Ford Focus Active Review 2025: Price, specs & boot space

The Ford Focus Active is the model for you if you’re looking for a rugged family car that drives like a normal hatchback. It won’t handle off-roading like a traditional SUV but it laughs in the face of speed humps and will find grip on the slippiest of roads.

You can forget about rolly polly SUV-style cornering, the Active feels as pin-sharp in bends as the standard Focus and its running costs won’t bleed your wallet dry like an SUV’s either.

Likewise, you also get a practical interior with excellent infotainment and a long suite of safety features that make the Focus Active a safe bet in more ways than one. 

Ford’s 125PS 1.0-litre petrol is an excellent all-round engine. It costs buttons to run, but its turbocharger means it’s got plenty of zip in town. 

Ford's phased out agricultural engines in favour of mild hybrid technology. This means there are just two engines to choose from. A six-speed manual with 125ps or a seven-speed automatic with 155ps. The latter's a rather fruity option that doesn't feel miles off the full-fat ST.

Before, you could have the jacked-up Focus in two trim levels – Active and Active X. Now, only the Active X exists. Still, you get heaps of standard equipment to boot like 18-inch alloys, a B&O audio system and wireless phone charging. 

Choosing a direct alternative to the Ford Focus Active isn’t easy, but the most likely competitors are the Kia XCeed, Nissan Qashqai and Volvo V60 Cross Country. 

Even two-wheel-drive versions of traditional SUVs will cost more to run than the Focus due to their aerodynamic, boxy shapes. The best alternative could be found in a Ford showroom until a few years ago. It was known as the Ford Fiesta Active, but we'll not talk about the Fiesta - many of us are still mourning it. 

If you’re looking to swap your old Focus for a new model, you'll notice a big hike in interior quality. Where plastics were hard and brittle in the old model, they’re now soft and squidgy. 

It’s not perfect, though. The centre console between the front seats is still made from hard and scratchy materials and you also sense Ford couldn’t decide which texture of plastics to go for, instead using a little bit of everything. 

That’s particularly true when you compare it to the new Volkswagen Golf’s cabin design which, in comparison, looks and feels like a case study on how to make a cabin classy.

The Active X model also adds unique flashes-of-blue seat upholstery and all the windows behind your seat are tinted to keep the cabin cool in the blazing heat.  

They feel a tad posher over the standard Titanium trim, giving you full leather seats, the fronts being heated by what feels like thermonuclear power. There's also the option to install a £1,045 panoramic roof. something that was once standard on the Active X.

Ford's since got rid of its 8-inch infotainment screen, replacing it with a larger and nicer 13.2-inch unit. Similarly, there's now a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster. 

The way the big infotainment screen sits proud of the dash makes it look like a bit of an afterthought but there’s no denying it limits the time you need to take your eyes off the road when you're using it. 

Operating the touchscreen can be a little hit-and-miss when you’re jiggling down the road, but Ford makes it as easy as possible by organising its menus into large tiles that are fairly easy to hit. It also comes packed with Ford's latest SYNC 4 tech. Basically, this means it'll sync with your smartphone via the FordPass app and allow you to control phone calls, remote locking, music and navigation. 

Ford also throws in a three-month Vodafone subscription for onboard WiFi, it’s clever, but also a gimmick you don’t really need as most of us have data packages nowadays. 

The wide range of adjustment upfront makes getting comfortable behind the wheel a piece of cake and the Ford Focus Active gets lumbar support as standard for the driver’s seat. 

The back seat does without the extras – it doesn’t even get its own air vent – but it’s still fundamentally comfy. Even if you're six-foot, another six-footer can sit behind you without feeling crushed, though they’d have even more room in a Skoda Octavia. That said, three adults will fit in the back of the Ford and there’s plenty of room for everyone’s feet despite the hump in the floor.

Fitting a child seat is simple because the ISOFIX points are clear to see when you remove their easy-to-lose plastic covers and there’s plenty of room to manoeuvre the baby chair in behind the front seats. Storage spaces are also well thought out. The glove box is large and so are all four door pockets, you get a place to hide small valuables under the front centre armrest and, in front of it, you’ll find a couple of cupholders hidden under a sliding-covered recess. 

The USB port is easy to see – not hidden under the dashboard like a Honda Civic’s – and there’s a handy rubber-lined tray sitting below it, so you can leave your phone charging without it disappearing under a seat the minute you touch the brakes. 

Ford’s also given the boot a lot of thought. Open the door and you get a nice square opening, a flat floor and rear-wheel arches that are recessed away, all of which make loading a cinch. Especially because the raised suspension means not having to bend your back so much loading.

Ford hasn't completely stripped the Focus Active of its previously admired attributes. Buyers can still choose from a hatchback or an estate. Opt for the former and you'll find 1,354 litres of boot space with the rear seats folded while the latter offers 300 litres more. This means you'll easily get an adult bike in there. 

Any other notes? Well, it’s a shame the back seats only split 60/40 – not 40/20/40 like in a Volkswagen Golf. Oh, and Active cars come fitted as standard with roof rails, so you can easily fit roof racks and the like.

Due to the rugged body cladding the  Ford Focus Active has larger dimensions than the regular Focus model at 4378mm long, 1848mm wide (excluding mirrors) and 1502mm tall. 

As previously mentioned, gone are the days of ticking the box that says 'diesel'. Whether you pick the hatchback or the estate, you'll still have just two engine petrol engine choices. Both are 1.0-litre EcoBoost units but have different power levels. 

The most popular model is the 125PS petrol that, as with the 1.5-litre petrol, is a three-cylinder engine. It’s easy to see why people like it because it’s very frugal, for a petrol. Ford claims the new mild-hybrid engine in this tune will return 51.4mpg. Things are slightly different with the 155ps unit, but not by massive amounts. Here, the fuel consumption drops to 50.4mpg.

So it’s cheap to run, but also nippy, getting from 0-62mph in 10 seconds with a sporty thrum that suits the engaging way the Ford drives. Opt for the 155ps, and this doesn't feel too far off the hot ST guise with 0-62mph arriving in 8.6 seconds. 

Surprisingly, fitting Ford’s optional smooth-shifting seven-speed automatic gearbox (available across the range) has a detrimental effect on both fuel economy and performance.

Another advantage of choosing a jacked-up family car like the Ford Focus Active over a standard SUV is that it’ll be much quieter on the motorway.

Why? Well because the Active has the same slippery shape as any other Focus, so it won’t suffer from the wind noise around the windscreen that you get in boxier SUVs and its small wing mirrors let air flow past them without causing wind-whistle.

What will make a difference is what engine you choose. Both the 125 and 155PS petrol models have three-cylinder engines that produce more vibrations through the pedals and steering wheel than the four-cylinder alternatives available in the Volkswagen Golf. That said, it’s never annoying.

Although the Ford Focus Active hasn’t itself been evaluated by Euro NCAP, the standard car was awarded five stars when it crash-tested and you can expect the jacked-up model to perform just as strongly. 

Looking beyond the lab results, it’s clear Ford has done a comprehensive job of making the Active as safe as possible. Okay, so you don’t get bright shining LED headlights, but you do get LED fog lights that light up the sides of the road when you go round corners, while LED taillights make the car easier to spot at night.

Automatic emergency brakes also come as standard and they’re an advanced system, meaning they can detect vehicles, but also cyclists and pedestrians. 

The system will warn you of the impending impact before applying the brakes hard if you don’t react. If you do hit another car, the Ford will also lock its brakes to stop you rolling into a secondary accident.

You even get Intelligent Speed Assist. It reads speed limit signs and will stop the car exceeding the speed limit. And if you don’t like the sound of that, don’t worry, it can be switched off. There are also front and rear parking sensors and cruise control. 

You can, of course, boost safety by dipping into the Active’s (very reasonably priced) options list. The blind spot information system with blind spot assist is a good place to start, and it's one of the cheapest packages on offer. There's also the Driver Assist Pack, which adds driver alert, traffic sign recognition, adaptive cruise control and auto high-beam assist. And finally, the Parking Pack. This includes everything that's needed to reduce the pain of navigating tight car parks such as door edge protectors and a rear camera. 

Drive often at night on pitch-black country roads? Then the optional Dynamic Matrix LED system is worth a look. It adds dynamic LED headlights that produce a bright white full beam that can be used even in oncoming traffic. 

Unfortunately, Ford finished seventh in the most recent HonestJohn.co.uk Satisfaction Index. However, modern cars are generally pretty reliable, and the fact that Ford sells so many cars means it's more likely that problems will be reported.

Ford backs its cars with a three-year/60,000-mile warranty. It's not quite as much as its rivals, but there's scope to extend after the warranty period for piece of mind. 

The base Titanium guise lands in group 14. The mHEV Active X is group 16, placing it one above the previously offered Active. To put things in perspective, the Active X falls into the same group as the Audi A3 Saloon, the BMW 2-Series Gran Tourer and the Ford Kuga. 

Under the latest car tax rules, the Ford Focus Active costs £220 for the first year in VED for the 125 and 155ps models. For the second tax payment onward, this drops to £190. 

It’s easy to see why you might choose a Ford Focus Active X in favour of the standard Ford Focus. They look smarter inside thanks to their full leather interior, while you also get heated front seats, four-way electrical adjustment for the driver’s chair, climate control and larger 18-inch wheels and then there's the quirky SUV bodywork. 

Getting in is also easier thanks to the X model’s keyless entry and handy puddle lights that light up the area around the car so you don’t tread in something wet (or worse). 

Inside, you get Ford’s top-of-the-range sat-nav system with a 13.2-inch display, SYNC 4, and a couple of unique driving modes – Slippery and Trail – designed to keep you going on low-grip surfaces.