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Ford Focus convertible for summer


Beginning of summer will signal a concerted small-car push from Ford with its coupe-convertible Focus.

It has delayed the arrival of the droptop compact to give it the best possible launching conditions, when sales of open-air contenders rise as sharply as the temperature.

“Summer is the right time to launch the convertible,” says Jogi Shetti, head of import product planning at Ford Australia. He won't reveal the exact time or its likely price, but admits the CC will come from Europe and be sold in the same style as the company's successful Focus XR5 hot hatch.

“We're thinking to keep it simple — one model with the petrol powertrain.”

Shetti says; the plan to take Ford away from its Falcon-first emphasis has the potential to bring many new small and medium-class cars to Australia. But denies the decision to import its bread-and-butter Focus models from South Africa, not Europe, will hurt local customers.

There's talk in Europe of a new Focus next year but he says the rumours are wrong and even if there is an update similar to the one just done for the Australian car, including a Focus diesel, it will quickly make its way here.

“There is no all-new Focus, because this one is virtually brand new,” Shetti says. “The Focus was launched two years ago in Australia and this is our first freshening. There will be one more before there's a totally new model. That will be the same for Europe.”

Shetti admits Ford Australia is looking at extra Focus models, including the red-hot RS all-wheel drive turbo and the S-Max people.

He's defensive about the potential for a diesel engine in the Fiesta and the plan for the return of the mid-sized Mondeo later this year:

“We will have a diesel powertrain in the Mondeo — that's been announced. This (the Focus) is our foray into diesel and we'll learn.

“It's easy to tick boxes on a piece of paper to get things but we have to understand the diesel customer. There are options all over the place.”