New Focus pleasure, traffic rage pain
MONDAY
A new Ford Focus is always a big deal to me, so it was pure joy to be packed off home by the tyre smokers behind the wheel of the new St-line Plus, featuring a 180bhp version of the new 1.5-litre turbo petrol triple. What an uplifting car! It is fast, refined and grippy and steers beautifully. It looks great, rides low, has a proper independent rear suspension (some Focuses have lesser torsion beam systems) and handles better than many a pricier rival. Great to see Ford continuing to live up to what it started in 1997.
I’ve had doubts about some of the ‘somethingline’ models many people sell nowadays, because they’re often pale shadows of the full-fat models on whose big names they trade. Not this Focus, though. Its crowning glory is a near-perfect taut but supple ride. In someone else’s review, I read that “you hardly think about the St-line’s ride, which is a very good sign”. Couldn’t put it better.
TUESDAY
Occasionally, we invite car bosses into the Autocar HQ to tell us some home truths. The latest was Hyundai UK’S president and CEO, Tony Whitehorn, a brilliant speaker, who in 2011 was the first non-korean to take charge of this global giant’s key export markets. He has nearly quadrupled sales and sees more expansion ahead.
Whitehorn was satisfyingly scathing about the Government’s recent inexplicable decision to cut subsidies for electric cars and hybrids, given that to be ‘on plan’ for our low-carbon future, annual sales of these cars must rise from the current 2% of the market to 40% by 2025. And contrary to what many people think, battery prices won’t fall for quite a while. Fast-accelerating demand for ‘precious metal’ varieties will keep boosting materials prices until cheaper, smaller batteries start arriving beyond the mid-2020s.
Still, life’s not bad for Hyundai, Whitehorn told us. Demand for its electric models (along with those of other makes) is due to rise “exponentially” despite those subsidy cuts. And his is one of the few OEMS that can also sell you a hydrogen car, too. Staying ahead of the curve seems to be the Hyundai way.
WEDNESDAY
Deeply unsatisfying 22-mile return journey from my eyrie in central London to work in Twickenham. Seemed to be crowded, cut up or even hooted far more than usual. Depressed to Aston’s new St Athan plant is close to completion, as a new set of company-issued pix shows. I especially rate this image, featuring evidence of exuberant driving a few months ago by Aston racer Darren Turner to commemorate the original acquisition of the site. realise this was probably because on the way out I was in a plainly labelled e-golf (lots of drivers presume it’ll be slow and fight to pass) and on the way back I had the left-handed, Germanregistered Focus St-line Plus (presumably driven by a foreigner). Depressing to have it so convincingly proved that the much-loved principle ‘do as you would be done by’ doesn’t apply to many in motoring.
THURSDAY
Have you noticed how much better people tend to look at the wheel of modern cars compared with classics? This thought came to me a week or two ago when I first saw this fine pic (above) of our Ricky Lane driving the very last Morgan Aero GT. Looked as if it fitted him down to the smallest dimension. Contrast that with the people you see driving their weekend Jag E-types, cars they’ve laboured all their lives to afford and in which they’d hope to cut the finest of figures but who are awkward and ill positioned in the car. Like as not, their right shoulder is higher than their left, because it just won’t fit comfortably in the car. First-world problem, maybe, but it’s there. Things always improve in life, I believe, and driving positions are just one example.
I seemed to be cut up or hooted far more than usual