I agree, we have owned a 1.6 Focus for 5 years and it's been a better car than our Octavia, owned for 4 years, although the Ford has a lower mileage. Although initial perceptions might indicate the Skoda to have "better" quality, in reality this is not the case.

My parents have had Fiestas for years, Their current 1.0 ecoboost is a very impressive drive, but it does lack the flexibility of a non turbo unit, their previous 1.4 was slower but a lot more flexible. I prefer that. For long term ownership, I would go 1.4 or 1.25 Yamaha, rather than the relatively unproven 1.0 Ecoboost, which is an extremely complex engine. For long term ownership, keep it simple, non turbo.

Unlike the above post who says all Fords are rubbish because he doesn't like them - not very helpful!

The poster above had an open mind, he'd delivered thousands of the things in his previous work without getting all dewey eyed about them because really they are no different to any other mass produced car, and like so many others lacking any sort of engine stall speed guts.

Then once he changed jobs found the pool cars were Mondeo Focus' and more recently Fiesta, and expected (due to glowing reports aboutpower ride/handling etc) to be impressed, when in practice found the Diesels to be, as remembered, gutless until up to a certain RPM when they did a sudden Mr Hyde to the previously half dead Dr Jekyl, but only for a few seconds circa 1500 rpm till the next gear was required, and with a disappointing rideto boot, but then they're hardly alone in that among the usual euroboxes, friends Golf 7 might as well be on concrete springs and fork truck solid tyres, one manager's top spec Audi A3 the most unpleasant box of electronics i've driven in years, we'd hired a previous shape Focus in Ireland for a family funeral and were very glad to see the back of it, horrible crashing ride where you felt every bump, and trust me in Co Clare there are lots of bumps, had bad backs for weeks after.

The more recent addition, petrol Fiesta is as underpowered a thing as i've had the misfortune to drive in many a year and has to be thrashed mercilessly to make any progress at all, but i agree the ride is quite reasonable, better than Focus IMO.

In future i'll only comment when i have something positive to say, be like the BBC the Grauniad and Chanel No 4 only report glowingly on a favoured group and keep schtum otherwise..:-)

Edited by gordonbennet on 12/03/2017 at 08:59

Is there a hatch out there with a decent ride quality over our broken road surfaces? I'd be keen on whatever it is.

The worst ride of any car I've been in lately is an Audi TT. Awful.

Half the problem is huge wheels and elastic band tyres, almost compulsory fitment unless you buy the very basic model, which get called poverty spec which i find ironic when so many cars need to be financed to own, but maybe thats me.

Two hatchbacks have stood out to me as really soft riding, Corsa and Note1, both of which were sitting on small wheels and tyres with lots of sidewall, the Note impressed me with how it rode potholes.

I expect lots of cars, if on tyres of 60 absolute minimum, but preferably 70, aspect tyres, would be smoother and quieter, plus cheap tyres a welcome bonus, i'm sure that really soft riding Corsa was on 80 aspect tyres, which i haven't seen on a modern car for years.

Your problem is finding a test drive on sensible wheels, when the demo is usually one that has showroom (bling) appeal and likely to be on the biggest wheels they could spec, then you need to insist on taking your own route for the test drive on suitable surfaces not the billiard smooth dual carriageway they prefer.

My friends Golf 7 is horrid, its on 19" joke wheels, the noise of which has to be heard to be believed, running over a cats eye makes you wince, probably a similar set up to the TT you 'enjoyed' so much..:-).

If you want a smooth ride over our third world roads i can recommend Landcruiser LC5 on air shocks, but that might not be quite what you wanted, more sensibly would you consider Forester?

Edited by gordonbennet on 12/03/2017 at 13:04

Edited by SLO76 on 12/03/2017 at 18:13