Fords you never knew existed
# 59 Ford 24.7 coupe, wagon, and pick-up
B ack in 2000, when the rest of the world was worrying about the ‘millennium bug’, when the French were good at football, and when Destiny’s Child were banging on about ‘Independent Women’, Ford were busy designing a new concept car for the new millennium. The resulting 24.7 was offered in three guises; a coupe, a wagon, and a pick-up.
Designed to be all things to all people, the 24.7 was supposed to show how busy people (hence the name) need to keep busy, even when on the move. Therefore the 24.7 concepts are packed full of the latest technologies; email, internet access, hands-free mobile phone, voice controls, real-time route assistance for navigation systems, weather reports, and even real-time stock exchange updates! All of which seems to be pretty ‘standard’ these days, but 14 years ago it was a huge step forward.
All body shapes shared the same basic, lengthened Mk1 Focus platform and 2.0-litre Zetec engine, but, from the outside at least, they all appeared slightly different. The coupe, for example, features a green canvas roof that can be rolled back to give the feel of a convertible. The LED headlights and tail lights may have caught on, but the one idea we wish made it into mainstream production is the rear screen – a projector, usually mounted under the boot floor, unfolds to provide a huge viewing screen, while the rear seats can actually be removed and used as a bench outside the car, making your own little, mobile cinema!
The wagon offered more space in the rear and was aimed at the family market, while the pick-up model was sold as a ‘goanywhere’ version of the same vehicle. Unfortunately, the 24.7 was the laughing stock of the 2000 Detroit motor show and got nothing but bad reviews. But looking back now, Ford were clearly onto something with the 24.7, as many of the technologies first seen in the concept trio are now commonplace in new cars today.