2017 Ford Focus vs Renault Megane

What's the difference?

Don’t dismiss the Focus RS as just another hatchback with a sporty body kit. The RS does exactly what it says on the tin. It goes fast and handles perfectly. At $50K the bang-for-your-buck is excellent, it's as practical as a regular Ford Focus, from ease of parking to room inside, and it’s not too hardcore making it something an enthusiast could live with every day – even with a family.

Before you buy a compact SUV, think about a conventional wagon like the Renault Megane GT. It looks great, is well equipped, and nicely screwed together. It’s also keenly priced, boasts a solid suite of safety tech and, most of all, is heaps of fun to drive. An assortment of multimedia and dynamic niggles bring the averages down, but just like a certain Canadian prince of pop, fans will find the pluses outweigh the minuses.  

Based on the regular five-door Focus hatch the RS isn’t as extreme looking as its predecessor. Don’t underestimate the RS though it’s still very much a ‘Franken-Focus’ monster in looks and its heart – a four-cylinder turbo engine transplanted from the Mustang. 

First the looks. There’s its angry anteater snout and that lower grille with intercooler looming inside and its splitter that looks sharp and low enough to shave Cats Eyes off the road. 

From the back it looks just as tough with the large, roof-mounted wing, and diffuser-integrated twin 4.5-inch tail pipes. Then there’s the optional 19-inch gloss black alloys shod with licorice-thin low profile rubber. 

Our car looked like a poison dart frog with its 'Nitrous Blue' paint; a similar hue to the front Brembo brake calipers, but with metal flake added. There’s also White, Magnetic (which looks gun metal grey) and Shadow Black. 

Looking at the RS’s dimensions compared to a regular Focus in base Trend spec, the RS is 30mm longer at 4390mm end-to-end; the same width from mirror-to-mirror at 2010mm, 13mm taller at 1480mm (that’d be the rear wing) and has 9mm less ground clearance at 100mm (thanks to the lowered suspension).

Don’t even think of comparing the Focus RS to something like a Hyundai Veloster Turbo, the Volkswagen Golf R is the RS’s true rival although the VW’s more sedate looks don’t make it obvious. 

The RS’s insides are almost identical to a regular Focus. There’s the same display screen, centre console layout and dash design, including the climate control dials, instrument cluster and steering wheel. Making the RS’s interior different are the dash-mounted gauges for boost and water and oil temperatures, alloy pedals and racy Recaro seating. 

The Golf R’s interior is a bit more mature, too. I’m not a fan of those toy-like gauges in the RS.

There are bottle holders in all the doors and two cup holders up front; none in the back though.

Full disclosure. I love a good wagon, and the Megane GT manages to combine just the right amount of sporty aggression with sleek sophistication.

An oversized version of Renault’s diamond logo dominates the nose, and acutely swept headlights (optional LEDs on ‘our’ car) incorporate a distinctive Dali-esque hook melted from the outer edge, balanced by additional running lights and vents lower down.

Front and rear guards bulge over 18-inch ‘Magny-Cours’ alloy rims, and the gently sloping turret causes the glasshouse to taper neatly towards the rear. Chrome inserts around the front guard badges and along the door tops add a subtle dash of flash.

At the back, the Megane’s signature tail-lights stretch close to the point of touching across the rear door, with a high-mount spoiler above and a mini diffuser underneath. Extra hints of chrome above the licence plate and on the exhaust tip keep things interesting, without going over the top.

The interior is smooth and contemporary, with a classy 8.7-inch, portrait-oriented colour touchscreen dominating the centre console.

Touches of the blue exterior colour are strategically applied to the wheel, dash, door trims, and Alcantara trimmed sports seats, with the 7.0-inch LCD instrument cluster headlined by a super-functional grouping of digital speedo within an analogue tachometer. Racy alloy highlights adorn the gearshift, wheel, and pedals.

The overall feel is cool and functional, with the standard of fit and finish impressive for a sub-$40k wagon.

With the body structure of a regular Ford Focus the RS is one of the most practical high performance cars on the market right now. Decent sized back doors which open wide and a headroom friendly roofline meant even swinging our toddler in and out of his car seat wasn’t back breaking. 

A great Recaro bench back seat is comfortable and supportive although there’s not as much legroom in there as a regular Focus thanks to those larger front seats. Still, I’m 191cm tall and there’s daylight between my knees and the seatback when it’s in my driving position. More space than the new Renault Megane for example.

The boot space isn’t great compared to other small hatches at 316 litres (44 litres less than a Toyota Corolla and 63 litres less than a Hyundai i30's cargo capacity) but with our family there was enough room for the weekly shopping and the mountain of gear that follows our child everywhere such as a pram and change bags.

The interior lighting is frustrating. There are map lights over the driver and front passenger and directional lights over the rear passengers. However, while the LED bulbs are intensely bright to look at, they don’t cast a wide beam.

At 4.6m long, 1.8m wide, and 1.4m high, the Megane wagon sits squarely in the size window occupied by its key competitors from Peugeot (308 Touring), Skoda (Octavia), and Volkswagen (Golf).

Importantly, it only gives ground to the Peugeot in terms of wheelbase, and interior space is plentiful.

Front-seat passengers are furnished with generous head and legroom, plus lots of storage, including two cupholders, door bins big enough for bottles, a medium-sized glove box and numerous trays around the centre console for coins, keys or a phone. Power and connectivity points run to a 12-volt outlet, two USB jacks and an SD card input. 

Sitting behind the driver’s seat, set for my 183cm height, there’s heaps of rear legroom, and headroom is surprisingly good. Major brownie points for adjustable air vents for back seaters, as well as two cupholders in the fold-down centre armrest, map pockets in the front seatbacks, and door bins able to accommodate (small) bottles.

You’d expect a wagon to come good in the load-space department, and even with the 60/40 split folding rear seat upright there’s 580 litres of cargo capacity on offer. Fold the back seat forward, and you’re looking at 1505 litres. Although that’s lots of space, it’s substantially less than the competition, the Peugeot 306 Touring coughing up an extra 236 litres, for example, (with seats folded). Clearly, the packaging compromise is extra rear legroom.

That said, there’s a tricky dual-level floor system built in, allowing for well-hidden storage spaces, or increased load height. Plus, you’ll find four tie-down anchors, handy bins behind the rear wheel tubs, a neat pull-up divider near the rear door to help keep smaller items under control, and well-placed handles for folding the rear seats remotely.

Just don’t go looking for a spare wheel, a Bose sub-woofer sits in that recess, and your only option in the case of a flat tyre is a ‘can of goo’ inflator repair kit.

Cost of entry for the Megane GT Wagon is $39,490, before on-road costs, with a drive-away price of $42,990 in place until September 30, 2017.

That ticket brings a large basket of standard fruit, including LED mirror indicators, rear fog lights, front, side and rear parking sensors, a reversing camera, park-assistance system, tyre-pressure monitor, adaptive cruise control with speed limiter, auto headlights, and ‘Multi-Sense’ (personalised driver modes and interior ambience).

But wait, there’s more, like remote keyless entry and start, rain-sensing wipers, dual-zone climate control air, heated and folding exterior mirrors, heated front seats, ‘R-Link 2’ navigation and multimedia system (with voice control), the 8.7-inch touchscreen, 7.0-inch digital instrument display, and eight-speaker Arkamys audio. No Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, though.

Heavy hitting for a car that just ducks under the $40k barrier (before on-roads). Our test example featured metallic paint ($600), and a ‘Premium Pack’ ($1490), incorporating ‘Pure Vison’ LED headlights and a Bose audio system, for an all-up price of $41,580.

The Focus RS has a 2.3-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol engine with an enormous output of 257kW in power and 440Nm of torque. It’s not as much as the 280kW/470Nm of the Mercedes-AMG 45 hatch or the Audi RS3 Sportback with 270kW/465Nm, but those cars are much more expensive, so from a bang-for-your-buck angle, it’s excellent value.

The engine is fundamentally the same four-cylinder that’s in the Mustang EcoBoost, but has been re-engineered for the RS with a low-inertia turbo featuring a bigger compressor, as well as a larger intercooler and radiator, while being tuned to produce a higher output. 

Having driven the Mustang EcoBoost I can say this four cylinder is far better suited to a hot hatch. The spooling boost that works like a slingshot is more in keeping with the character of the RS.

The Focus RS only comes with a six-speed manual which sends drive to all four wheels with 100 percent going to the front ones normally, but if needed 70 percent can be delivered to the rears.

The Focus RS doesn’t need a limited slip differential thanks its twin clutch all-wheel drive system which uses torque vectoring on the rear axle. This means drive to a slipping rear wheel could be cut completely, with 100 per cent sent to the opposite wheel. Yup, you could almost turn on the spot.

The Megane GT is powered by an all-alloy, 1.6-litre turbo intercooled four-cylinder petrol engine. Featuring direct injection and variable valve timing (intake and exhaust side), the (M5MT) TCe 205 unit resides under the bonnet of other Renault-Nissan performance models, including the Renault Sport Clio, and Nissan Juke Nismo.

In this application, it produces 151kW at 6000rpm, and 280Nm at 2400rpm, driving the front wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch auto transmission.

Ford says the Focus RS will run on 95 RON premium unleaded at an average combined rate of 8.1L/100km but I doubt they drove their car like I did. After putting almost 300km on the clock in a combination of country and city driving I recorded 11.9L/100km. 

Renault claims the Megane GT wagon consumes 6.0L/100km on the combined (ADR 81/02 - urban, extra-urban) fuel economy cycle, emitting 134g/km of C02 in the process.

Over roughly 300km of often ‘spirited’ city, suburban and freeway driving we recorded a dash-indicated 8.5L/100km.

You’ll need 50 litres of (minimum) 95RON premium unleaded to fill the tank, which translates to a range of approximately 590km on our figures.

It was only 10 minutes into my journey home in the Focus RS when I noticed the Audi RS3 in the rear view mirror driven by somebody I can only describe as Korean Elvis. I was darting through peak hour traffic and so was he, keeping right behind me. He wanted to play. It’s the curse of driving a car which screams 'race me.' 

Drift mode. It’s a victory over the fun police.

Thing is, I knew how much pain Korean Elvis was in. The RS3’s suspension is so brutally firm and our big city road surfaces are so bad that every pot hole feels like a nuclear bomb going off underneath you. 

Not the case with the Focus RS. Sure it doesn’t have the cushiony ride of a Focus Trend, but you can still absolutely live with it. Those optional low-profile Michelins ‘feel’ the road in great detail, which also means they have a habit of following grooves in the road, but they are matched so well with the suspension that the result is a firm but absorbent ride that isn’t going to have you putting it up for sale on our website a week after buying it.

That suspension can also be softened thanks to adjustable dampers when you select the Normal driving mode. The other modes Sport, Track and Drift, which stiffen up the suspension for sharper handling, add weight to the steering, and as you step up to the final two, loosen the traction control leash to give you more freedom to slide – in the right setting of course.

Yup, you're read right. Drift mode. It’s a victory over the fun police, and the actual police. How it works is clever. When Drift mode is selected the car’s computer examines the driver’s steering inputs and will allow the car to slide, but will jump in if it predicts a loss of control. Electronic stability control remains on the entire time. Of course, unless you pay to shut down an entire street like Ken Block, drifting should be done on a skid pan or track. 

Another win is how light the clutch is, and how easy that manual gearbox is to use. That first night home in the traffic – Korean Elvis aside – was spent dancing constantly with that clutch and it’s as close to perfect as you’ll find with a low take-up point, and shifts that just find their way home happily.

You’ll see that people online are complaining about the Focus RS’s turning circle, and it’s true 11.8m isn’t good – and that’s two turns lock-to-lock. Streets in my test route that normally take a text-book three points to turn around in took up to five in the RS. It’d be a disaster if the clutch and shifting wasn’t so easy. Even the placement of the gear stick is ergonomically spot-on, so it lands right in your palm when you drop your arm down.

Those 19-inch wheels wouldn’t be helping the turning circle, but also remember that the RS3 doesn’t do much better at 10.9m and the BMW M2 with 19-inch rims has a turning circle of 11.7m.

The steering itself is on the heavier side but accurate, particularly in Sport mode.

And then there’s the acceleration – 0-100km/h in 4.7 seconds. A new Porsche 911 with a manual gearbox can do it in 4.6 seconds but it's $150,000 more. The 911 also doesn’t have all-wheel drive or four doors, while only children fit comfortably in the back seats, there’s also next to no boot space and it comes with the constant fear that you’ll return to it after a nice dinner and find some arse has run a key down the side.

The RS is just a lairy looking Focus – or so people will think. To most people that’s just what it looks like and you’ll appear to be an overgrown teenager who thinks they’re Ken Block and has hooned up their Ford Focus with spoilers and plasticy bits. 

But to those that know – like Korean Elvis – the Focus RS is not a lairy looking Focus. Under that skin is a very different animal with outstanding handling and agility – worthy of the RS badge.

I didn’t get to drive the RS on a racetrack this time around, but I did get to blast through a wet, twisting, semi-rural backroad in the dead of night and it performed beautifully. Balanced, surefooted with so much grunt under your foot the entire time. My 2002 Holden Monaro with its 5.7 litre V8 could only manage 225kW; this is a Ford Focus, with 270kW! And it’s all far more manageable thanks to the all-wheel drive.

That hot-four engine note is brilliant and the crackle and pop from the exhaust is addictive – and can be made louder and more aggro through the different drive modes.

No, the interior isn’t special – apart from those Recaro seats. And no, the Recaro seats don’t have a height adjustment which leaves you feeling way too high up, but the athletic ability of this car makes these small issues fade away. Besides, you could always get somebody at Ford to look at the seats and see what can be done to adjust them.  

So, what was painful about the experience? Smashing my knee on the dashboard’s air vents every time I climbed out. I have the same issue with a regular Focus – the dash board design sees the section which meets the door swoop down. It looks great but my knees hate it.

A badge bringing the words Renault and Sport together is always a good one, and yes, the Megane GT wagon is a cracking drive.

Renault says the sprint from 0-100km/h takes 7.4sec, and thanks to the standard launch-control system that agreeably rapid rate of acceleration is achievable, time after time.

With maximum torque (280Nm) on tap from 2400rpm, mid-range performance is lively, with response barely easing as peak power (151kW) arrives, right up at 6000rpm.

The engine’s induction growl and a raspy exhaust note impart an appropriately dynamic feel, the sports seats are as comfortable as they are grippy, with pronounced side bolsters keeping you firmly located in quick going, and the leather-trimmed wheel is a pleasure to twirl.

Steering is sweet, with beautifully progressive turn-in, good road feel and linear response, thanks in no small part to the GT’s ‘4Control’ four-wheel steering set-up.

Flicking the ‘RS Drive’ button on the dash unlocks Sport mode, which reduces the steering input required by 40 per cent, fine tunes accelerator response, and recalibrates engine and transmission mapping. It’s a nice button to press, and brings up racy power and torque read-outs in the instrument display.

Body control is neatly buttoned down, yet ride comfort is excellent. What is it about Renault Sport and this kind of amazing suspension voodoo? And manual shifts from the seven-speed dual-clutch, via column-mounted paddles, are slick as frying butter. The ‘Multi-downshift’ gear-change system also lets you go all F1, with the transmission automatically shifting to the lowest possible gear if you keep the paddle depressed.

I do have several gripes, however. Not everyone will love the Marvel superhero fanfare that welcomes you into the car (thankfully, it's easily disabled). Despite featuring a ‘GT Enhanced’ braking system, the brakes are bitey on initial application, no matter how hard you try to ease them in. The dual clutch can be clunky at slow speeds in auto mode. The ambient lighting doesn’t maintain its setting when you turn the car off and come back to it. And while installation of the central multimedia screen is smooth, the operation of most of its functions is anything but.

This Renault is where it needs to be in terms of passive and safety tech, with crash-avoidance features including AEB, lane-departure warning, distance warning, blind-spot warning, ESC, ABS, EBA, EBD, and a tyre-pressure-monitoring system. 

On the passive side of the ledger, the GT is fitted with (adaptive) front airbags, and lateral (pelvis and chest-level) airbags for the driver and front passenger, and curtain airbags covering the front and second-row seats.

The Renault Megane hasn’t been assessed by ANCAP, but scores a maximum five stars from Euro NCAP (although it’s worth noting the vehicle tested may not align with Australian spec).

The Focus RS is covered by a three year/100,000km warranty with servicing recommended every 12 months or 15,000km. It’s capped at $375 per service for the first three visits, then $520 for the fourth which is major service. Then it's back to $375 each service for the next three, and again $520 for the eighth service. Here’s a bit of pub trivia for you: after 33 years or 495,000km the service will cost you $375 according to the service price calculator on Ford’s website – try to hold them to that!

Renault supports its Australian passenger range with a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, with 24/7 Roadside Assistance provided for the duration.

Service is recommended every 12 months or 30,000km (whichever comes first), with a capped-price program ensuring a maximum price of $299 for the first three scheduled services.