The worst thing about Focus ST ownership

"PanchoVilleneuve ST" (PanchoVilleneuve)
11/25/2014 at 01:23 • Filed to: None

Every GTI owner you come across makes this face and drives like a total clown in an attempt to convince you that you bought the wrong car.

DISCUSSION (41)

CounterTorqueSteer > PanchoVilleneuve ST
11/25/2014 at 01:25

Every. Single. One.

PanchoVilleneuve ST > CounterTorqueSteer
11/25/2014 at 01:26

I must admit, though, it is kinda fun being part of a blood feud that only one side actually takes seriously.

pip bip - choose Corrour > PanchoVilleneuve ST
11/25/2014 at 01:26

simple , just ignore them.

K-Roll-PorscheTamer > CounterTorqueSteer
11/25/2014 at 01:27

Don't forget the MS3s and WRXs.

mattc993 > PanchoVilleneuve ST
11/25/2014 at 01:29

Replace "ST" with "Evo 10" and "GTI" with "any WRX or other Evo" and you've described life in the Evo.

PanchoVilleneuve ST > pip bip - choose Corrour
11/25/2014 at 01:29

Oh, I do. It's a bit annoying to be trying to, say, bring the groceries home and have some dingus up your butt and changing lanes and acting like some guy out of a direct-to-video Fast and Furious knockoff, but there is something immensely satisfying just going along like whatevs, bro.

I mean, I love my car. I have nothing to prove. I drove a GTI and I drove the Focus, back to back on the same day. I liked the Focus more.

The more I think about it, they're not trying to convince me I bought the wrong car. They're trying to convince themselves they bought the right one.

PetarVN, GLI Guy, now with stupid power > PanchoVilleneuve ST
11/25/2014 at 01:30

As a GLI owner, I concur. But we only do it since we know we're wrong! We have the better interior, you have the better mechanicals

CounterTorqueSteer > PanchoVilleneuve ST
11/25/2014 at 01:30

It's like us ST guys are just cruising around while the GTI always have something to prove.

CounterTorqueSteer > PanchoVilleneuve ST
11/25/2014 at 01:32

You said it. It's a constant struggle to make themselves feel satisfied with their purchase.

PanchoVilleneuve ST > K-Roll-PorscheTamer
11/25/2014 at 01:32

I actually had a very nice conversation with a guy in a previous-gen STI in a parking lot today. He was looking to replace his STI with something a little more grown up now that he had a kid, and was wondering how the Focus was. I showed him around the car and before he left he said it was now at the top of his list of cars where he could be a dad and not give up on life in.

unclevanos (Ovaltine Jenkins) > CounterTorqueSteer
11/25/2014 at 01:33

"Bruh I got a K04 tune, mad understeer, and my DSG won't shift to 3rd. Shit my control arm broke." —most GTI bros I meet

K-Roll-PorscheTamer > PanchoVilleneuve ST
11/25/2014 at 01:33

It is the perfect car for being a dad isn't it.. :)

IM TOO YOUNG FOR THAT LOL :p

PanchoVilleneuve ST > K-Roll-PorscheTamer
11/25/2014 at 01:39

It's the perfect car for delaying a midlife crisis. It does everything a sane person would ever need out of a car, while still being capable of going completely nutzo bonkers when you want it to be. I lugged around a huge mess of antique furniture today, brought home groceries AND took advantage of the last day of the year where I can sanely drive around with my summer tires by doing, well, a bit of hot hatchery on one of those wonderful high-speed twisty "we paved over an old dirt horse path dating back to when the state was still a colony that nobody uses anymore because they go nowhere important and everyone just uses the interstate" bits of highway that make New England the best place to live in the US if you like a bit of a drive.

K-Roll-PorscheTamer > PanchoVilleneuve ST
11/25/2014 at 01:46

New England sounds like a pretty neat place, how is it?

Ferrero1911 > PanchoVilleneuve ST
11/25/2014 at 01:49

They do that to me too, which is ridiculous because I drive an Abarth. I'm well aware that they're faster than me. I think they don't like anything that has a hatch and sounds like it could be fast.

JACU - I've got bonifides. > PanchoVilleneuve ST
11/25/2014 at 01:55

I love when this happens. Kid revs on me at a stoplight when I'm in my FXT. I look over at him, grab my porkpie hat off the passenger seat and and mash it down on my head. Scrunch up over the steering wheel and put my left turn signal on. Rev the motor and when the light goes green, I accelerate as slowly as I can without upsetting the folks behond me. Mind f*cks are the best.

PanchoVilleneuve ST > K-Roll-PorscheTamer
11/25/2014 at 02:02

On one hand, kinda expensive with a weird climate (The late spring through early fall are like Florida, with horrid heat and humidity, severe thunderstorms and the odd hurricane and late fall through early spring mean cold that make your bones hurt and the fun that is the "as strong as a tropical storm can get before becoming a hurricane, only with snow" unique to the region nightmare called the Nor'easter). And on the other, it's beautiful, full of history and the cities and people have this really unique vibe that's a combination of small-town friendliness and tradition and big city cosmopolitan culture and attitude.

You know the good things you think about when you think about when you think about America and Americans? Yankee ingenuity, die-hard individualism, pioneer spirit, the melting pot and all that? New England is all that, amplified. I can't imagine living anywhere else.

The man in the iron mask > PanchoVilleneuve ST
11/25/2014 at 02:15

I thought the worse thing was that its a front wheel drive car. I would go subaru if i wanted a hatchback.
but if i choose from the ST or the GTI. id TOTALLY go Ford.

PanchoVilleneuve ST > Ferrero1911
11/25/2014 at 02:23

I think it's because they've really been the only hot hatch in the US for ages now (The MS3 doesn't count. It's too because-racecar-I'm-a-real-man-because-my-daily-driver-is-practically-undrivable), and now there are interlopers everywhere. The ST Fords, the Abarth, the myriad Cooper S models, the Veloster, the Elantra GT Turbo, the Forte5 SX, the miracle that Nismo performed by transforming the Juke from the world's ugliest crossover thing into the world's ugliest and yet surprisingly brilliant hot hatch with the Nismo RS.

They all do the hot hatch thing and they all do it well, only they all have a unique flavor and personality that the GTI as great as it is (and it is great), lacks. The GTI does everything equally, and not one aspect (performance, practicality, fun, comfort, economy, etc) exceptionally, and that makes it kinda, well, lacking. The way the others aren't so, well, boringly competent in that German way, and have strengths and weaknesses, make them, well, better. You now don't have to settle for one-size-fits-all. You can have a bigger one or a smaller one or a faster one or one with more space or one that's more comfortable or one that's sharper to drive or one that's better on gas or whatever it is you need out of your hot hatch.

The GTI used to make a statement that said "I need a car that can do all the things you need a car to do but I need a sports car just as badly". Now it kinda says "I forgot about everything else".

PanchoVilleneuve ST > The man in the iron mask
11/25/2014 at 02:29

Honestly, put someone in an ST, put it in sport mode, give them a lot of corners, and tell them to go bonkers and you could very easily convince them that the car they are driving is RWD. I test drove an FR-S before choosing the Focus, and honestly, the Focus is much more tail-happy oversteery dab of oppo sideways funtimes than the dorifutomobile. It does some kind of computer witchcraft with the brakes and differential and probably telekinesis that make it the first FWD car I've driven that just doesn't feel like one (torque steer aside).

It's like nobody told the engineers that the car they were working on was not a Mustang.

The man in the iron mask > PanchoVilleneuve ST
11/25/2014 at 02:39

I have never test driven one, so im going to take your word for it. besides, you're not the only one ive heard say that the Focus St oversteers like if it was RWD material.

NotUnlessRoundIsFunny > PanchoVilleneuve ST
11/25/2014 at 02:48

Just realized I recommended, like, all of your comments. Sorry about that, but on the other hand, I just kept thinking, "Yes! Exactly!" :-)

Axial > K-Roll-PorscheTamer
11/25/2014 at 04:01

WRX drivers think that every performance car is in a blood feud with them and theirs.

Axial > PetarVN, GLI Guy, now with stupid power
11/25/2014 at 04:03

I'm not convinced that the GLI actually has the better interior...

Spoonman929RR > PanchoVilleneuve ST
11/25/2014 at 04:31

I have yet to encounter this actually.. Maybe I just don't pay enough attention

DipodomysDeserti > PanchoVilleneuve ST
11/25/2014 at 05:32

This is why I like driving an Abarth. No one screws with you, they just look on in confusion. I always had people driving like dicks when I had my wrx.

DipodomysDeserti > PanchoVilleneuve ST
11/25/2014 at 05:34

He could just take the giant wing off.

Quattro-luvr, Powered by Datsun & Stinger > PanchoVilleneuve ST
11/25/2014 at 08:20

I've not done that yet. Probably wont either.

They're both very nice cars.

Kate's Dirty Sister > PanchoVilleneuve ST
11/25/2014 at 08:24

Never happened to me.

William Byrd > CounterTorqueSteer
11/25/2014 at 09:04

They paid so much more, makes sense. :)

William Byrd > PanchoVilleneuve ST
11/25/2014 at 09:06

Stock GTI's I haven't had too much of an issue with in my FoST. If it looks at least somewhat modified (even aesthetically) then you're in for some trouble. I had an MS6 up my central outlet exhaust last night oddly enough.

shop-teacher > JACU - I've got bonifides.
11/25/2014 at 09:35

Question: What's a porkpie hat?

Bryan doesn't drive a 1M > PanchoVilleneuve ST
11/25/2014 at 13:27

You shut your mouth about the Mazda Mazdaspeed Mazda3! The Juke counts (actually, I love the Juke, but it's not a hot hatch), but the MS3 doesn't? That's crazy talk and you know it.

On the other hand, it's annoying that my dad and brother both say the MS3 is the fastest car ever and I try to explain that maybe just maybe it feels the fastest because of the torque steer.

Oh, and about the GTI: It's a little too refined for its own good, but it's fun in a way few cars can match. Of course, the FiSTs and FoSTs are probably just as fun, but the GTI has the best steering wheel of all the steering wheels.

I've had too much coffee this morning.

JACU - I've got bonifides. > shop-teacher
11/25/2014 at 13:34

Have you seen "Breaking Bad"?

shop-teacher > JACU - I've got bonifides.
11/25/2014 at 13:35

A few of them. Is that the hat that Walt wears?

JACU - I've got bonifides. > shop-teacher
11/25/2014 at 13:38

Correct! For some reason, grumpy little old men seem to have an affinity for them too.

shop-teacher > JACU - I've got bonifides.
11/25/2014 at 13:42

They do! Oppo has become the place where I learn about hat names. Recently I learned here that those stupid flat-brimmed hats are called snapbacks.

TheBaron2112 > The man in the iron mask
11/27/2014 at 09:57

FiST does it a bit too. Especially if you lift off in the right place. Lift off oversteer in a RWD hot hatch is the BEST.

PanchoVilleneuve ST > Bryan doesn't drive a 1M
12/06/2014 at 23:11

I drove a leftover previous generation Speed3 when deciding on my current car, and honestly, I'd choose it in a heartbeat if I wanted a fun car I didn't have to live with everyday. It does the fun hoonmobile thing better than any hatch there is, but really, that's all it does. It's all hoon, all the time, tune in next week, same hoon time, same hoon channel. It never, ever calms down. The Focus gives like 95.4317% of that hoonage, but it also can calm right down for all those times where you had a long day at work and just want to get home.

PanchoVilleneuve ST > TheBaron2112
12/07/2014 at 20:54

When I test drove a FiST, the saleswoman I was with took me down a windy bit of road with really sharp corners, told me to give it too much gas and then let off halfway through. It was like riding the teacups at Disneyland. It was awesome.

TheBaron2112 > PanchoVilleneuve ST
12/07/2014 at 20:55

Seriously. It's one of my favorite parts.