In one of my first musings about cars I wrote was a comparison between the Ford Focus, Holden/Vauxhall/Opel Astra and the Volkswagen Golf. I decided to bite the bullet, and actually drive two of these vehicles and compare the both of them. Here is my personal review of the Focus and the Astra.

In Review: Holden Astra & Ford Focus

The midrange hatch segment is a highly competitive marketplace. Thankfully in this day and age, there is no such thing as a bad car, a true lemon, but there are still fantastic cars and deals around, all you need to be is an informed consumer. The Holden Astra has been on the Australian market for about a year now. It is an amazing looking car, with very striking looks, adorned with a few nice touches, such as the ghosted rear taillights. The style has been resolved very well, and is a real head turner, a true love or hate design.

The Ford Focus on the other hand, lets itself down poorly. It has very conservative styling, but that necessarily isn’t a bad thing. Australia by nature is a conservative society, on the whole, and this car should slot itself quite nicely on the roads. A sensible car, for sensible people. It even manages to look sporty with bright paintwork and optioned up with drug dealer wheels, and conversely looks conservative with a more muted hue, something not many designs are able to resolve successfully.

The interior of the two cars are fantastic, and very European. Their Germanic influences are very noticeable, with lots of dark, sombre colours. Both cars feel very expensive inside, belying both their base $20,990 price tags. Every button or dial has a solid, chunky, well put together feel. But when you start to examine both cars closer, cost cutting flaws start to crop up. The Astra has a large silver plastic console in the centre, which just feels a little cheap. Some of the fit and finish of meeting points are questionable, and should’ve been resolved on a car that has been in production for more than a year. The interior follows suit with the exterior of the vehicle, a love or hate, and a little gaudy.

The Focus isn’t perfect either. It feels a little cluttered, but is a vast improvement over the previous generation. The New Edge design has been binned in favour of a mimicry of the Volkswagen Golf’s interior. It feels a little classier over the Astra, but this would come down to personal taste and choice. The only real noticeable letdown was the door interior, when pushed against, the whole panel flexed in, and letting down the rest of the overall excellent interior ambience. But what are they like to drive?

The test route in both cars was a mix of urban roads. I unfortunately didn’t have the opportunity to test the cars more extensively, but a few things were readily apparent. The ride in the Astra was very nice. It felt controlled and well composed over poorly surfaced roads. Were it did let itself down was tyre and suspension noise. Every bump was transmitted into the cabin audibly and when driven over hotmix, you could hear each tyre roar clearly. The Focus has a trump card though, it’s independent rear suspension. The level of ride sophistication was phenomenal over the Astra, and is a clear cut above its class. The ride was quiet, very well composed, and when punted hard into corners, it had an engineered feel tendency to understeer, unlike the Astra that just rode hard on the outside front tyre, forcing the car into tyre howling levels of understeer. The brakes on both cars are good, with a nice solid feel. Whilst the engine in the Focus provides more power (107kW at 6000rpm, versus 90kW at 5600rpm) and is larger, it’s also more economical at 7.1 L/100km to 7.8 L/100km.

In a very tough price class, these two cars are the pinnacle, the Golf is too expensive, and you’re only paying for the badge, and if you chose either car, you have made a good choice. But the ride in the Focus, plus the more powerful and economical engine, puts it ahead of the Astra in this comparison.