
- Part leather seats
- Sports seats
- Rear electric windows
- Bluetooth
Recommended optional extras
- Satellite navigation
Our choice
The most luxurious Focus deserves the best engine available, so it has to be the strong 1.5-litre 179bhp Ecoboost turbo petrol engine. It’s a gem.
