I'm on my second (C-Max this time, regular Focus hatch the first). It does need to be revved fairly high for torque, but I have never stalled unless I was driving it like it's a 2 litre diesel (as in "expecting it to take off from a standing start in second gear"). You do have to shift gears a bit more often, and I have made my displeasure known to the car verbally when I was in the "suggested" gear for the car and tried to accelerate. It seems to love suggesting going to 6th gear from 40MPH upwards. ONLY if you're doing a constant speed on a level, because even a slight hill will completely take the oomph out until you downshift, usually by at least two gears. I easily hit 45-47MPG with the first one on longish journeys, closer to 40MPG when I was doing lots of tiny trips. About 2-3 MPG less with the heavier, bulkier C-Max.
Is it as fun/easy to drive as a bigger engine with more torque? Hell no, it's quite dull, but then it's more or less the textbook "family" car, and I quite like how it seems designed to prevent me from doing anything stupid in a fit of road-rage with my family in the car.