Ford Focus 2011 News

Both brands saw their compact cars become their best sellers in January. In the official sales figures, Australia’s former number one car - Holden’s Commodore - was beaten for the first time by the Cruze. To compound the plight of the slow selling locally made big car, Ford’s Focus also easily outsold the troubled Falcon. Australia’s number one car remains the 2011 champion, the Mazda 3, followed by two other small models, Toyota’s Corolla and the Cruze. In a week when Holden took steps to reduce its Elizabeth South Australia workforce, the carmaker can at least take consolation from the Cruze being built locally.The Focus is imported from Belgium. Only 931 Falcons were delivered in January, down even from the miserable 1157 start to last year's sales for the one-time local favourite. The overall Ford total lifts to only 2135 vehicles once the Melbourne- made Territory SUV and Falcon ute are included, still behind the 2170 Holden Commodore sedan deliveries for the first month of 2012.And trailing the baby Focus on 1576. Ford said it was hit badly by a giant storm on Christmas Day that pelted its Broadmeadows site with car crumpling hailstones. Around 1000 cars, a mix of Falcon and Territory, were being stored in the open and took the full force of the weather. "It was a shocking storm. They really took a hit," a spokesman for Ford Australia, Neil McDonald, revealed to News Limited. "It was on Christmas Day. The cars were at the plant, waiting to be shipped to dealers and then on to customers." The hailstorm is the latest in a series of disasters for Australia's three local carmakers, as Toyota has just cut 350 jobs from its factory at Altona and Holden expects to shed as many as 200 contract workers during a re-organisation of production at its plant in Adelaide. Both decisions are based on falling export sales. Ford was forced in early January to inject $103 million into its local operation in joint funding from its global parent in the USA and the Federal government to provide security for local manufacturing through to 2016. The January results, revealed in official VFacts sales totals, are no real surprise. Large car sales are traditionally down in January because government departments and big fleet customers are not buying, while Toyota is still getting up to speed with its new Camry - so 1290 sales - and the Mazda3 is still powering off the back of its best selling performance in 2011. The January total is a little better than the first month of 2011, with a total of 76,783 sales for a 4.3 per cent lift, but passenger car sales were down slightly and needed bolstering as usual from the strength in SUVs. As usually, Toyota was Australia's favourite brand in January, ahead of Toyota and Mazda.  

Hundreds of new and updated cars arrive in Australia each year but only one is good enough to make the honour role for Carsguide COTY.This time around the prize fight is tougher than ever, with new arrivals for 2011 covering every size and price class, from the ordinary Chery J1 from China to the exotic Ferrari 458 Italia from Italy. Neither of them makes the COTY cut, but that's another story ...The reach for COTY 2011 contenders actually stretches back to the final months of last year, to include a couple of cars that just missed the 2011 cutoff, and this time around the newcomers must have hit showrooms by December 1.So, unfortunately, the all-new Toyota Camry is a non-starter. It's the same for the make-or-break four-cylinder Falcon.But the class of 2011 covers all the bases, from affordable mini cars through family and prestige cars to a hot new coupe. The hopefuls come from Europe, Asia and Japan, as well as right home in Australia.Setting the field for 2011 was not easy, particularly with the outgoing champion - the Volkswagen Polo - still casting a considerable shadow.But each of the COTY judges, who cover the Carsguide contenders and drive them in all conditions from coast to coast, has called up their personal favourites from Alfa Romeo through to Volkswagen to help guide the selection process.Then it is the final cull by the COTY veterans to produce the top 10 for a gruelling two-day shootout to consider everything from design and safety through to value and their driving ability on a wide range of roads from Ford's You Yangs proving ground to freeways, suburban streets and gravel roads on the outskirts of Melbourne.The field is set, the race is about to be run, but we cannot get ahead of ourselves.So here are the 10 COTY contenders ... now it's over to the judges: 

... right from its release date in August.At launch the critics raved about its Golf-equalling driving dynamics, while the exterior styling presented a car for the modern age with sharp styling.Our analysis over two days of rigorous COTY testing in a variety of conditions proved those original assumptions spot-on. In fact, the chassis, steering and suspension are better than the all-round compound tyres fitted as standard. It is a spirited drive, yet with sensible ride for the urban streets and occasional spotty B roads outside the city limits.Ford must be taking a bit of a hit on this one until it can get the car built a bit cheaper in Thailand next year because it is absolutely packed with hi-tech features, but costs no more than the previous model. The techno-geeks will love the self-parking feature, voice-activated controls and Bluetooth streaming.However, one of the persistent criticisms of our judges was the busy and confusing interior. The steering wheel, in particular, would freak out a Qantas pilot. Not only are the controls busy and confusing, but the design is fussy and outdated. It's like living inside an '80s ghetto blaster.Seats are accommodating and supportive and there is genuine room in the back bench for three well-fed motoring journalists. Boot space is also ample and there is a full-size spare under the floor carpet.While the judges loved the spirited drive, they criticised the dual-clutch 'Powershift' automatic transmission's toggle switch. It is used for manually selecting gears in sport mode. But most found it too awkward to use and just gave up.Still, the transmission worked quite well in sport mode around the track, although some judges found the changes occasionally clunky and hesitant on steep grades. It worked best in normal "Drive" mode.Dusty roads revealed a flaw in the fuel filler area where there is a clever no-cap filler neck. It means you don't have to touch a petrol cap and get your hands smelly. However, the filler flap is not properly sealed and we were concerned that the dust that leaked in could also get into the fuel tank when you insert the fuel nozzle.Safety is guaranteed with a five-star rating and six airbags, stability control, hill start assist, and anti-lock brakes with brake force distribution to compensate for uneven loads and brake assist for panic stops.Of the small hatchbacks in this crop, it had the most power, yet also returned the best economy figures.VERDICTOne of the outstanding cars of the year, compromised by over-fussy interior styling and a few quirks that are easily fixed when it comes time for a mid-term update.Ford Focus 2.0 Trend hatchPrice: $26,790 (as tested)Engine: 2.0-litre petrol, 125kW/202NmTransmission: 6-speed Powershift DSG, front-wheel driveThirst: 6.6L/100km; 154g/km.

The Ford Focus ST will replace the XR5 in Australia and its 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo engine is more powerful and uses less fuel than the XR5's Volvo-sourced 2.5-litre five-cylinder donk.The hatch is a guaranteed starter but Ford Australia will have to assess the wagon before giving it a tick, given the extra space could put it in competition with the four-cylinder Ford Falcon which will use the same engine, though tuned for economy rather than outright go.Outputs are 180kW/360Nm and will be delivered to the front wheels via a six-speed manual gearbox. A claimed 0-100km/h time of 6.5 seconds puts the car in direct contention with the Renault Megane RS and Golf GTI."The Focus ST is our first global performance Ford -- the company DNA is evident in the design and the overall philosophy," Ford's chief technical officer Paul Mascarenas says.A Fiesta ST also joined its big brothers on the stand. Ford released little detail on the Fiesta but said the 1.6-litre EcoBoost four-cylinder is good for 132kW/240Nm.Like the Focus, the Fiesta ST will use a manual gearbox and CO2 emissions are "under 140g/km", Mascarenas says.

... to take on the most competitive segment in this country. It's up against a classy field including Mazda3, Corolla, Lancer and locally-built Holden Cruze as well as VW Golf. But new Focus has plenty to recommend it ushering in a dynamic new look with real cut-through on the street and a classy new interior featuring Ford's acclaimed kinetic design language. Two distinctive bodystyles are available, sedan and hatch, each with its own appeal. Drivers will no doubt appreciate the cockpit-style driving environment yet the cabin has lost none of the comfort and practicality that has become a characteristic of Focus. Within the two bodystyles there are  three powertrains and four specification levels. The car has an impressive array of smart technologies, outstanding occupant safety and further advances in levels of driving quality. The strength of new Focus's body is down to extensive use of high-strength steels. Fifty-five per cent of the body shell is made of high-strength steels, of which 31 per cent is ultra-tough boron steel, more than any other Ford built to date. Meanwhile, high-strength steel is used in the integrated door opening reinforcement rings and door load paths to provide excellent protection from side impacts. New Focus also features a patented front chassis subframe, which de-couples during severe frontal impacts, avoiding deformation in the passenger cell footwell area. Pedestrian protection has been boosted by the addition of a "soft" cowl design in the front body structure and Ford has also relocated the windscreen wiper system to help further reduce injury risks. Option packages such as the Convenience Pack bring new technology to Focus. The well-specified mid-level Trend model is $24,490 for the 2.0-litre GDi petrol engine with five-speed manual transmission. Focus Sport has a greater emphasis on driving enjoyment. Key features include sports suspension, 17-inch alloy wheels, sports front seats, dual zone climate control and a Sony audio system with 4.2-inch colour screen and multi-function display. Sport also scores the Convenience Pack as standard equipment. It is more comprehensively equipped than the outgoing Zetec model. Focus Titanium has even more goodies and sells from a starting price of $32,590 for 2.0-litre GDi engine and six-speed PowerShift transmission variants. Needless to say, Focus is a key element of the Ford product portfolio in Australia. Expect a "European" feel to the car's dynamics and impressive fuel economy from the diesel model. The double clutch Powershift manumatic would be difficult to overlook for everyday and sporty driving as it offers the best of both worlds and an extra gear over the manual which is five speed only. What happened to the six-speed manual? NEED TO KNOW Four variants; Ambiente, Trend, Sport and Titanium. Engines: 1.6-litre four cylinder or new 2.0-litre GDi (Gasoline Direct Injection) and a 2.0-litre Duratorq TDCi turbodiesel. Dual clutch six-speed Powershift manumatic is available, manual `box is a five- speed. First appearance in Focus of rain sensing wipers, auto headlights and auto dim rear view mirror, follow me home lights. Available in five door hatch and four door sedan. Five star crash rating. Prices start at $21,990.

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.

It's the first full electric car to get the maximum safety score, although a range of petrol-electric hybrids, including the Toyota Camry, which has just moved up in local testing, have managed a five

It arrives with a two-model line-up featuring a five-door hatchback and four-door sedan.The new Focus is pitched at a wide audience from traditional budget-conscious buyers to whom price is everything to downsizers from larger more luxurious models who want luxury levels of convenience and comfort. This will be provided in the new Titanium model.Focus has been a big success for Ford internationally with over 10 million units sold since its introduction in 1998. Consumers like the combination of value, comfort and safety and that generally, Focus is fun to drive. The new model came to fruition under a global development program called "One Ford" that is designed to cut costs for Ford as much as to improve quality and value to consumers.Ford Australia is running hot on Focus saying it will "raise the bar and deliver a new level of standard and available content, enabled by its global scale."There's no doubt the car has a sleek and sporty design but is also packed with more affordable technologies and features than ever previously offered by Ford Australia.It was developed in Europe, for sale in over 120 markets worldwide with 80 per cent parts commonality. It uses Ford's new global small car platform that will underpin at least ten vehicles around the world and account for two million units of annual production by 2012.Australian Focus models will be sourced from the lead European assembly plant in Saarlouis.Smart innovations available on the all-new Focus for Australia include Active Park Assist, cruise control with Adjustable Speed Limiting Device (ASLD), keyless entry system with push button start and Adaptive Cruise Control.Active Park Assist is a semi-automatic parallel parking system that uses sensors around the vehicle and the new Electric Power Assisted Steering (EPAS) system to guide the vehicle into place. It measures the length and depth of the chosen parking space and then steers itself into position, while the driver controls the accelerator, brake and gear selection.The powertrain line-up includes a new 2.0-litre GDi (gasoline direct injection) petrol engine that combines high-pressure direct injection and twin independent variable camshaft timing for enhanced performance and fuel efficiency A completely updated 2.0-litre Duratorq TDCi common rail turbodiesel engine is also part of the line-up. Both engines offer significant increases in power and torque compared to the outgoing model.Both engines can also be matched to either a manual transmission a five-speed manual with the GDi engine or six-speed manual with the TDCi engine or the latest six-speed PowerShift automatic transmission, depending on the variant.A third petrol engine of 1.6-litres will be the fuel economy leader for the new Focus range, providing a reduction in fuel consumption of more than 15 per cent compared to the outgoing model.

An impressive presentation on the future of Ford, including a global drive by the Ford Focus, has Jac Nasser's name stamped all over it. Long before anyone got to work on today's One Ford strategy, Nasser was top man at the blue oval brand and trying to pull the company together in a centralised product-driven push into the 21st century. Nasser was eventually derailed by a power battle with Bill Ford, now the company chairman, but the Melbourne man is a superstar who heads my personal list of Aussie motoring heroes.Peter Brock is another hero and Australia Day next week reminds me of the work he did so often, and so well, to help celebrate the occasion. Brock used to laugh heartily when he talked about trips to small country towns for parties on Australia day. Back at Detroit, design guru Mike Simcoe is prowling the GM stand. He's a legend in the Aussie car business (the Monaro alone guarantees his spot) who is coming home soon to continue the good work and enjoy life in Melbourne.Kevin Wale is also on the GM stand and also a hero. He first surfaced as a heavyweight beancounter at Fishermans Bend and is now running GM China, the toughest and most important offshore posting in the business. Turning the clock back, there are lots of Australian heroes. Senator John Button re-wrote the rules for Australian carmaking in the 1980s and the success of the business can be traced back to his blueprint, as well as the enthusiasm of Industry Minister Kim Carr.At Ford, the late Geoff Polites was the true superstar. Polites did everything right during his time at Broadmeadows and will be remembered as the man who bulldogged the Territory through the Detroit system, as well as a champion of the Falcon and local motor sport. Sadly, he died too young after being tapped to head Jaguar and Land Rover in the UK.Toyota is less inspiring, until you remember John Conomos and Bob Miller. The dynamic duo drove the Japanese brand to number one in Australia, with Miller creating the brilliant 'chook' advertising for the boring Camry, and Conomos is now badly missed at the top.It's impossible to have a list of Aussie heroes without the father of the original Holden, Sir Laurence Hartnett, and marketing guru John Bagshaw who also starred overseas before returning to head Holden.On the motorsport front, there are plenty of legends. Sir Jack Brabham, Alan Jones, Mick Doohan, Mark Webber, Troy Bayliss, Chad Reed and Marcos Ambrose prove that Aussies can match the best in the world.My personal guides are led by the late Evan Green - a journalist and author who also headed public relations at Leyland and Holden - and Peter Robinson, who still stands Gandolf-like at the top of motoring journalism in Australia as an inspiration far beyond his landmark leadership at Wheels magazine.

The spark that is igniting a new generation of electric cars has spread to Ford and fired a battery-powered Focus that will be ready for showrooms later this year.There is no confirmation - yet - of a sales plan in Australia, but the Ford Focus Electric is the blue oval brand's new-age hero as it races to recover ground from the early plug-in pacemakers from Mitsubishi and Nissan - the iMiEV and Leaf - and to shortcut hybrid heroes including the Toyota Prius and Chevrolet Volt.The Focus Electric is revealed today, not at the Detroit auto show but at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in Los Vegas. It's an event Ford has used often in recent years and that hosts the roll-out this year of Ford's electric-vehicle App for smart phones."We're more than a car company, we're a technology company," says Alan Mulally, Ford's CEO, speaking in Las Vegas.“There's a convergence between consumer electronics and the car.There's a whole ecosystem that goes with the electric vehicle. It's more than just the car. It's part of a system-wide solution.”But the Focus is the focus and, despite a grille that looks like it was snitched from the front of an Aston Martin, the electric model is packed with new technology.The company boasts a top speed of 140km/h and that it can be fully recharged in just four hours, around half the time of other electric vehicles.Power comes from a 23-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack, an electric motor and a single-speed transmission.There is a clear eco focus in the car that includes biofoam seat cushions, trim parts made from recycled plastic, while Ford plans to sell 240-volt chargers for the car for just $1499.The Focus Electric is claimed to drive the same as a regular petrol- powered model and it will be built in the USA, unlike the Focus from Thailand that will be sold in the USA.Ford will use the Detroit motor show to fill in the technical detail of the plug-in Focus, as well as confirming five other EV and updated hybrid models it will have for sale in 2012. They include a pair of hybrids with updated lithium-ion battery packs.