Photos have gone around the world over the past few hours of the 2011 Ford Focus, that is to say the Ford Focus Mk3.
The car again shares the Ford C1 platform which the Focus Mk2 sat one as does the Mazda 3 and the Volvo S40 and C30. The engine choices from what I can gather will be more or less the same but with more of a drive towards Ford's Econetic program. This would logically include the current range from 1.4L to 2.0L in petrol and diesel and the 2.5L RS variants.
As far as styling goes, the car shares the same styling trend as the current Fiesta Mk6 though that bar across the centre appears to be in deference to the North American range of cars such as the Ford Taurus, Ford Fusion and the rather odd looking Ford Flex.
What I find most disappointing about this car isn't that it looks like the Fiesta (which I quite like) but that it looks like everyone else. That pinched D-Pillar may as well be on the Opel/Vauxhall Astra¹ , Hyundai's i30, the Mazda 3, Seat Leon, etc etc etc. To be honest I was hoping for something a little more cutting edge from Ford, perhaps I shouldn't have bothered.
Remember, that this is the car for which Ford Australia were given $149m to be a part of after they announced that it would be built at Broadmeadows in 2011², and then pulled the project during the Global Financial Ripoff³.
What the car will do, is finally a) merge the North American Focus with the rest of the world and b) hopefully remove the Detroit's design houses insistence to barry up the American version.
I mean really... Yeuch!
¹which we in Australia never got because Holden think that the great Australian public are incredibly stupid, so fob us off with Daewoos.
²http://www.drive.com.au/Editorial/ArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=41903
³http://www.themotorreport.com.au/38133/ford-abandons-local-focus-in-favour-of-ecoboost-four-cylinder-falcon-and-diesel-territory/
- Wow. Three sidenotes! What a truly bonkers day.
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