Ford Focus ST Forum banner

Anyone worried about Focus ST's huge turning radius???

36K views 40 replies 23 participants last post by  FormulaGPL 
#1 ·
Just noticed that the new Focus ST will have a turning circle of 39.4 ft.
Seems like a bit too big for the car of this size (may be due to bigger tires and suspension), making U-turns and tight parkings harder.

For comparison sake, here's the turning diameters for some other cars:
2012 VW GTI: 35.8 ft
2012 Mazda Speed3 : 36.1 ft
2012 Subaru WRX: 34.8 ft
2013 Ford Focus (titanium): 36 ft
2013 Ford Mustang V6: 33.4 ft
2012 Chevrolet Camero: 37.7 ft
2012 Honda CRV: 37 ft
2013 Ford Explorer: 39.2 ft
2013 Ford Edge: 39.3 ft
2012 Nissan Maxima: 37.4 ft
2012 VW Toureg: 39 ft
2012 Buick Enclave: 40.4 ft
2012 Ford F-150 (regular cab): 41.7 ft
 
#2 ·
Kinda used to wide turning with my SVT.
it will be a bitch point for some.
 
#3 · (Edited)
I didn't think it was bad while I was driving it yesterday, can't be an worse than my Mustang, turning radius on that thing is crap. I watched this video months ago, go to 1:20 in the video. According to this it wouldn't be a problem. But this is all I have to go on until I get to drive the thing around normally and not on the track.

 
#4 ·
It is partly attributed to the larger wheels. My Titanium had a huge turning radius too. I've not noticed it being a problem as of yet. Nothing like our old Saab 9000. Needed to do K turns with that thing when even a pick up truck could manage a U turn in the same spot.
 
#5 ·
It's an annoyance I'll have to live with. But it's larger than my Trans Am, which is around 2 feet longer in overall dimensions. And the turning radius in the TA really does annoy me. I would have rather seen them widen the wheel wells another 6" overall and widen the axles or offset to keep the turning radius the same as a base Focus.

But it's the only negative I've really seen to the car. Given all the other things the ST is good at, I can live with the K-turns.
 
#6 ·
Yup. Its due to the wheels. Ti's with the handling package (same wheel/tire size as ST) have steering limiters in the rack. A regular focus has a much tighter turning radius. Its the price we pay to have the meats on our rides. Im use to it now. Its a PITA sometimes especially if oncoming traffic is coming and you're pulling a 3-point.....
 
#8 ·
LMAO. Luckily the streets and roads around here in aren't very tight. It is kinda embarrassing sometimes to need a 3-4 point turn when trying to do a U-turn at a light and avoid curb rash. I'm sure people are thinking, "that's a little compact Focus, why's he doing that?"
 
#11 ·
Only while in Michigan.


On the go - Via TapTalk
 
#19 ·
I was checking the turning radius of older Foci and the older ones have a radius of 17.1 ft compared to the 18.0 ft of the ST so there isn't a huge difference. I doubt I'll even notice the difference honestly. My Mustang has a turn radius of 20.4 ft which I do sometimes find annoying compared to the 17.1 on my Focus but for the most part it's negligible. The 2012 Miata for example has a radius of 15.4 ft but it's a much smaller car than the Focus. The 2012 Fiesta has a turning radius of 17.2 ft so I don't think it will be that big of a deal.
 
#31 · (Edited)
Resurrecting a pertinent old thread rather than start a new new:

I specifically looked at this on one test drive, since the reported number alone seemed strange. There's a good spot for a turning circle near one "auto row", a four-lane road through a business park that dead-ends, so there's no traffic, but plenty of road. I drove my car (Outback), a GTI, and the ST the same way -- line up the right wheel on the edge of the road, crank the wheel full left, roll around the circle, and then see where I wound up.

All the cars wound up in essentially the same place, crossing two lanes of traffic and winding up in the leftmost-lane going the other way, at some distance from the yellow center line (now on the driver's side). I couldn't tell any difference between the position of the ST and the Outback (nominally 36'). The GTI seemed smaller, but only by maybe a foot. A 4-foot difference, as in the numbers, would have been a half of a lane width, and I just didn't see that much difference.

It'd be interesting if someone actually took the production car and measured the turning circle. Maybe pre-production was larger, or there's a measurement/reporting error. (Or maybe a 10% difference just isn't significant in day-to-day life compared with all the other factors.)

In parking lots, the ST seemed okay, but that's more subjective. I'd have liked to try it in a parking deck which is a little small. But as of now, I'm not worried that the turning circle will be a nagging factor. Might not have that small-car agile feeling in the parking lot, though.
 
#33 ·
Good to hear.

When I test drove an ST about a week ago, I can't say that I noticed the so-called huge turning radius. I'm willing to bet that many people either won't notice or won't care that there is a difference. I figure stuff like that is useful for magazine comparisons and that's about it. Sort of like skid pad speed and lateral g's. Useful for 10/10ths drivers, but you won't see that stuff schlepping around town between stoplights or driving through neighborhoods.
 
#34 ·
Could also be part of why it is not be so noticeable is the smaller amount of turns of the wheel lock to lock on the ST vs. most other vehicles. When doing a U-turn, it takes time to turn the wheel to full lock. If you have to do less turning of the wheel to get there, the tires may be turned to full lock just a bit faster than on other cars, so the effective turning radius difference may not be quite as noticeable. The difference would be glaring though in a basic turning circle test, since it doesn't take into account driver wheel turning time.
 
#35 ·
True; that's why I did my test from a dead stop, to crank the wheel to the stops before moving.

When you're at speed, turning circle doesn't come into play. There aren't many curves tight enough for it to matter. (AASHTO's standard min radius for a 15 mph curve is 64 feet.) Turning circle isn't handling curves on the road. It shows up in parking decks and three-point turns on two-lane roads.
 
#36 ·
I come from 8.5 years of driving a SVT Focus and 1 year of driving an Acura TL.
The ST's turning circle is right in between those two cars, so it's within inches of what I've been driving for nearly a decade.
I think I'll be fine.

The ST should feel more nimble because of the quicker and lighter steering rack too.
 
#39 ·
I use to have a 2000 Contour SVT and it had a similar turning radius. It really never bothered me but it did require 2 tries to make a U turn in some small streets. That never did bother me and for its time, the car handled pretty good and so I did not care. I don't really think it will be an issue with any buyer of a 2013 ST anyway and other than this post, it never entered into my decision when I pre-ordered my ST.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top