Verdict on the new Ford Focus
SAM HARDY, our road test editor, sends us this blog from the Detroit Motor Show: Twelve months ago, the future of the Detroit Motor Show hung in the balance. But this week, the motor city has been given a huge shot in the arm, with Ford’s decision to reveal its all-new Focus in the motor city.
What’s the view on the newcomer from the show floor? Well, mixed is perhaps the best way to describe it. While the Fiesta was universally welcomed, the Focus hasn’t had such a good reception: too Korean say some, not distinctive enough say others. As for those triangular front air intakes – well, the less said the better. Perhaps it’s the result of what happens when you design a ‘global car’? Everyone tends to have their say and sometimes the results can lack, well – focus. I ran into Bentley board member Dr Ulrich Eichhorn, an ex-Ford man who was instrumental in the engineering of the Mk1 Focus. “The advantage we had with that car was that it was only designed for one market,” he told me. “And it wasn’t meant to spawn a whole host of other models.”
Not so the third generation car. By 2012, some 10 different models will have come from its new platform, which will allow Ford to double Focus-based worldwide production to two million cars a year. Incredibly, it will be sold in 122 countries – such as Russia, China and of course the US – and is likely to become one of the biggest-selling Fords ever.
