Does the Ford Focus have a stiff suspension or soft suspension?
Does the Ford Focus have a stiff suspension or soft suspension?
Depends on what you call soft, or what you call stiff. Not everyone's idea is the same.
I've driven many of them mostly as rental cars since the Focus first came out. All were European built examples which are fairly different to those built in North America.
I've found them to have a fairly firm but compliant suspension which softens up noticeably under heavy load (as per normal with most vehicles). The occasional sporty version I've driven definitely had a harder ride which crashed and jolted over uneven road surfaces and potholes, but that has likely been far more due to the super low profile tyres on large rims (more like a metal disc with an elastic band wrapped around it!) than due to any major changes in the suspension and damper rates, although they are supposedly a bit former on the sports variants.
In Europe the principal competitors to the Focus are the Opel/Vauxhall Astra and the VW Golf. The latter tends to have a softer ride which is MUCH harder on sports variants, and the Astra tends to be broadly equivalent to the Focus but with better overall handling.
I'd call it a soft suspension until the struts and shocks get old. Then the ride will either be bouncy or hard.
If you have over 80,000 miles on it the struts and shocks likely are bad.
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