Ford Focus First Impressions

I had the opportunity to drive a MkIII Ford Focus SE hatchback during a short trip to Long Island, NY. I was surprised by how much car one can get for not very much money these days. Here are some impressions of the car.

• The steering is very light. One can easily tell it is electrically assisted, rather than hydraulically assisted like my 911's steering. It filters almost all imperfections of the road. I didn't take the car on any back roads so didn't get to feel the steering in a more lively setting.
• The dry dual-clutch transmission was atrocious. Its default programming is very lazy, so I found myself in sport mode while not cruising. The interaction with brake input is very strange: on application of the brakes, it first coasts (declutches), then lazily rev matches, if at all. My manual driving is much smoother than this computer!
• Brakes seemed fine.
• The mooing noise of the engine and exhaust was unbearable, especially under load.
• The car felt pretty nimble. Body roll wasn't terrible.