Lets all give a warm and hearty welcoming appluase to the latest 3rd generation Ford Focus (C346) to grace our shores. We’ve just returned from PJ Exchange (next to AmCorp Mall off the Federal highway in Petaling Jaya), where the covers where pulled to reveal the all new Focus.
The new Focus joins the C-segment market that’s getting rather crowded at the moment and you can expect competition to be high, which is why Ford has packed in a whole load of goodies at a rather competitive price point, since it does hail from our northern neighbour – Thailand.
The Focus is being offered in 4 guises – 2 each for your choice of either sedan or hatchback. The sedan comes in either Titanium or Titanium+ and the hatch is available in either Sport or Sport+ (where the ‘+’ indicates more goodies).
There’s only one engine to be had for all variant and under the hood of the Focus lies a 2.0L (NA) Duratec Ti-CVT GDI four-banger with direct injection that’s good for 170bhp at 6,500rpm and 202Nm of torque at 4,550rpm. A 6-speed Powershift dual-clutch gearbox is mated to the engine.
Standard equipment for the Focus includes the likes of a keyless entry system, Push-start button, dual-zone climate control, leather wrapped steering wheel with audio and phone controls and a 4.2” TFT colour multifunction display located at the centre of the instrument cluster. There’s even voice control, Bluetooth, Ford’s SYNC System, USB/iPod connectivity, and a Sony headunit to power up the 9-speaker system.
In terms of safety, the Focus gets 6 ready to deploy airbags, ABS, EBD, Brake Assists, TCS, ESP and ISOFIX points at the rear. The differences in terms of standard trim is that the sedan gets full leather-wrapped seats with a 4-way electronically adjustable driver’s seat whereas the hatch’s is all ‘humanually’ adjustable with semi-leather seats.
Another difference between the hatch and sedan is their rim sizes with the sedan utilising 16” alloy rims wrapped by 205/60 tyres and the hatch gets a larger set of 17” alloys with 215/50 tyres.
However, on the “+” side (excuse the pun), cruise control, rain sensor wipers, auto-dimming rear-view mirror and Bi-Xenon headlights with auto-on and follow-me-home functions, tilt and retractable sunroof, Active Park Assist (hands-free parking – but will require you to change from R to D) and Active City Stop (proximity sensor that will stop your car if you get too close to the one in front) gets thrown into the mix.
The Focus sedan gets Candy Red (Titanium + only), Cool White, Midnight Sky and Ingot Silver. However, the hatchback also Candy Red, Cool White, Panther Black and Midnight Sky (Sport + only).
In terms of price, we did say competitive and so here it is below:
4-door sedan:
– 2.0L Ti-VCT Titanium: RM115,888 (OTR + Ins)
– 2.0L Ti-VCT Titanium+: RM128,888 (OTR + Ins)
5-door hatchback:
– 2.0L Ti-VCT Sport: RM115,888 (OTR + Ins)
– 2.0L Ti-VCT Sport+: RM128,888 (OTR + Ins)
You’ll be happy to note that Ford has just introduced a 5-year or 200,000km (whichever comes first) warranty and is also being extended to the Ford Fiesta, Mondeo and S-MAX from today onwards for newly registered cars.
