Ford Focus ZX5

Ford Focus ZX5 Ford Focus ZX5
Short Take Road Test

Ford's original hot-hatch Focus three-door, the zoomy ZX3, now has a sibling, a five-door version called the ZX5, a slant-roof sedan with the same Euro-future look, all the same basic ingredients, two more doors for convenience, and a cargo bay that's virtually the same size as the three-door's, offering easier access. This new member of the Focus group for 2002 may be the coolest one yet.

With the addition of the ZX5, the Focus family now has, including the limited-production SVT performance version, eight different models in three- or five-door hatchback sedan, conventional four-door sedan, and five-door wagon flavors. Collectively, they are the bestselling small cars in the world today, and for that, there have to be reasons. This is a far cooler, far more useful, far more comfortable car than the hideous, lozenge-shaped Escort that it replaces.

The ZX5 sport hatch is Ford's way of telling you and your neighbors that you're cooler than the guy down the street who just bought the Focus SE flat-back wagon, and its packaging is quite complete. In fact, it has the most standard equipment of any of the volume-production Focus models, starting with the Zetec DOHC four-cylinder engine, which makes 130 horsepower and 135 pound-feet of torque and has a lot more grunt than the standard SOHC engine can muster (110 horsepower and 125 pound-feet).

The slick-shifting MTX75 five-speed transaxle is standard and should be the only one offered on a package with such sporting pretensions. But it isn't. A four-speed automatic is optional. The DOHC and five-speed gearbox combo is good enough to post consistent 0-to-60-mph times of 9.0 seconds, but it feels stronger than that in street driving, with a nice mechanical medley emanating from underhood at wide-open throttle.

The complete ZX5 package includes six-spoke, 16-inch aluminum wheels; P205/50HR-16 tires; fog lamps; a six-disc, in-dash CD changer; a remote keyless entry system; power windows and door locks; air conditioning; a fat steering wheel that tilts and telescopes; Ford's SecuriLock passive anti-theft system; and electronic speed control--for the ordinary sum of $16,135 in Sangria Red with medium graphite low-back bucket seats.

The C/D test car also carried the AdvanceTrac stability-and-traction-control system with ABS, packaged together for $1625, and optional side airbags for $350. All in, our ZX5 came to $18,110, a helluva deal for such a slick-looking and versatile piece.

Sitting under that tall roof, surrounded by airbags and the other seven elements of Ford's Personal Safety System (new to the Focus for 2002) and behind the calliope of swoops, curves, instruments, controls, switches, and vents that make up the left side of the Focus dash, we felt we were in a truly modern small car.

Compared with most of what's out there, the Focus dash and interior are in a different league altogether, like gut-buster chili in the land of Pablum. And we especially like the fact that Ford uses a large, open typeface on the dash, so big you can read all the instrument-panel labels from the back seat. Perhaps a concession to an aging populace, perhaps just a good design idea.

The ZX5 handles with a nice, light touch for a nose-heavy front-driver, it corners deftly on its relatively small 50-section tires, pulls 0.77 g on the skidpad, and stops with authority and ease. We've spent enough time on slabs as well as sidewinders to know that the seats are long-haul comfortable as well as reasonably retentive in corners.

Although the rear doors aren't limolike, it's easy to get in and out, and the rear compartment opens up to 19 cubic feet of trunk room when the 60/40 split-folding rear seat is flat. There is real utility in the after-compartment and far better access than in the ZX3. Now, if they could just squeeze a three-liter V-6 in there.

Find out why the Ford Focus ranks as one of 2002's 10Best Cars.