FORD FOCUS
One of the UK’s most popular cars enters its 4th generation in style
1998 was a great year for Ford. The Ford Focus arrived on our roads and since then, the American giant has sold over 2,000,000 models here in the UK.
Now, 20 years later, there’s an all-new Ford Focus and it has entered its 4th generation looking better than ever. Previously available as a hatchback and estate, the new generation of Focus adds an all-new ‘Active’ trim. The Active will be very similar to Audi’s ‘allroad’ style in that it’s a raised, more rugged estate, but a new look is far from the only thing that the new Focus offers, this is an entirely new car from the outgoing model with Ford engineers saying only a few nuts and bolts have been carried over into the new car.
The Focus competes against some pretty major names in the motoring business – the Volkswagen Golf, Vauxhall Astra, Kia Ceed and Honda Civic are all considered competitors in this segment, though the Focus has often managed to come out on top of this tight battle.
Underneath the bonnet of the all-new Focus is a range of petrol and diesel engines, with rumours around a hybrid version following in 2020. Ford has a particularly excellent petrol engine that comes highly recommended – the multi-award winning 1.0-litre, 3-cylinder turbo Ecoboost. Available in 3 different power outputs, this engine – that has the footprint of a piece of A4 paper - is the very definition of small but mighty and is particularly loved in its 138bhp output. For diesel customers, there’s a choice of a 1.5-litre or 2.0-litre engine dubbed ‘EcoBlue’. Unusually, the 1.5-litre diesel is preferred by many despite being the smaller, less powerful option. For business lease customers, its 91g/km of CO2 emissions make it a tempting proposition.
To answer a previous criticism of the previous generation, Ford has engineered a new automatic gearbox. The new 8-speed is slicker and faster to change than previous Ford automatics and also has the capability to learn the driving habits of its driver too.
Being a new car, Ford has had to invest heavily in new features and technology for the new generation of Focus and several clever features are available such as Heads-up display, adaptive front-lighting, a smart post-collision braking system and something that’s bound to catch the eye of the British public – a pothole detection system.
There’s a reason why the Ford Focus has been such a huge success over the last couple of decades, it’s huge fun to drive, well equipped, stylish and even better than that, great value on a Synergy personal or business lease agreement.