All-new Ford Focus Estate

Ford has reported strong sales of the all-new Ford Focus Estate with 2,000 UK customer order already taken. The new Focus Estate shares the same appeal as the five-door model with a full range of low-CO2 engines and lots of smart technology on offer. The engine range includes the 1.6-litre TDCi 115PS engine which is equipped with Auto-Start-Stop and this is the most popular model to date, accounting for 43 per cent of all sales due to its low CO2 output of 109g/km.

The Focus Estate is practical too, offering a company driver the extra space and flexibililty that may be needed as it is 20cm longer than the five-door, is 10cm wider and has a maximum load capacity of 1,502 litres (in two-seat mode). The all-new Focus Estate comes with over £1,000 of additional standard equipment over the outgoing model including Bluetooth and voice control, USB connection, DAB, Thatcham Category 1 alarm, aluminium roof rails, tonneau cover, driver lumber adjustment and torque vectoring control. Ford car leasing on all models is on the site now.

All-new Ford Focus

The all-new Ford Focus is a really important car for Ford and Essex shoppers will be among the first to get a glimpse of the new car at the Lakeside Shopping Centre next week.

Ford will prioritise delivery of a five-door candy yellow-coloured 1.6 diesel Titanium model ready for its Lakeside debut from the 17th February for four days and with 7,500 daily visitors to Lakeside it’s bound to get good coverage. The car is loaded with hi-tech features including automated parallel parking, a lane keeping aid to keep the car in between lane markings and traffic sign recognition, which displays the latest speed sign passed on the instrument panel.

First models

A batch of the first all-new Ford Focus hatchbacks has been spotted on route to UK dealers in time for the new 11 Series March registration plate. The first consignment of 2,500 cars left the Ford Saarlouis plant in Germany last week and since then around 1,000 vehicles a day have been arriving.

Ford Focus cars on route

The majority of these first cars are all five-door hatchbacks and 70 per cent are also top-of-the range Titanium models destined for some lucky motorists. Vehicle availability and lead times for new models tends to be an issue for many manufacturers i.e. making sure they have enough vehicles to cope with demand, but it looks like Ford have planned well.

Horst Ritze, Ford’s Material Planning and Logistics manager, said,”Now that the all-new Ford Focus models have left the Saarlouis plant on schedule and with the highest levels of quality, deliveries to the European market will soar. We currently have 12,000 cars in the pipeline for release to markets across Europe”.

All-new Ford Focus

The new generation Ford Focus has been undergoing testing in the scorching sun of Southern Spain, at Antequera, where temperatures regularly rise above 40 degrees Celsius. The car’s EATC (Electronic Automatic Temperature Control) system has been put through its paces and has coped comfortably in reducing the temperature, when it gets really hot and also in warming the occupants up just as rapidly, when the temperature falls.

The engineering team are road-testing two camouflaged vehicles, a four door version from the North American market and a five door from the European market. There are over 200 sensors around the car and everything is monitored, including ambient temperature, AC pressures, engine speed and sunlight. The main challenge is that North American drivers have different preferences as they like the cabin to really be cool, whereas European drivers  like the cabin to be chilled but not cool.

Klaus Schuermanns, Ford systems engineer, said,”We get a lot of people trying to take pictures as we drive along and people are always asking us about the car. But the most important thing for us is that this AC system in the all-new Focus is great. That makes our job much easier, not to mention more comfortable”.