2013 Ford Focus ST Long Term Road Test

Edmunds.com

2013 Ford Focus ST Long Term Road Test

That is not a big bike stuffed into the back of our long-term Ford Focus ST. Yet, in order to fit it inside the cargo hold of the Focus I had to fold down one side of its 60/40 rear seat.

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jederino

But is it the vehicle for driving your daughter to the skate park with her Tony Hawk BMX bike and getting rocket pops from the ice cream man? Priceless...

power6

The bike fit reports are cool and all that, but it seems like that is a "car journalist" problem. Anyone who carries bikes often, and owns the car they drive, knows that it is a PITA to put them in and out of a hatch/wagon so they purchase some sort of rack system. I have a tow hitch rack I can toss on in a few seconds to our Outback, even though it could fit both bikes inside the hitch rack is so much easier. Used the same one on my WRX, and my SRT-4.

Surprised you expected any hatchback to be huge, the Focus is not a large car. Or do you think the swoopy styling makes it worse than it could be?

And Sweet Jeebus Scott I hope you are guys are working on a new solution for the loss of IL, I don't want to come here anymore, though there is great content if I can click around long enough to get to it so I try to come around. And whats with the pulling of the high res pictures?

ed124c

I agree with the above. Who is going to buy a humongous vehicle just to tote around their little girl's bike?

I am beginning to get used to the "new" Edmunds. But there is still a big loss of intimacy with the editors, unfortunately.

Also, the monthly gas mileage for the LT fleet is gone. We have to go into each individual LT car's post to get the info.

yaymx5_

@ed124c http://insidelineviewer.com puts the new InsideLine (err, Edmunds.com) long term articles back into blog order. A big batch of Fuel Economy posts showed up yesterday, Feb. 4.

motorstreet

I've had full size adult bikes in my Golf several times. I think space is one of the Golf/GTI's big advantages over the Focus. On paper it doesn't look any bigger, but it has a much more useful shape.

jhonson1010

When is InsideLine going to get the Focus ST on a dyno?

kiotae1

A couple of the folks above are right on. This is a silly critique. It's not a big car. I worked as a bike mechanic for 12 years and there's very few (maybe none) hatchbacks, sedans that could fit that bike without putting the seats down. Wouldn't have worked in my GTI, or my WRX.

You need a true station wagon or larger to have a shot. Bikes, even small ones, are freaking awkward to put in cars, period.

kiotae1

A couple of the folks above are right on. This is a silly critique. It's not a big car. I worked as a bike mechanic for 12 years and there's very few (maybe none) hatchbacks, sedans that could fit that bike without putting the seats down. Wouldn't have worked in my GTI, or my WRX.

You need a true station wagon or larger to have a shot. Bikes, even small ones, are freaking awkward to put in cars, period.

aggie94

I fit a full size bike with the front wheel off and 60% of seat folded down, which is possible in just about every other compact+ car out there. About trunk size, the 24 cu ft is quoted by Ford for every trunk configuration. The ST (and Titanium with 18" wheels) comes with a full size spare and surrounding ~6" tall styrofoam spacers. Taking all that out adds 4 or 5 cu ft, for those who need max cargo room. Alternatively, the compact spare and foam inserts are about half the size. I recently rented a sedan with a 15 cu ft trunk which seemed to fit about the same amount as the stock ST trunk, go figure.