Review: Ford Focus, Fight For Freedom

The Ford Focus

Intro - A brief introduction, size classification, 3 or 5 doors.

 

It's compact car, that means a big one for European standard and a medium car for US standard.

It's one of the most best selling models of the auto-maker Ford and for what I know it's the most commons C-segment in Europe; at least I have to clean a lot of them.

Not easy to park as most of the are station wagons they are a five doors car for five passengers.

Space - How big is big? I'll try to give a good measure with my body. I'm 180cm for 95kg (5,9 feet/210lbs). How many of me stay comfortable inside?

These cars are big enough to hold five passenger comfortable; I can move easily inside, both as a driver as a passenger. In a five passenger situation I still have some more room move my arms, even if my legs were almost blocked.
About the trunk, we have to talk about two different models, the normal five doors hatchback, more slender and young, or the station wagon, more long and wide but more 'domestic'. The first have from 320 to 1100 litres  of capacity (11 to 39 cubic feet) while the other have from 480 to  1500 litres (17 to 53 cubic feet). Obviously we are talking about back seats up or down.

Engine - Type of fuel, cc, fuel consumption. 

There is a lot of possibility about the engine of the Ford Focus; the smallest is as usual the most eco-compatible with few emission; there is too a GPL version that help your wallet more than the mother Earth and the same about the Diesel, that come with the biggest engine size. The range go from 1.0 for petrol to 1.6 for every type of fuel (petrol, GPL and diesel) and 2.0 for one type of petrol and all the other Diesel. Only the diesel come with semi-automatic or automatic gear.

Steering - How nimble or unhandy or any other info about the movement. 

I usually like smallest cars with a good steering capacity and a quick pickup and if the  former is true for the hatchback both that and the station wagon lack a good responsiveness. You can still park easily with the smallest of the two, but the other should find a big space.

 

The new/old city car from FIAT.

Another cute car, this time from the Italian auto-maker Fiat; it's a city car, but you could call it urban car too, so not really big, used mostly to travel inside the city. That the strength point of this car. Since is not so big you can easily park in small spot and can squeeze between obstacle that other cars cannot overtake.

These are three doors cars for five passengers. Well, five really packed passengers; the front seats are comfortable enough for the driver and the nearer passenger. Even with just two back passengers they can have enough space to move freely, if the frontal seats are not pulled too much back. The fifth passenger should be really intimate and will be probably hugged by the other two.

As usual these type of cars seems too small to carry luggage, but really the trunk can carry without problem a medium grocery shopping or two trolley with even more space for the souvenir bag. That just with the deep trunk, but you can even have more space if you pull down the rear seats; that way you full load all your wife baggage. :)

The Fiat 500 come with six type of engine, just one of them diesel. Of the other one is called the greenest petrol engine, but usually that just marketing. Anyway the smallest engine is probably really good for efficiency and in urban area where you don't have to push it too much. 

The biggest one instead could be pushed for real over an highway with a top speed that range from 160 km/h (99mph) to 180 km/h (112mph).

Well you can buy the boosted Abarth version, with the engine tweaked to get over 200 km/h (127mph) without problem.

About the steering, I have already told that it's a nimble car that can find his way around the city with ease and you can choose between three different transmission, from manual to semi-automatic to full automatic. 

Even if semi-automatic seems the best with all the traffic lights or the traffic jam I still prefer the manual gear.

Review: Nissan Juke

Nissan Juke 2012

The small SUV from Nissan

Here we talk about the Nissan Juke; this is a beautiful small SUV, also called crossover. It means that is built like a SUV but with a more passenger-wise features, like a station wagon.

Luckly they built this one a lot more gorgeous of a station wagon.

It's a five doors car for five passengers. The front seats are large and comfortable enough for a big person (I'm almost 100 kg or 220 lbs) and you can have a car armrest as accessory (and I really suggest to get that, as it's better for long trip) that can be shared with the other front passenger.

The back passengers could be a little too close; two back passengers have lot of room, even with a big person in the front. The fifth doesn't have enough space to limit the other two movement.

The back is big enough for a large shopping at the grocery; it have a parcel shelf that divide the trunk and that is moved while you open it. The clips that hold the parcel shelf are not really solid and from time to time they can get loose. They can be replaced easily anyway.

The back seats can be lowered to increase the volume of the trunk or to fit long and cumbersome luggage. 

These cars come with two different set of trunk; both of them are under the main trunk as the shelf can be remove. One of them can hold a lot more space giving you a lot of volume; the other one give place to hold tools, like the jack to change the wheel.

The Nissan Juke come with two different engines, petrol or diesel, both of them with a good sprint, as the car is not so heavy. I have drove it in a medium traffic area and this car is really swift and nibble even if is not so small. 

The onboard computer give some information about the fuel consumption but I have drove it for just some minutes, so I'm not sure how much precision it have, but it seems the usage was something like six litre every one hundreds kilometres. 

In the end I think this is a very pretty car with a beautiful line (the frontal lights recall maybe a manga cartoon), with a good load capacity and it's very fun to steer this little SUV.