New Ford Focus launched

[Mike1990]

Looks pretty smart in ST-Line guise.

[Otispunkmeyer]

JD said:

sjg said:

No electric, no PHEV, only a mild hybrid sometime next year. Same old Ecoboost petrols and Ecoblue diesels. What has Ford been doing for the last few years?

Edited by sjg on Wednesday 11th April 17:02

Firing the guy who was in charge, for not paying attention!

PHEV and mild hybrid not all they're cracked up to be (hence VW and BMW stopping production). I get to emissions (real world, not lab either) test these things as part of the day job. The mild hybrids are really not that great.

However, I do hope the platform is geared for taking a decent battery for a full EV model. I think they will have done this as they did already have an EV MK3 focus that they only sold in the US. Hopefully learning from that has gone into this one.

[Gatefold]

donkmeister said:

I don't agree with the "if it were a VAG" comments above...

If VW announced a new cooking-spec Golf (or Skoda/Seat equivalent) it would not be PH-worthy news.

If Ford had announced a new Focus RS this WOULD have made the front page. But they didn't.

Ford announced the one that you'll be getting on holiday as a rental (cooking model), from work as a company car (ST line) and the one that the retiring lifelong Ford owner will be buying with his pension lump sum (the Vignale).

This is PH, not Auto Express surely?

How about an article on the facelift the current model received?

[lord trumpton]

crap

[M4cruiser]

jamei303 said:

Not even the base spec has a manual handbrake

That's the end of it for me then. How do you stop when all the "systems" fail? You need a solid handle with steel cables!

[marksx]

M4cruiser said:

That's the end of it for me then. How do you stop when all the "systems" fail? You need a solid handle with steel cables!

When have all the systems ever failed? Particularly while driving.

The answer any way would be leave it in gear/park, surely?

[Paul O]

I like the look of that. Much better than the outgoing model which didn't look good to my eye.

I don't like it £20k much though. Thats a lot for a massively depreciating car. I guess they'll be heavily discounted as per the usual Ford norm?

[jamei303]

M4cruiser said:

That's the end of it for me then. How do you stop when all the "systems" fail? You need a solid handle with steel cables!

I definitely read that all models will have electric hanbrakes but can't remember where. However someone up thread read differently, saying that all autos have it but manual Styles and Zetecs won't.

edit: ah it was honest john:

"with entry-level Style models now getting automatic headlights, alloy wheels, autonomous emergency braking, electronic parking brake and a spare wheel as standard."

Edited by jamei303 on Thursday 12th April 07:26

[anonymous-user]

marksx said:

When have all the systems ever failed? Particularly while driving.

The answer any way would be leave it in gear/park, surely?

An unfortunate lady managed to block both the entrance to our office and the road outside it a few weeks back when her A Class refused to release the electronic handbrake after the gate had opened. A rare occurrance, but less easy to try and solve on the scene than a basic cable one.

[Sam993]

I think that it's an improvement. Especially interior, it is on another level... and so is the price. But this is understandable since this is how they can drive the used cars values up and keep the cheap finance deals going on.

[ghost83]

I don’t like it tbh

[Muddle238]

I like that actually. Rear lights remind me of the DS5, and you can definitely see Volvo Thor lights at the front. However seeing as we're going to all be subjected to seeing these literally everywhere in a few years, it's not too bad at all in my eyes.

[rampageturke]

M4cruiser said:

That's the end of it for me then. How do you stop when all the "systems" fail? You need a solid handle with steel cables!

yeah, because normal handbrakes never break, right?

[Car-Matt]

I think the sad thing is that only the 2.0 diesels and the 1.5l ecoboost will have the multilink rear suspension, the rest will be torsion beam......so the thing that makes a focus, despite being blunted over the years actually disappears from the models most people will buy. Shame

Looks good though IMO

[sjg]

Car-Matt said:

I think the sad thing is that only the 2.0 diesels and the 1.5l ecoboost will have the multilink rear suspension, the rest will be torsion beam......so the thing that makes a focus, despite being blunted over the years actually disappears from the models most people will buy. Shame

Looks good though IMO

Some of the best-handling hot hatches of all time have torsion beam rears. Frees up boot space too.

[jamei303]

Yeah they're making a big thing of being able to fit a dog crate in the estate or something.

The hatchback space certainly looks an improvement on the Mk3, which was worst-in-class.

[Kenny Powers]

sjg said:

Some of the best-handling hot hatches of all time have torsion beam rears. Frees up boot space too.

This fact is glossed-over when people are talking about rear beams. It’s often the same people who gush over Clios and Meganes.

[rev-erend]

Any news on an RS model and it's features ?

[jamei303]

rev-erend said:

Any news on an RS model and it's features ?

New is that there is no news, apart from it possibly being a hybrid.

[Vitorio]

sjg said:

Some of the best-handling hot hatches of all time have torsion beam rears. Frees up boot space too.

Unless they will be building seperate shells for the multilink and torsion beam models, boot space in the torsion beam model will be the same as the multilink (imagine having to explain to a prospective buyer in the showroom with the 1.0 has xx litres less bootspace then the 1.5)