"Ooh, dear, what a lovely chest of drawers," enthused my mother, during one of her weekend parole visits. "Did you make it yourself?" I confessed that I did - well, sort of. I had bought a computer desk from Ikea, but being a man, I didn't need to read the instructions, and instead relied on my natural aptitude.
The strange thing was, there was nothing left over - not a single screw. So what started out as one thing in the end became something entirely different. And much the same thing can be said of the 'new' Ford Focus: practically all the same bits have been used but the end result is somehow a different car. Whoever put it together didn't read the instructions; and instead of building what in most people's perception is a British car, they built a German one.
The new car is not so much a Focus as a small Mondeo, but could just as easily be an Audi or a Volkswagen. With little exception, motor journalists throughout Europe have heaped praise on the new Mondeo, and I suspect, in time, the same accolades will be applied to the new Focus, oder der neue Fokus.
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The new car is not so much a Focus as a small Mondeo |
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OK, as you will see from the photographs, I actually tested a German car: the number plates make that obvious, as does the fact that it is clearly a left-hooker. But that's only because the 'sneak preview' car loaned to a few UK journos happened to be a German pre-production example. But when the right-hand drive versions arrive in UK showrooms next year, they will in all other respects be identical.
In engineering terms, there are few, if any, clear-cut reasons to account for what amounts to a step-change in the life of the Focus, and therefore I can assume only that the new styling primes your expectations, and a higher cabin specification makes the car feel more substantial, more solid, and more like a scaled-down premium car than well-endowed fleet metal.
And by 'higher cabin specification', I don't mean a Bang & Olufsen sound system, or a suede-lined glove box: we are talking mainly of materials technology, of which the soft-touch fascia-covering and door cappings are merely the bits you can see. Beneath the skin, Ford has invested in improving NVH levels, which play a big part in distinguishing a premium car from a bargain buy. NVH stands for 'Noise, Vibration, Harshness', the natural by-product of any mechanically driven device - from a warship to a washing machine - and the attenuation of which occupies some of the best minds in the business.
At least, that appears to be the case at Ford. The test car was powered by the company's familiar 2.0-litre Duratorq diesel engine, yet compared with the run-out model it felt altogether smoother and a lot more refined. Moreover, compared with what I remember of the original Focus - the Mark One, if you like - the new model is not simply an improvement, it is in a class above. I mention this because I have no doubt that many buyers of the 2008 car might well be trading in one of the original models, and to such customers the notable contrast should sell the car on the spot.
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