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The next-generation Ford Focus.
An unchanged $21,990 Focus starting price signals a major small-car push at Ford Australia.
An all-new Focus is coming soon from Europe but the car will eventually be built at a new factory in Thailand, the country where Ford already manufactures the baby Fiesta. The destination change points to a price-driven future for the car but Ford is standing firm on the bottom line with early deliveries from its factory at Saarlouis in Germany.
It is also building a small-car plan to counter the Holden Cruze, which is priced from $20,990. The baby Holden is selling very strongly since a switch to local manufacturing in Adelaide, with a five-door hatch to follow later this year alongside the four-door sedan. Ironically, the localisation of the Cruze mirrors Ford Australia's original plan for the Focus, which was to have been built at Broadmeadows for exports around the Asia-Pacific basin. But that plan was dumped with a change of management and a stronger emphasis on the Territory and a four-cylinder future for the Falcon.
Ford is promising big things for the new Focus, which will have a price spread from $19,990 for a 1.6-litre Ambient manual through to $36,090 for the Titanium automatic with turbodiesel engine. "It's a completely new car. New engines and everything. Even the control blade rear end has been tweaked a bit," says Neil McDonald, spokesman for Ford Australia. "It's a vast improvement in technology, quality and, obviously, the styling. It's a significant plank in our 2011 arsenal.
"The new Focus is part of the whole platform of change this year with 85 per cent of our vehicles either new or updated." One thing missing, at least at first, is an EcoBoost efficiency leader to join the similar EcoBoo st models in the Fiesta and Mondeo.
"We won't have EcoBoost, at least initially. We're going with a 1.6- litre petrol, a 2.0-litre GTI petrol and a 2.0-litre TDCi diesel," says McDonald. "That leaves the way open for whatever happens in the future."
The Focus is still selling relatively well, with 1147 deliveries in June - during its showroom runout - setting a new high for 2011, although the figure is not much better than one-third of the result for the class leading Mazda3. The new Focus is on sale in August.
