By
EWAN KENNEDY
24 April 2006
Fuel may be getting more expensive at a frightening rate, but keen
drivers still want their performance cars. So Ford Australia is now
offering them a quick car that uses a fair bit less fuel, but allies it
with plenty of excitement.
The new Ford Focus XR5 is just what the
automotive doctor ordered. The latest in the series of XR cars comes
with an interesting five-cylinder engine, hence the ‘5’ in the
title. Based on a turbocharged Volvo powerplant (Volvo is owned by Ford
these days) this twin-cam 2.5-litre unit punches out a handy 166
kilowatts, and an even handier 320 Newton metres. The latter is on offer
all the way from 1600 to 4000 rpm so unless they are hurrying the car
along most people will spend all of their time with the engine at its
torque peak.
Not that you wouldn’t want to hurry the
XR5 along. It’s delightful to drive in all conditions, though
obviously at its fun best on demanding winding roads. There the engine
will spend most of its time driving through third gear, which is good
for everything from 40 km/h all the way up to 110 km/h. It pulls
strongly and offers nice punch out of corners and fast, safe overtaking.
As befits a performance car, Focus comes
only with a manual gearbox, a six-speed unit. This may put off some
buyers as, for whatever reason, many Australian drivers who profess to
love the sportiness of European cars don’t like to follow the
Europeans lead in buying fuel-efficient manuals.
Incidentally, this variant of the Focus
is a full European car, being built in Germany, whereas all the other
Focus models sold in Australia are imported from South Africa.
Naturally, the Ford designers have beefed
up the body, suspension and brakes of the Focus XR5 in keeping with the
urge offered by the boosted engine. The suspension provides not only
excellent levels of grip, safety and stability, but also does so with
minimal loss in ride comfort.
In an interesting piece of technology the
electrically-assisted steering can be varied by the driver so that they
can select the amount of weight they feel through the steering wheel.
Ford Focus has a striking body kit that
gives it a sporty look but, sadly, is only being imported to Australia
in five-door format. A three-door is also offered on other markets but
because of relatively low sales numbers here – Ford expects to sell
only about 500 per year – the decision was made to import just the one
body. The profile of the three- and five-door body is the same, but
somehow having only a single opening on each side of a car does give it
a sportier look to our eyes.
Inside there are Recaro seats, if you buy
a car with cloth trim its conventional in that you get a three-person
bench seat in the rear. But if you want leather trim you get four bucket
seats. Three additional gauges sit in a binnacle in the centre of the
dash and inform you of turbo boost and the temperature and pressure of
the engine oil.
The price of the new Ford Focus XR5
begins at just $35,990. We say ‘begins at’ because, though all XR5s
are identical in specification the price depends on the colour. Paying
the aforementioned $35,990 buys you a red car, if you want a black or
blue one the price is $36,290 as these are metallic paints. But the
strange price is that of the orange Focus XR5. It will set you back
$37,790 as the paint job involves a more complex mixture and extra time
in the spray shop. All a bit odd, but perhaps good Ford salespeople can
make a talking point out of the variable price scale. Of course, on-road
costs have to be factored in.
Ford Focus XR5 is just the right car at
the right time for Australian lovers of driving who want to protect
their wallets from the rapidly increasing daily costs of running a car.
We feel Ford may have underestimated demand and wait with interest our
viewing of the upcoming sales charts.
