The new Ford Focus, will be available in Kenya from the end of January.
The latest design elevates the world’s best-selling nameplate with a bolder, more emotive exterior design, a finely crafted, intuitive new interior, and a suite of new or improved driver assistance technologies. The new Focus also debuts My Key Gen 2 and offers a more powerful, yet frugal engine with fuel economy improvements.
Available in four- and five-door and wagon body-styles, the new Focus has a lower, wider stance, with a new bonnet, front fascia and grille. The bonnet is sculpted with a dynamic shape from the front pillar to the corners of the upper part of the inverted trapezoidal grille to deliver a strong, proud look.
Slimmer, chiselled front headlamps and elongated fog-lamps add to the bolder front end. Subtle chrome details add to the feeling of elegance while the rear of the car is sleeker with a new fascia and tailgate arrangement, as well as thinner tail lamps.
When redesigning the interior of the new Focus, Ford listened to customer feedback and responded with a more intuitive layout, complemented by a steering wheel and central stack with fewer controls and switches. The new black satin trim and chrome detailing contribute to a cleaner, more modern look.
The redesigned centre storage console offers more space as well as a new sliding, integrated armrest. The adjustable console is able to accommodate a variety of bottles and cups. Focus customers also will experience excellent interior quietness, achieved with thicker carpets, thicker side window glass, and improved engine bay insulation.
New Focus will offer 92kW in the 1.6-litre petrol engine with either a five-speed manual or a six-speed PowerShift automatic gearbox available on Titanium models.
With enhanced handling and steering, the new Focus takes the model’s exceptional driving dynamics and acclaimed fun-to-drive DNA to a new level. Ford engineers have delivered a more solid, responsive and connected-to-the-road feel by increasing the structural stiffness at the front, revising the suspension geometry, increasing lateral stiffness of “steering-relevant” suspension bushes, and retuning the shock absorbers.
The Electric Power Assisted Steering system is available on manual models and has been retuned to make the driver feel even more connected to the road. The new Focus also will be available with optional paddle-shift controls that enable drivers to control gear changes while keeping their hands on the steering wheel.
The highly acclaimed driving experience is further refined with improvements to noise, vibration and harshness that help deliver superb levels of interior quietness in Focus, and contribute to a more relaxing environment.
Ford first launched the Focus in 1998 and since then more than 12 million have been sold worldwide. To meet growing customer demand for Focus, which is sold in more than 140 markets, Ford has now ramped up capacity worldwide to build the car in eight plants on four continents. Factories in Germany, U.S., Russia, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan and Argentina have a combined capacity to produce more than 1.5 million Focus vehicles annually.