Ford Focus
Imagine Barry Manilow singing opera or Stallone doing Shakespeare and you’ll get some idea of the sea change that has occurred at Ford.
Not so many years ago, Ford’s cars contained the bare minimum of quality engineering. People bought them because they were simple, cheap, stylish (in a conservative sort of way) and convenient. That they were also miles behind the French in suspension engineering, and years behind the Japanese in engine technology, didn’t really seem to bother Ford. After all, most of its customers didn’t know any better.
Just occasionally the company would have the odd flourish. The Sierra of 1982 was a brave move to redefine car styling. It invented the soft, organic car shape that became the norm in the late ’80s and early ’90s. It also flopped in the showroom, at least initially, so Ford timidly retreated back into its carapace of conservatism.
Ford cars in the late ’80s and early ’90s were so “dumbed down” that it is a wonder some of them were not certified. The nadir was the 1990 Ford Escort, one of the most inadequate cars ever to leave a production line.
Yet that woeful Escort helped Ford hugely in the long term. The thrashing it got from the critics, and the subsequent poor sales, at last shook the dozing giant from its lethargy. At about that time, Jacques Nasser began his meteoric rise up the Ford corporate ladder. He is now president of the company’s car unit and in January, will replace Alex Trotman as top man.
Nasser does not want to build cars whose sole virtues are their cheapness and ubiquity. Recent Fords, especially European models, have been huge improvements. Models such as the Ka baby car and the Puma coupe signal the new direction: sweet handling and driving machines that look stylish and distinctive. And if some of the old owners don’t like this new-found boldness, they can go off and buy Hyundais or Skodas.
A Step Forward
By far the biggest step forward, though, is the new Ford Focus. It replaces the Escort, traditionally Ford’s dullest car and, in Europe, its biggest seller. Not only has huge effort gone into making the Ford Focus the best driving car in the class, but Ford also gave its stylists a clear message to “be brave.”
The upshot is the most striking car in the sector, a tall chisel-edged machine Ford calls it “New Edge” with big cats’ eyes and, in hatchback guise, high rear-post mounted taillights. The sedan and station wagon models, both aimed more at the United States, look less avant garde.
Not that, in its determination to be different, Ford has lost sight of old Henry’s values. The Ford Focus is inexpen-sive, roomy and cheap to run.
The engines the best on offer is the 1.6-liter are almost as sweet as the best Japanese four-cylinder units and are a notch better than most European rivals. On the road, the Ford Focus is the best hand-ling and driving mainstream family car I can remember. Its steering is beautifully fluid, the handling is sharp yet forgiving, and the ride quality is excellent. It is such an adroit mover that most other cars in the class, including the new Golf, feel sloppy and sluggish by comparison.
The cabin is spacious. There is as much rear legroom as you will find on the next class up Mondeo which makes you wonder why anyone would bother with the bigger car. The only reason would be to get a bigger trunk, one of the few areas in which the Ford Focus trails the old Escort.
There are few other drawbacks. The intriguingly styled dashboard will not be to everyone’s taste it has a strange amalgam of shapes and finishes. Yet the switches are well placed, and the radio is high on the center console.
The plastic’s qualities are fine, if not as good as on the Golf, the Ford Focus‘s keenest rival. The VW still feels more luxurious inside. And the Ford Focus‘s large windshield, allied to so-so ventilation, makes for a hot, stuffy cabin on warm days. Air conditioning, optional on most versions, is a must.
The simple truth is that the new Ford Focus is an extraordinarily good car. And it’s all the more extraordinary when you look at what Ford was pumping out just three or four years ago.
Ford Focus 1.6. About $21,000. Three- or five-door hatchback. Four-cylinder 1596cc engine (1.4-, 1.8-, 2.0-liter engines also available). Five-speed manual transmission. Maximum speed: 184 kph (114 mph). Acceleration: 0-100 kph in 11.3 seconds. Average fuel consumption: 6.9 liters per 100 km.
