34 Clitheroe Advertiser & Times, October 15th, 1998 THE PREMIER PAPER FOR BUYING AND SELLING IN THE RIBBLE VALLEY j ' j J l / j 'D - r iJ j l l i .J Ford’s Focus on style By FREDERIC MANBY
nicks in th e roof to break up th e surface. Design is an up and down affair. Get it wrong and you
F
will have to flog a dead horse in the showrooms. Get it right and the cars will walk out while the sales staff relax on the golf course. Ford, Europe’s biggest-selling
car badge, knows both sce narios. Example one was the Ford Scorpio, which didn’t appeal widely enough and killed off the model. Example two may well be the Ford Focus, the keystone of the Ford stand at this month’s motor show. I t looks way-out for a main
stream Ford, especially for the model which replaces the ever so safely styled Escort. Ford says secret customer styling clinics gave the Focus’s appearance overwhelming, though
not 100 per cent, support. I am not convinced. I t only collected two studious
glances in Wetherby. Seen from behind the hatchback models have a dumpy back. Seen front-on, the view is not too radical anymore: it looks like a modem Ford, in fact. The tail lamps are all above the waist line which is stylish but the brake lamps will dazzle following drivers annoy ingly in stop-start driving at night. Oddly, the reversing lamp and fog lamp are as low as possible in the rear spoil
er. There are massive, irregular front lenses, and tail lamps
which cover the entire roof pillar. Other manufacturers have paved the way for all these features but Ford is the first to have the generosity to gather them together in one car. Beside it the excellent Vauxhall Astra looks merely neat. Fiat’s fleetingly brave Bravo and Brava look coy. Citroen’s Xsara looks elegant but something is missing. Renault’s Megane looks gawky. Only the bold but evolu tionary styling of Volkswagen’s latest Golf can stand con
fidently. Focus is among the roomiest car in the class, with
notable headroom. I t is well equipped. I t does not rattle or shudder much. (Its body is claimed to be stiffer than that of any rival and fully twice as rigid as the Escort, which continues in a reduced range of hatchback and
estate until mid-2000). Even if you are not sure about its looks (and I am casu
world,championship' nextyear.' The standard car-has a for the 74bhp 1.4; 41.5mpg for the 98.6bhp 1.6; 37.7mpg yunisn cnii
al enough to be sitting on the fence on that question) you’ll find little, maybe nothing, to beat the way Focus drives. This forte will be developed in the rally version wnnith whiich Colin McR e and Nicky Grist will contest the
c v.u..n m t ivac wnU „ ____ u U n v ^ - ir o f ir T*V»q c f n H a r H .f»nr.’h n s a :! i i v.-ailnui siil aaum OJ byiwi so i-........ - sa olid Vit.. .
solid, secure feel in the suspension, the steering and the gearshift action. I t feels on the ball. Low friction steer ing and the class-first of multi-link rear suspension give it polite road manners. Like every family car, it chases that definable target of comfort for passengers coupled with firm control for the keener driver. Starting prices are a shade higher than the Astra.
Ford’s price-box is an attractive concept. For the startline £12,850 you have a choice of models: the three-door sporty Zetec model with the new 1.6 engine or the 1.8 engine, or the five-door 1.4CL, which is the only 1.4 Focus offered. Another example: for £14,350 you can choose from the Zetec 1.8 Tdi estate, the LX estate with 1.6 or 1.8 petrol engines, the LX 1.8 Tdi five-door, or the Ghia badged saloon or five-door with 1.6 or 1.8 engines. As for the engines, the brand new 98.6 brake horse
power 1.6 engine goes well enough. After testing on both French and Yorkshire roads the Focus’s weakest point is
excessive tyre drumming. Ford has done a nice job inside the cabin, with a variety
of shapes and textures and colours to escape the plastic trap. Despite some 400 hours of customer clinics to see what we wanted in a car, the front seats on the three-door model do not move forward when you move the backrest forward. This makes it a fussy operation to get in and out of the rear seats. The rear windows on the three-door are fixed, which can be a stuffy experience. Another omission is an engine capacity badge on the boot. Ford says this is to reduce class awareness. Cheers, mate. Accident protection and running costs are claimed to
.......... ........ ........ be leading edge stuff. Suggested mileage figures are 44mpg iuu-i-u
*'
Alfa Romeo power upgrade A
LFA Romeo has given its GTV sports coupe a massive dollop of -
extra power with the arrival of a. 220bhp 3.0 litre V6 version. The new 24-valve engine, exclusive
to the tin-top GTV and not available in the open top Spider, works with a revised chassis and suspension set up to provide the enthusiast with exhila rating performance. It reaches a top speed of 150mph and tackles the sprint to 60mph in around 6.5 sec
onds. Yet Alfa says it is so smooth that it
for the 113.4bhp 1.8; 33mpg for the 128bhp 2-litre, and 57.6mpg for
the 88.7bhp 1.8 turbo diesel. All the petrol engines should be on sale this year in the
three-door and five-door versions, and in the four-door saloon and the estate. The diesel an,d automatic transmis sion come sometime next year. One unusual anti-theft device is a key-operated bon
net lock to repel Mr Thief, a reason why insurance ratings start at group 4. Other useful features include easy-fix Isofix child seat mountings, and electric windows with a safety retraction if fingers get trapped. All the base CL models have two front airbags, power
steering, central locking, tinted glass, body coloured bumpers, electric front windows, anti-theft systems, reach and tilt adjustment for the steering column, and height adjustment on the driver’s seat, and an RDS radio cas
sette player. The LX versions get a remote boot release, manual
sunroof, uprated hi-fi and double locking. The sportier Zetec include uprated suspension, sports seats, public- nuisance front foglamps, a leather steering wheel. Ghia models get air conditioning, power driver’s seat, electric mirrors and lumbar support. Only the 2.0 Ghia gets ABS and traction control as standard, plus alloy wheels, elec tric rear windows^ a CD player and fuel computer.
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„ Bora is about to breeze in
BREATH of fresh air is how VW ^executives describe the company's
latest car the Bora, named after a famous Adriatic wind, a God and sundry other things. From the outside if is very similar to
the new Skoda Octavia, with which it shares r platform along with the Audi A3 anaxhe new VW Beetle, but it is
officialiwpositioned between the Golf . B ( _ » t
. . . . . u. ; 'i • 2 . . -I * 11 * i
and the Passat in terms of size and price.
Drivers have the, choice of five ' '
engines - the-1.6 litre, 2.0 litre both with an automatic option and Hie 2.3 VS; plus two
diesels.the 1.9 TDi and the 1.9 direct injection.-— ' ' ^ : It is available in Germany now and.
in the UK we can expect our quota of around 10,000 early in the New Year.
O R D ’s n ew F o c u s , w h ich goes on sa le today, has more angles th a n Bill Clinton’s defence team . T h e s ty l is ts have even p u t
HUNDREDS s of cars for
YOUR ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO THE LOCAL MOTORING MARKET ale inside
is not necessary to fit a traction control system to stop wheel spin or torque steer, even though all that power goes down through fat front tyres. At the same time the 2.0 litre 16
valve versions of both the GTV and Spider get a power upgrade of five horsepower to 155bhp thanks to the addition of variable valve timing. Both cars have had overhauls and
are fitted with new body colours, side skirts, new design alloy wheels and new interiors including a modified instrument layout, revised centre con sole and additional equipment.
IMPORTANT PUBLIC NOTICE
£2830 FIESTASfrom £
MICRASfrom
£2850 QUALITY USED CARS
TRADE PRICES
£6875 £3775
from
M0NDE0S from t,
£3750 £3585
GUOSfrom,*
CORSAS from a
SEE INSIDE FOR FULL DETAILS W a lk e r
TEL: 01282
611911 F a r r im o n d U LL-fiM Cars shown lor Illustration purposes only il 01282 TEL: ------ 606606
LOMESHAYE MOTORPARK, NELSON, JUNC.12, M65
TO A D V E R T IS E IN O U R C O LO U R F U L M O TO R S S E C T IO N P H O N E 422331
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