FORD’ S FA B FOUR FOCUS
You wait ages for a new Ford Focus — then four come along at once. In east london this week, Ford launched the fourth generation of their best- selling family car. As a bonus, they’ve even cut prices by up to £2,300. As well as the standard five-door hatchback and estate models on sale now for delivery this autumn, the expanded line includes the first higher- riding, rugged Focus Active ‘crossover’ — available from next year — and an upmarket, more luxurious Vignale version. They’re also making a four-door saloon, but it won’t be sold in Britain.
each new car comes with technology designed to cope with Britain’s increasingly potholed roads, with sensors that ‘read’ the road and adjust suspension, steering and braking to reduce impact. And the new Focus is the first Ford model in europe with fighter- jet- style head-up display projecting key information such as speed onto the windscreen.
At the Queen elizabeth olympic Park launch, Jim Farley, Ford’s head of global markets, said Britain is their biggest market in europe, a centre for research into self- driving and electric ‘ smart’ mobility, and a ‘ fundamental part’ of their operations. last year, Ford sold 70,000 Focus cars in the uK — a third of the 210,000 european total — making it the uK’s third-best-selling car after the Fiesta and Volkswagen golf. It came 20 years after the launch of the original Focus in geneva. replacing the legendary Ford escort — which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary — Focus has, since its launch in 1998, been bought by nearly 2 16 The million million new worldwide. uK upmarket customers, interior and has been decluttered and simplified. Aggressively priced, the entrylevel Focus ‘style’ trim level starts from £17,930 on the road, £ 2,300 less than the current model. The Zetec trim accounts for about a quarter of sales, and starts at £19,300 — £850 less than the current price, or £1,000 at comparable equipment levels.