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2002 Ford Focus ZX5 - Fashionably Late to the Hatchback Party
If you're a regular reader of our road tests, you know that we like hatchbacks and small wagons. They're practical, fuel-efficient (relative to SUVs of similar size) and sometimes, they're even fun. Whenever a new hatchback appears on the market, we feel a certain gratification as we imagine people of all kinds purchasing and enjoying just the right amount of vehicle, rather than something larger and more unwieldy. When the Focus was introduced in the United States two years ago, buyers could choose a three-door hatchback, a sedan or a wagon. We added an orange ZX3 hatchback to our long-term fleet — great car, but wouldn't it be better with an extra set of doors? We felt sure that it would. For 2002, Ford has taken action on our longings — and apparently, those of others — and dispatched five-door ZX5 hatchbacks to U.S. dealerships. We helped ourselves into an Infra-Red ZX5 for a week of testing and revelry.
Note that the ZX5 is not a new model for Ford — the company has been selling it in Europe (where not everyone's nighttime fantasy includes an SUV) all along. The five-door has the same 103-inch wheelbase as its siblings, and it's actually the same length as the ZX3 — 168.1 inches. In order to accommodate a set of rear doors, engineers made the front doors narrower. The resulting profile appeared a bit choppy to us — particularly when compared to the Mazda Protegé5's sleek lines — but not so funky that we wanted to part with the easy rear-seat access. Front and rear legroom is identical to that of all other Focus models (43.1 inches in the front, 37.6 in the back). Among hatchbacks and small wagons, only the Chrysler PT Cruiser offers more room in the backseat.
Ford's five-door hatchback offers the same size cargo area as the three-door — 18.6 cubic feet with the rear seat up, which is almost as much room as the Protegé5 and PT Cruiser have and about half the seats-up luggage capacity of the Focus Wagon. Clearly, the wagon is the way to go if you have serious hauling to do (in fact, this Ford is tops in capacity among all compact wagons), whereas the Focus hatchbacks are more about light hauling and looking stylish. The ZX5's rear seats were simple to fold, and we were delighted to find that we didn't have to move the driver seat uncomfortably close to the steering wheel (as in VW's Jetta Wagon) to get a completely flat load floor. Ford doesn't provide a measure of the ZX5's seats-down capacity, but suffice it to say that it's far more than a similarly priced economy sedan's — thus making this hatchback more useful for pet owners, outdoor enthusiasts and itinerant college students with doting parents.
During our week with the ZX5, we had occasion to venture south to San Diego to socialize with a couple of parental units, who aren't quite so doting anymore now that we're older and less deferent. Still, we find them amusing at times. Both are Honda drivers, so we were curious to see how they would react to the Focus.
Neither parent has ever owned a car with leather, so they were rather surprised to encounter it in our bubbly red hatchback. Actually, so were we. But as the slippery hide is on par with the stuff in the Ford Escape/Mazda Tribute, we recommend that you skip this $695 option. We would have liked to see headrests in the backseat (even our $13,000 Hyundai Elantra long-term car has these), but even without them, a 6-foot-2-inch adult was able to make himself relatively comfortable on the cushiony bench. If you're planning to put children back here, the space provided should be ideal. Additionally, we had no trouble using the rear belts to lock down a rear-facing infant seat. In the front, the ZX5's bolstered bucket seats are identical to those in the ZX3, except for the addition of small pockets on the front of the seat bottoms to collect all of the receipts, combs and mints that might otherwise litter the footwells.
Once en route to a day of touring galleries in La Jolla, the parents remarked upon the ZX5's spunk on the rolling hills of Interstate 5. And we agreed with them. Although the boisterous 2.0-liter Zetec four could use more torque down low, more horsepower up high and more refinement throughout the rpm range, it's fully serviceable for city and highway driving in the ZX5 (which weighs 100 pounds more than the ZX3) — particularly with the accompaniment of the five-speed manual and its easy clutch action. During track testing, the Focus reached 60 mph in 8.9 seconds (16.8 for the quarter-mile) — which is average among economy hatchbacks. Fuel economy is rated at 25 mpg in the city and 34 on the highway. We averaged 26 mpg.
Like other members of the Focus family, the ZX5 offers an exceptionally smooth ride, and this pleased the parents. Of course, the price of such comfort is body roll when rounding corners. Although this trait detracts from performance, our test car — aided by the ZX5's standard 16-inch wheels and 205/50 Firestone Firehawk GTA tires — ran through our 600-ft slalom at 64.2 mph. Among all economy cars that we've tested to date, only a 2001 Mazda Protegé sedan has beaten this number (64.7 mph). While the sport-tuned Protegé and Protegé5 feel more agile than the Focus, the Ford is extremely predictable when driven hard: You steer into a turn, the car shifts its weight to one side, and then recovers, with plenty of grip to spare.
Our test ZX5 had the optional AdvanceTrac stability control system (a $1,625 option bundled with ABS), a valuable safety feature which sets the Focus apart from all other economy cars; it's also available on the ZTW wagon and ZTS sedan. AdvanceTrac uses sensors to determine whether the vehicle's actual path matches the driver's intended path based on steering, braking and throttle inputs; if not, the system uses a combination of ABS and traction control (included in the package) to get the car back on track. And as reported in our Road Test Follow Up on the 2001 Focus ZTS, the system works with minimal intrusion into the driving experience. Although we consider AdvanceTrac a worthy feature to add to your ZX5 if you regularly face extreme conditions, you can save some money and purchase ABS as a stand-alone option ($400).
The well-to-do avenues of La Jolla were filled with holiday shoppers and their vehicles. Throughout the day, the ZX5 proved to be easy to maneuver and park — this, along with the ease of loading and retrieving passengers and cargo, was enough to endear our cheerful red test car to us. Only the use of the ZX5's standard in-dash six-CD changer would have made the weekend more enjoyable — sure, our test car had this feature, but apparently someone attending an auto show (where the car had been on display) had seen fit to pry off the head unit's security panel, rendering every function except the clock inoperative. This seemingly small act of vandalism necessitates the replacement of the entire head unit, and the new one was still on order during our loan period.
We did compare our test car's revised head unit with the single-CD player unit in our long-term ZX3. Though we were disappointed to find that the finger-friendly raised buttons in our long-termer had been swapped out for a more anonymous arrangement of flat, rectangular buttons, we did like the ZX5's rubberized volume knob surrounded by level adjustments. Had it been possible to turn the system on, we might have very well found that the ZX5's stereo controls were just as user-friendly as the ZX3's.
Aside from the usual Focus qualifiers — namely below-average build quality (poorly finished plastics and misaligned panels inside and out) and uncertain reliability (several recalls for 2000 and 2001 models) — there is little to dislike about the ZX5. It's practical, it's fun to drive and it looks sharp, provided you like Ford's New Edge styling.
But much like the small SUVs, the hatchback/small wagon population has grown considerably in recent months, and the well-equipped Hyundai Elantra GT undercuts every competitor on price and warranty. And the similarly priced Mazda Protegé5 handles much like a sports car. Willing to move up in the price bracket? You can get more performance (Subaru Impreza 2.5 TS), more features (Volkswagen Golf) and more passenger room (Chrysler PT Cruiser). And soon the 2003 Toyota Matrix and Pontiac Vibe twins, which appear to have everything covered, will go on sale. Where does the ZX5 fit into this group? It offers a solid balance of performance, feature content, utility and value.
Text Source: Edmunds.com : By Brent Romans
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