Think BMW on this one, 323i, 523i, both use the 2.5L straight six found in the 325i (no longer) and 525i but in de-tuned form – therefore cheaper.

I would like to give the dual clutch gearbox a go but or a small car like the focus I’d still prefer a manual. Although I like my ZF Auto XR6 Turbo its definately the best auto ive ever driven. Although a dual clutch version would be fantastic

(I’ll take one in white with sunroof thanks!)

and its very hard to lump the xr5 in with the ordinary focus in any discussion. the trim in the standard focus sucks, but level of trim in the xr5 suits it perfectly.

the resale of a standard focus is probably crap, but try finding a 2006 xr5 under 30k. its chalk and cheese…

The Focus ST is just such a great car for the price. even with the new lv model, ford are starting to stuff it up. i hope they dont ruin it by putting in all types of crap it doesnt need.

or at least, stuff it up, and send us the 2009 Focus RS to replace it.

About the Ford’s interior. I don’t know if any of you commenting on the Golf’s interior has ever sat in one lately. I’m not talking about the GTI but the rest of the Golf range interior is bland and cheapy in my opinion. Sit in a little Fiesta XR4 and it’s interior material, look and finish crap all over anything from the Golf range. You internet warriors really need to stop look at brushed up pics on the net and actually get out and look at these cars close up.

To the clown that actually thinks a GTI will out handle an STI in the track, dude what are you smoking? Pass the bong!

I have yet to driven a dual clutch myself, but from reviews and comments from friends who owns DSG, moving off from stand still is not as smooth as tradtional auto, and can still give slide judder. Also many of them won’t hold the car when parked uphill at the light, or creep smoothly in a traffic jam. I would love to try one myself though.

As for interior, Focus has nice plastic quality, but the over design doesn’t look very classy IMO. I guess it’s the execution that’s not right. Golf is the clear leader in this car, and i would rate Civic as the best from Japan in this class. Have to say too, the FG Falcon has a really nice interior, best of any Australian car i’ve seen, miles ahead of the Commodore, which is quite cheap looking in comparison.

I’ll try one last time, website is
drivingspirit dot com

every thing has to start in the market somewhere.
surely this will only come in on the XR5 and Ghia models for eg.

the ZF6 on the falcon was introduced in the same way.
firstly it was only on the higher end models, and once it became “old news” (so to speak) it was available on even the base XT model.

surely the powershift will be introduced in the same manner.

no use whinging about the unnecessary costs involved, because like anything, it will always demand a higher premium when it is fresh to the market.
would you rather it wasnt introduced at all?
or they wait until it is old news before they introduce it?

i highly doubt it will become standard on base models on initial introduction.

and on interior plastics, my two bob.
i think for in its class the focus is one of the better ones. im not too familiar with the golf interior, so ill take peoples words on the feel of it.

the focus is far from the worst.
most small cars have very cheap looking interiors.

not so long back i was in the dealer and sat in the FG and then whent and jumped in the Mondeo.
i tell you what, the Falcon made the Mondeo look like cheap crap.

the good old aussie interior truely does and always has held its own against even the imports.

interiors are pretty important to me since i have to sit in the thing.
there arent many interiors that gel with me.
i used to think the focus was terrible, but its a stand out in its class if you ask me.
(if only they could put the wipers on the correct side) ha ha ha ha ha

VW – DSG
BMW – DCT
Aston M. – SportShift
Ford – PowerShift
Lexus – SPDS

I wonder what the price premium will be for Ford’s PowerShift as an 8ms shift time is very impressive. I can’t help but to think that maybe 8ms is overkill in even the XR5 but may be better used in the likes of the XR8, the G6ET/XR6T or the FPV range. That’s not to say that 8ms shift times in the XR5 isn’t good, it’s just that if it’s expensive to produce a ‘box with that kind of performance and the price premium to get it fitted to the XR5 is a substantial amount, aren’t Ford better off making a somewhat “de-tuned” version for the XR5?

Also there’s a spelling mistake in the second last paragraph, “C02″ = “CO2″

Best – DSG
1. – Manual
2. – Powershift
3. – Conventional automatic

It compares the Ford Durashift, which is the conventional 5 speed automatic, rather than the new Powershift twin clutch box. The Durashift in a 1.6 Focus produces 16% more CO2 than a manual – the Golf TS120 (not the TS140 sold here as the GT) produces 7% less CO2 with the new 7 speed DSG box.

They claimed that on the focus diesel Manual was still faster than the powershift system, unlike DSG which was faster, more or at least economical than the manual.

milage and smoothness was better than its automatic counterpart from what I read, but I didnt see or missed the part saying it was more economical than the manual…

If Ford AU had sold 10% of the Golf quantity they would be very happy, pity for them is nobody’s buying it.

Resale valaue of any car is now sh!te, and it’s just downright childish to argue that one make is better than the other for resale value. Just accept that you’ll get bugger all for it down the track, and enjoy the Classy interior of your Golf, or be a Focus driver and wonder why people carry on about interiors at all, or be a Corolla driver and wonder what’s for tea when you get home.

Just don’t spew all over a post about a new gearbox, which is, after all, just a copy of the best dual clutch gearbox around, BAR NONE.

VW is already forging ahead with the lower cost 7 speed DSG with dry clutches for lower power output vehicles, so the lead over the rest is maintained.