Ford Focus 2016 News

It was smiles all round at Central Coast Ford when homegrown singing sensation Karise Eden dropped by the West Gosford dealership. The winner of The Voice met staff at the popular car dealership last Friday when she stopped by to pick up the Ford Focus Titanium she won on the Channel 9 show earlier this year.  For general manager Tony Kutlucan, handing over the keys of the popular 2012 vehicle, which was imported from Germany, to the coast's favourite daughter was a proud moment. “My family and I watched The Voice and we were cheering for Karise to win because she was just such an amazing woman and representative for the Central Coast,” he said. “So when she won the show earlier this year we contacted Ford immediately and asked if we could be the ones to hand over the keys to her new car to her.” Despite being one of the biggest artists in the country, Eden hasn't forgotten where she came from and continues to live on the Central Coast. “It was really nice to know that when she heard we asked to be the ones to give her the car she said she was more than happy to come along and support a fellow coastie, which was a bit of a buzz for staff at Central Coast Ford,” Mr Kutlucan said.

... 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.

The pocket rocket Focus RS is almost a sell-out, the first deliveries of the supercharged Falcons from Ford Performance Vehicles have begun, and there are a string of new arrivals planned to take the brand through to the end of 2011. The most important is the four-cylinder Falcon - to be called the Falcon EcoBoost - in the second half of next year.  Ford Australia also intends to have a Falcon with liquid petroleum injection and the Territory will finally get a V6 turbodiesel engine. "In the next 12 months around 85 per cent of the Ford product catalogue will be new or updated," says Peter Fadeyev of Ford Australia.  "This is a blend of new-model introductions and regular-model updates. The winners will be Australian customers." The latest Thai-built WT Fiesta is the next model on the launching page, followed by an update and upgrade of the Mondeo. Both cars are in showrooms from November, although the flagship Mondeo Titanium does not arrive until December. "The Titanium has a lot of the latest European safety systems, such as lane-departure warning," says Fadeyev.  November also brings a limited-edition Territory with more equipment and a slight visual tweak, as part of the run-out for the big change - including the turbodiesel - in the first half of next year. The big action happens in the second half of 2011 with the Falcon - likely to get a new name beyond FG - as the headliner, but an all-new Focus and the Ranger pickup on the plan. Ford is not giving any solid detail yet on the Focus, which will be built like the Fiesta in Thailand, but says the Ranger line-up will be much more extensive than the single display vehicle at the Australian International Motor Show.  While Ford is pushing hard, GM Holden also has plans for its own new-model drive following the arrival of the Barina Spark. It says there will be 10 new models in less than two years, but is not going into any detail beyond the obvious switch to an all-new Barina to sit slightly above the spark, the localised Cruze hatch and an all-new Captiva SUV. “Over the next year and a half Australian customers will see a roll-out of new Holden product like they’ve never seen before. We will have new, world-class, market-leading Holden vehicles competing in almost every segment in this market,” says Mike Devereux, chairman of GM Holden. “Spark is just the beginning with more fresh and original vehicles in the pipeline from our global and local design teams."

Yes, the Focus RS is coming to Australia, albeit in limited numbers, with a sensational reputation in the UK.  The Focus XR5 on sale for sometime here has a turbocharged, 2.5-litre five-cylinder engine of 166kW power. But now the super-special RS will leave that in its dust. The RS has that engine tweaked to an amazing and V8-like 224kW power. Torque peak of 440Nm is from just 2300rpm. The RS output of 224kW (it bears repeating) shadows not only the Subaru WRX figure of 195kW but also the hotter STi version's 221kW. Mitsubishi's Evo X is rated at 217kW, putting the new Ford in front. Focus RS is built on a separate line to the normal Focus and has unique body panels, picked by flared wheel arches. Aero help comes from a front splitter and rear bumper venturi on the three-door hatchback. Recaro seats in partial leather trim, keyless entry and start, eight-speaker sound system, dual-zone climate control and rain-sensing wipers are part of the kit. Price will be $59,990 for this Euro hotshot and it will be here in the final months this year, only 315 earmarked for Australia.

The company is also unlikely to build another turbo Territory after the lacklustre reception of its F6X version. FPV boss Rod Barrett says Campbellfield operation will build "fast Falcons" only for the foreseeable future. "We've noted our speciality," he says. Barrett says the Focus would have been a welcomed entry addition to the FPV range but Ford's decision to cancel local production has ended the chance to go up against HSV's hot Astra-based turbo VXR. "If the mothership doesn't produce the mother car, we have got very little opportunity to make a locally-produced Focus now. That was always our waiting game. A hot Focus sourced out of Europe is also unlikely. "We don't do imports," Barrett says. "They are just price-prohibitive for our business case and when the decision was made that the Focus wouldn't be made at Broadmeadows that effectively ended the FPV locally built Focus." With the company building just 2000 hot Falcons a year, Barrett admits the options are few for growing the FPV brand. Although a hot Focus would have given enthusiasts a leg up into an entry FPV, going down the import path to bring in an Focus RS as a badged FPV was no longer an option because of exchanges rates. "We did look at it and then the dollar dropped," he says. Ford of Europe's, Focus RS, which sells in the UK for $52,000, was the likely candidate. The RS has a heavily reworked version of the same five-cylinder turbo petrol engine that powers the XR5 that lifts performance to 224kW/440Nm. To cope with the extra power the RS gets a beefier sports suspension, upgraded brakes, dual exhausts and retuned steering as well as a limited slip differential. The car accelerates to 100km/h in 5.9 seconds and has a top speed of 260km/h. Barrett says that if the company could have got 200 Focus RS models it could have been profitable, with a price under $60,000. Apart from the Focus, Barrett also says there are no plans to revisit the Territory F6X. "It's not in our immediate plans to go back into a Territory at the moment," he says. "We didn't have plans to go into an F6X at the new Territory." Barrett says the F6X was accepted as a very good car but "unfortunately it didn't appeal to the market".