According to my sales advisor the engine oil has been changed before I took delivery of the car. As a matter of fact, on the same day when I was waiting for the car they are changing the engine oil in the morning. Hence the next service at 10,000km and not 1,000km. Yes, it is new to me too as I have sent all my other cars for the 1st service at 1,000km.

Agreed.. safety is #1 priority.. the average driving speed in the city is no more than 50km/h, it is only the occasional short burst (aka cheap thrill) to 150/160/170 on the highway. Dun think will hold that kindda of speed for long... as brother SportyHandling said, age is catching up.. slow and steady will win the race..

Hah, yeah. Not advisable to test for top speed these days when the roads are full of vehicles although there will always be some speed demons around on the public roads. Haven't really tested the acceleration yet but will do it soon sometime. Still want to "baby" the car for a while yet.

Haven't tried S mode yet as I am not sure what it actually does, even after I have read the manual. I suspect it is for some fun driving or some manual override or sporty drive. Not too sure how useful is this especially for a car that is naturally powerful like this 2.0-litre Focus. The Preve Turbo has this manual override too and the paddle shifters are at the steering wheel, unlike the Focus whereby the upshift+ and downshift- controls are located at the gear knob. A bit inconvenient to change gears using the gear knob.

Does the S mode automatically change the gear for the driver as if in normal Auto drive? Actually what is the difference between the S mode and normal D mode? More power on tap? The Nissan Sylphy also has the Sports mode but it doesn't have upshift and downshift manual gear override and is just a button by itself. Upon activation the rpms will shoot up high which is useful for overtaking or instant power delivery. But fuel consumption will be bad.

This post has been edited by SportyHandling: Oct 3 2013, 04:52 PM

Folks, be sure not to loose your 6 precious service vouchers.. if missing means must pay for servicing!

According to my SA, you can always send in your car before 10,000km, but that would mean using your precious free 1st 10,000 km service voucher..

I have never floored the gas yet (probably never) but opening it up about halfway is always a joy.... how on earth can anyone call that engine "noise"...

S-mode seems to move the shift points up a few hundred RPM, resulting in more sporty performance, at a slight cost of FC (similar to your Sylphy example). Some drivers on the forum seem to use it on hilly areas. Also, you can only use SelectShift (those button thingies) to manually shift. I can never get used to the buttons... not intuitive whether to press the UP or DOWN button to overtake, for example.

i do not manually use selectshift as well like you mentioned.. might need to get used to it to fully utilize it. Moving the gear to S mode will automatically shift the gears until u press the button up/down. in S mode, running ST SPEED LIMIT 90 t0 110 I noticed the current live fuel consumption always shows lower figure compared when in D mode. The difference here is in S mode at that speed it's in 5th gear while it's 6th gear in D mode. when in traffic jams i always use S mode. In D mode the transmission moves into next gear too quick where i always see this results in higher fuel consumption.

for focus 1st service is 10k , dont worry bro

Thanish,

Much thanks for the tip! I never thought moving to S could actually *help* fuel consumption, but your explanation makes perfect sense... every time I get stuck in jams, I can see my FC shoot through the roof. Lately, I'm taking the risk/wear&tear to shut off my engine during stops when I can reasonably predict when the traffic will move again (eg. at traffic lights). This definitely improves my FC, but the inching along is still horrible. At those times (and ONLY those times) I wish I got a hybrid instead.

...then when I get to some clear roads, it's no regrets FoFo again!

I am curious about this Sport mode in the Focus so I posted this one on one of the Focus UK forum. Just thought that some might be interested to know. Here is my post, and the subsequent reply from a forummer that follows after.

The Focus comes with Sport(S) mode with manual shifting on the gear lever. The manual does not suggest on the appropriate use of the S mode, and I am not sure on the usefulness of it in everyday driving.

In the manual, it was mentioned as follows :-

In Sport mode the transmission operates as in the drive position but gears are selected more quickly and at higher engine speeds

I would appreciate if someone can explain what exactly does "gears are selected more quickly and at higher engine speeds" mean.

I am also not sure on the usefulness of the manual shifting feature which enables the driver to upshift or downshift manually by pressing on the + and - buttons on the gear lever.

In summary, I would like to know how does this Sport mode differ from the normal Drive. When do we actually use Drive, and when do we use the S mode.

Any advice would be most appreciated.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Bifta
Registered Users
970 posts
Location Staffordshire
Shifting at higher engine speeds just means that the car will wait until you're at a higher rpm before it changes up. This will improve acceleration but use more fuel.

Gears being selected more quickly might mean that the gear change time itself is less. Again this will improve acceleration but may be a bit more jolty.

Sport mode will be for when you want to drive faster than normal mode.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I just tried using Sports mode very briefly yesterday during traffic jams situation and the vehicle seems to exhibit better acceleration. I guess in Sport mode, the vehicle is holding onto the gear longer(at higher rpm) before it upshifts to a higher gear. Just as what the post above implied. No wonder there is a sense of urgency in the power delivery and acceleration of the vehicle when Sport (S) mode is engaged, in comparison to normal Drive (D).

This post has been edited by SportyHandling: Oct 6 2013, 07:56 PM

sportyhandling, you're really such an enthusiastic into ford focus, which is a good thing, I enjoy reading your post and in the same time I get to learn about the car more in details!

I've been following the forum for quite sometime and learn a lot from forummers here. Yesterday, i took delivery of my candy red sport+ & till now already clocked 300+ km. Already tried various road conditions from hilly, winding roads, highways etc & along the way managed to test the Sport mode as well. What i discovered is quite similar with most comments found here & elsewhere. The sound proofing & handling is good. The downside of it is the jerkiness during low gear & grinding sound during reverse gear initially engaged. In sport mode, obviously the response is better but maybe the fuel consumption will be worse

I've got another input on the Sports mode, this time from the Focus UK thread moderator supported by 3 other forum members.

Sports mode should be on all the times , and you switch it to normal mode when you want to go slow

I wonder what is the reason. I'll post back when I got the responses. I am guessing the Focus is meant for spirited drives at all times. :-)

Ya, i found that sometime "D" is a bit hard to drive as the gear is not as smooth as conventional auto gear & sometime the gear itself just like don't know which gear they want to stay on, or upshift..
"S" mode is more ideal for smooth drive & spiritual drive..only is more troublesome
ie if u want it to be fuel economy u would have to upshift it manually in the earlier rpm compare with the upshift automatically on higher rpm.

This post has been edited by tkyrgun: Oct 7 2013, 11:59 AM

been getting light vibrations when at traffic where car is stagnant. Hit my 8k mile ardy....anyone with similar feeling?

More responses after which I made some inquiries as follows.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Care to elaborate on the reason why the Sports mode should be enabled at all times? In heavy traffic, do you recommend Sport or Normal mode? I presume Sport mode is preferred for most driving conditions due to its spirited drive characteristic, and in slow crawing traffic the Normal mode is recommended for better fuel economy?

Also, does anyone ever use the manual + and - shifting on the gear lever? I am not sure on the usefulness of this feature as the normal Drive and Sports mode would have covered all the appropriate gear ratios based on the desired driving pattern.

Mike11
Full Membership 6107 posts
Location Live~Manchester Work~Portsmouth
The shifting feature would be good again in sporty condition, where you decide to change gear, for example, on a country lane, keeps you in a lower gear round a corner so power is available straight away on exit,

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

That is a pertinent point. Thanks. I presume the vehicle will automatically downshift when the brakes are applied round a corner, though it may not downshift to the next gear low enough for a more powerful acceleration on the exit. That is where the advantage of the manual gear shifting comes by. Having said that, I am guessing the performance in Sports mode will not be too shabby after all even if it's left on automatic.

Will need to try the Sports mode and fiddle with the manual shifting soon.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Russ77
Full Membership 11372 posts
LocationEssex - Loving the DARKSIDE!!!!
I think the point to remember here is that with auto shifting an element of car control is being removed from the driver.

If you drive "enthusiastically" and near the limits you want as much control as you can get.

"Normal" mode will be designed to give you the best comfort & economy. Some auto cars also have a winter mode where gear changes are performed at lower revs to try and avoid wheel spin in icy/snowy conditions.

Where sports mode is concerned, economy is thrown out of the window and each gear will be held for as long as possible to extract as much power from the engine as possible.

The only real reason I can see for the semi-manual intervention would be what Mike11 said or as you said for down shifting to maximise emgine braking when you're really pushing it.

The gearbox is being controlled by a computer using logic, the computer doesn't know what the road you're driving on is like, if the bend is long & sweeping, if you intend to brake very late & hard and then want to accelerate away hard (which are all things you would instinctively take into account for gear changes in a manual car)

Other than that the semi-auto shifting might just make the driving experience more engaging as opposed to just having a stop & go pedal. I suppose if you just fancied changing gears yourself you could put it in sports mode and use the shifter to change gears before the pre-selected change point thus still maintaining an economic drive?

This post has been edited by SportyHandling: Oct 7 2013, 09:33 PM

I think I now have a rough idea on the usefulness of the Sports mode and the manual shifting option on the gear lever. Will need to put the theory into practice soon and see if the Sports mode and manual shifting on the Focus are as useful as they have been suggested to be.

This post has been edited by SportyHandling: Oct 7 2013, 09:25 PM

as far as the manual shifting is concerned, the paddle shifter is much more ergonomic compared to this power shifting located in the gear knob...imaging when you're speeding fast(that's why you need S mode), I mean FAST, and you have to shift away your left hand to change gear manually...it's not just ergonomic, it's about SAFETY too!

I agree, but to a certain extent. It's not so much about speed. WHen one is traveling fast, usually it's on a straight road, so there is no need to change gear. The need to upshift or downshift only happens when approaching a corner or a tight bend, on twisty roads etc. that is when the speeds are moderate to low.

In vehicles which come with manual transmission, the driver will still need to take one of his hand off the steering wheel to change gear on the gear lever. THough I wager it's safer than doing manual shifting on an automatic gear transmission as it may be more difficult or cumbersome to find the upshift and downshift buttons on the lever.

Though I agree that paddle shifters on the steering wheel will be the most convenient and easiest in manual gear shifting.

This post has been edited by ryder_78: Oct 8 2013, 07:43 AM

Anybody so far has updated the transmission software?

Just wondering. Anybody changed the stock tyres of the Focus Titanium to silent tyres? If yes, what are the tyres and is there an appreciable difference in a more quieter ride?