Comments on: Ford Focus decade’s most popular car in UK poll

By: Andrew M

Andrew M — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 07:24:34 +0000

Yes and No,
The Focus cam in when the new car market was starting to boom, and small cars was one of the biggest growth market.
Sure the Focus should have come earlier, I agree, but the name familiarity also gave it a huge blow.
If Ford had the Focus into our market place at the right time, that would have still only done half the job.
They still needed the name for familiarity stakes.

Why do you think Holden rebadges for eg????
Do you think they would sell as many Holden Kalos as they do Barinas??

By: Yonny

Yonny — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 02:26:43 +0000

Toxic Horse, Why is it rubbish? Ever owned an SA-built Focus? Ever compared one to a Euro built one?

By: gary

gary — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:59:12 +0000

i would agree. i have had our Focus since 2004 (Zetec 5 Sp Hatch) and enjoy driving it.we looked at the Sth African version during servicing of our Made in Germany.i didn’t think it drove as good although there was improvements, this year we gave our car a complete re spray. set of new 205/50/16 tyres (expensive tyres), a new timing belt, fuel injectors cleaned, front and rear disc rotors and pads, should be good for a few more years. i would like to know the difference in the Uk version to ours, and Perhaps Ford Australia should have promtoed this car better here. like the mondeo it will be a slow seller for ford. Perhaps not the Mondeo wagon which looks great compared to the Ve wagon which i would buy tomorrow.

By: filippo

filippo — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:55:34 +0000

Andrew I guess you were living under a rock for the last half of the 90s. The Laser stopped being popular after the locally-built KF/KH models – the KJ was too pricey and poorly positioned, while the KN fell victim to Mazdas dull styling experiment of the time. By the time the Focus came around the Laser name was as good as dead. The only regretful thing for Ford Australia was that they weren’t fast enough to secure the first generation Focus in 1999.

By: Andrew M

Andrew M — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:55:00 +0000

It goes to show how long it takes to wear a groove into a market.

Ford dumped the Laser (much loved here) in favour of the better packaged and top euro selling focus.

Surely anyone would have thought that bringing a much loved euro product here it would also boom???

Not so. What they actually did was hand their market share straight to the Corolla.
The small car market is a market mainly females buy in, and they seek comfort in familiarity.
Just out of interest I would like to wind back the clock, and throw Laser badges on the Focus when they first landed here.

Most other manufacturers do it in the aim of retaining their customers, and I reckon its a key factor.

Nissan also fell victim to the same situation me thinks, all the while the Corolla is laughing at them gobbling up the homeless Laser and Pulsar drivers

By: billy the kid

billy the kid — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:40:59 +0000

All SA built cars are rubish. Ask anyone who has owned a SA built Golf GTI to tell you how bad they are. Constant problems. Why do the auto manufacturers build them there? Because it’s cheap! BMW are rethinking the whole SA experiment after bad quality reports. It’s not just the way the cars are put together but a lot of the parts are locally sourced and despite having to pass BMW QC, the local manufacturing over time just isn’t up to scratch or consistant.

I would not touch a SA built car no matter what the brand. Just like I wouldn’t touch a Korean or anything built in SE Asia either or China. If it’s not built in Japan or Germany, then I’m affraid it’s never going to be as good as you can get. Now if the Japs just used better materials like softer plastics etc they would have the best built cars on the planet period!

By: Joker

Joker — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 04:38:52 +0000

Toxic Horse, i’ve owned a SA built Focus (Zetec) and a Euro built one too (XR5).

I can tell you right now that the XR5 feels more solid and better built than the SA built ones straight away. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say SA built Focii are Trashy…far from it in fact, The Euro built ones do seem to have an over all better fit, finish and feel.
I think both Euro and SA built car’s are great..just the Euro built ones are better

By: Baddass

Baddass — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 04:27:24 +0000

I think Jeremy would have had a hand in voting Ford so highly!

By: toxic_horse

toxic_horse — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 03:49:04 +0000

Thats rubbish.

By: Yonny

Yonny — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 03:13:30 +0000

Don’t forget, the UK Focus is built in Europe – perhaps the fact they don’t have to put up with the trashy build quality of the South African built Focuses had something to do with its high ranking.

That gripe aside, the Focus is undeniably good to drive – at least the LX was. The base model CL on base 15″ wheels was less convincing.