Ford Focus 2013 News

Ford Australia has confirmed it is contacting almost 43,000 Focus owners to warn of a vehicle defect that could cause a fire.

The Australia Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has commenced legal proceedings against Ford Motor Company of Australia.

An automatic transmission designed to save fuel has increased complaints among Ford customers who claim it's not a smooth operator.

LW Ford Focus owners are being advised not to accelerate aggressively from take-off due to a potential driveshaft fault.

Updated Ford Focus ST unveiled at Goodwood ahead of Australian showroom arrival in early 2015. Ford has given its Focus ST hot hatch a new look and a load of new technology -- but no more power -- as a diesel performance model joins the line-up for the first time. The facelifted version of Ford's rival to the Volkswagen Golf GTI was unveiled at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK ahead of its arrival in Australian showrooms in early 2015. However, the diesel version of the Focus ST has not been confirmed for sale Down Under as it was primarily designed for Europe. The visual highlights on the new Ford Focus ST include sleeker headlights and tail-lights, new front and rear bumpers and optional 19-inch wheels. The 18-inch wheels are the same as those on the current model but have been painted in a dark grey "charcoal" finish. Ford may not have changed the power output of the Focus ST's 2.0-litre turbo petrol engine (184kW and 360Nm) or the straight-line performance (0 to 100km/h in 6.5 seconds) but it has changed the way the car drives by re-tuning the steering and the suspension -- and fitting new tyres to its hottest hatch.  The current model Ford Focus ST rides on a highly-regarded and super-grippy Goodyear tyre that also happens to protect the edge of the wheels as the sidewall sits proud of the rim. But for 2015, the Ford Focus ST will switch to Michelin Pilot Sport II tyres, the same used on Ferraris, Porsches -- and the Renault Megane RS275, the world's fastest hot hatch. Ford fine-tuned the stability control's torque vectoring system, which it says now delivers more grip and more control in corners. Ford also fitted new engine mounts to improve smoothness when accelerating on uneven surfaces. As with the current Ford Focus ST and Ford Fiesta ST, the updated model was engineered by Ford Team RS based in Cologne, Germany, a two hour drive from the famous Nurburgring race circuit. Inside, the Focus ST benefits from other upgrades that came with the facelift of the regular models, such as a redesigned centre dash panel with fewer buttons and a larger screen. The new Focus ST will also be easier to live with day to day thanks to the larger centre console storage and door pockets.  Ford has even revved up the USB port which now charges twice as fast as before. A new race-car-style "flat bottomed" steering wheel has been fitted to enhance driver feel and improve knee room. The Ford Focus ST gains "stop-start" technology (which cuts the engine when idle in traffic and automatically restarts it again when the clutch pedal is pressed) improving fuel economy from 7.4L/100km to 6.8L/100km. In Europe, the Ford Focus ST will be available with black leather seats, bi-xenon headlights, cross-traffic alert (which warns of oncoming cars when reversing out of parking bays) and automatic emergency braking up to 50km/h. It is not clear if any of these options will be available in Australia. Missing from the Focus ST update is the addition of an automatic or dual-clutch transmission which accounts for 80 per cent of sales of the arch rival Volkswagen Golf GTI. Ford sources say the Focus ST is unlikely to develop a twin-clutch gearbox for this generation car. Ford says it has sold 140,000 Focus ST (both this and the previous, non turbo generation) in more than 40 countries since it went on sale in 2002. Meanwhile, reports out of Europe and North America say Ford is putting finishing touches on the next generation Ford Focus RS after numerous disguised prototypes have been caught on camera. The Ford Focus RS is expected to be powered by a turbocharged 2.3-litre four-cylinder engine shared with the new Ford Mustang, but Ford is yet to substantiate the reports or even confirm if there will indeed be a new generation Focus RS. If a new Focus RS goes on sale it's unlikely to arrive until late 2015 at the earliest. Ford Focus STPrice: $38,290 plus on-road costs (estimated)Engine: Turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinderPower: 184kW and 360NmTransmission: Six-speed manualEconomy: 6.8L/100km0 to 100km/h: 6.5 secondsOn sale: Early 2015

Ford’s Fiesta ST is already arguably the king of the light hot hatch set, but a new report out of the UK suggests that an even hotter RS version is under development. AutoExpress suggests that a RS-badged Fiesta could be followed by the much-anticipated third-generation Focus RS, if a business case can be made for the models. Ford has been toying with the idea of a Fiesta RS since at least 2004, with a pumped-up concept based on the previous generation model shown at the Geneva motor show that year. Stranding in the way of the number crunchers though is the current economic woes of the Ford hatches’ European-market heartland, and the plans are reportedly far from being locked in. If a green light is given, tradition suggests we’ll see the new RS models towards the end of the Fiesta and Focus model life cycles, which could result in a Fiesta RS arriving at least 12 months ahead of as Focus RS – and as soon as 2015. The likely power source for a Fiesta RS would be an uprated version of the ST’s 134kW/240Nm 1.6-litre turbo, producing in the order of 172kW to trump the existing 160kW/320Nm Mountune-enhanced version available overseas.  A tricky diff is possible to help put such power to the ground, along with widened tracks, monster brakes, and pumped wheelarches and other agressive body enhancements to help link it with the RS-liveried Fiesta WRC racer. Development mules have already been sighted of a Focus with the same treatment, with the likely motive source a version of the 2015 Mustang’s circa-227kW 2.3 litre EcoBoost engine. This reporter is on Twitter: @Mal_Flynn  

Longboards are fast downhill. So is the Ford Focus ST, so it's no surprise Ford lent a car for this promo video, having it chase a team of four longboarders down a mountain road. Sweep cars don't usually get to have much fun -- they're there to carry spare parts and pick up any people that run out of puff (or road). But with the Focus ST's agility, we're pretty sure the driver had as much fun as the longboarders, judging by the big grins on all at the end of the epic run -- shot by action video specialist Devin Graham. Watch the desktop version of the Ford Focus ST vs longboarders video here.  Also watch: Graham's incredible paintball battle video with the Nitro Circus stunt tea.   

Manouevring your car into a tight parking spot isn't easy, but sometimes getting out of the car can be even more difficult. We've all had the experience of squeezing our bodies through a barely-opened door after getting our car into a narrow park.And with cars getting bigger while carparks -- many of them built decades ago -- stay the same size, it's going to be an increasing problem, along with the growing collections of body and bumper scrapes that come with it.However Ford is working on a solution with a car that can park itself, after you get out of it. The auto giant is not the first to probe the idea, and is following in the research footsteps of Chinese brand BYD, which showed off its remote-controlled park function on the small Su Rui sedan concept at the 2012 Beijing motor show. Watch the BYD Su Rui remote parking video here. Swedish carmaker Volvo is also developing a remote parking system, which it revealed on a V40 concept in June this year. Watch video of the remote parking Volvo here. However Ford may be the first to market with the technology, with the US brand currently testing the concept at its proving grounds in Belgium and being tipped to get it into showrooms within two years.The Ford Focus test car is fitted with cutting edge technology that remotely controls steering, forward and reverse motion and even gear selection. All you have to do is get out of the driver's seat and hold down a single button on the key fob.The process takes about 10 seconds with the parking system limited to a speed of 9km/h, and sensors around the body prevent it hitting obstacles while it’s under way. When you return to the car, you can simply reverse the whole process and the car slides smoothly and safely out of its spot.Ford says the remote parking would be a daily benefit in crowded cities. "It's trying to help someone squeeze into that space and allow them to have some automated help to help them achieve a driving manouevre they are going to have to do frequently in their life," Ford Europe vice-president of product development Barb Samardzich said. Watch the Ford Focus remote parking video here. This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott 

The first one I tried, a Toyota Prius, could happily measure the gaps and reverse into place provided I took care of work on the brake and accelerator, and that's a familiar package now for a range of cars including the Ford Focus.But there are also cars that can parallel park, and even reverse safely out into traffic using a range of radar-style sensors. Some people say the rise of self-parking cars is all about our increasing laziness and the ability of technology to take over the menial, or annoying, tasks in our day-to-day lives.Others might, more controversially, draw a link between self parking cars and the inability of many women to do the job. Before you get too carried away, I should point out that this has now been scientifically proven by a study in the UK that I read about in a book called 'Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps'.The book is by Allan Pease - the body language man - and his wife Barbara, and includes the parking research in a section devoted to women's relative lack of 'spatial awareness'. This apparently affects their ability to read maps, and park, but is offset by greater peripheral vision that makes it easier for women to spot things in a fridge than men.But, moving along, I've also recently heard about a new incentive for self parking cars. It comes as Audi accelerates its work on cars that can valet park themselves, linking electronically to a system inside a carpark that identifies open slots and then guides the car into place. They can then be summoned out of hibernation as needed.There is currently only one self-parking garage in the world, not surprisingly at Audi's headquarters in Germany, although work is progressing at other sites and on other cars. But the idea is that cars which can park themselves will free up extra space for parking. After all, when you park - often with other people in the car - you need clearance to open the doors for access. It's the same for head space, as well as clearance to open a hatchback boot.But if the cars can park autonomously, think about all the extra space in the world. It's something that occurs to me nearly every week as I head to the airport or my local shopping centre and wonder where the space has gone. Cars are obviously getting larger, and SUVs are making an increasing land grab, but am I the only one who thinks that parking slots are being shrunken to get a bigger car - and cash - return on the available space?Then again, there are cars that cannot be helped. In Britain - where 1950s garages designed for tiny Austins now look ludicrous in the face of even a humble Ford Fiesta - I was once driving a long-wheelbase Rolls-Royce Phantom. When I drove into the supermarket to buy some fruit I was shocked to discover that the brutally brilliant limousine actually required four standard-sized parking spots, as it was both too long and too wide for anything less.This reporter is on Twitter: @paulwardgover 

And you can cook up your Fiesta with three meaty options:bacon stripes over the rear wheelsbacon racing stripes on the bonneta full bacon wrap (10 stripes layed around the car)Before you get too hungry, this is a public relations stunt from Ford of America and was delivered with pork-barrelling terms such as: "unlike bacon grease, nothing gets sizzled away from the Fiesta interior."Ford's pork barrelling got cooking at USA Today, Time and even - well, naturally - Pork magazine with some publicity. "It's no secret that bacon inspires a lot of passion, and that's what the Fiesta celebrates," says Ford Fiesta (US) marketing manager Liz Elser. "Our customers have a hunger for self-expression. Plus, it's just awesome to drive down the road in a piece of bacon."Ford Australia says it has no plans to ham it up with the car.The reporter is on Twitter: @cg_dowling