Have had a screening in germany earlier last month, cant say alot though
other than think of a C-Max turned back into a Focus. Its still a Focus, but
with a much higher quality look and feel to it.

If you have a look at the new Volvo S40 and imagine a Ford badge and more
hatchback-ie. That might give you a clearer picture, if you get what I mean.

If Vx think their new Astra handles well, they are gunna be quite miffed
when the new focus gets roadtested.... There will be a 4x4 version in all
probability but engine is un decided as yet. The volvo 5 cylinder turbo is
good, powerful and meets euro 4 emissions but volvo is yet unwilling to let
ford use it. So it may be a turbo-ed duratec 4 banger.

Tim..

In message <c4kdm201c3e@enews4.newsguy.com>, Martin <martin@home.com>
wrote

Why bother? From posts to this group the only people with major problems
are those who seem to have bought a car within the first year of launch.
If a new Focus is different to that with all the early bugs fixed why
risk buying something new and unknown - at a premium price?

I understand the European Focus will be similar to the Mazda3, which is now
on sale in some markets and has been written up in many places.

The North American 2005 Focus is closer to the old one (apparently Ford
decided that the Mazda3 was too heavy for use here). You can see info on it
on the Ford Canada website (but not, surprising, Ford U.S.A.)

Here is a bit which I posted in February in relation to the Focus C-max.
This refers to a roadtest of the new Mazda 323 which is the same floorpan
etc. To have a report of the C-max being hard to handle in that it is very
finely tuned (ie to the limit of the "normal" driver PLUS to have another
write-up which criticises the handling of the Mazda would seem to me that
the design of the "floorpan" may not be quite right at the moment...
In case anyone is interested in reading the article, I repeat the bit I
posted previously here:-

Repeated portion:
   Now this doubt about the handling. I have just got the Telegraph
Motoring email and there is a feature on the new Mazda 3 which is based
(with the Volvo S40 etc) on the "new" Focus floorpan.
The report is at

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/main.jhtml?xml=/motoring/2004/02/20/emfmaz21.xml

(I did start to quote from it but of course it is covered by copyright but
it mentions being let down by skittish handling,  attempts to breakaway when
cornering only being saved by brutish efforts of the electronic stability
package to stop the slide and descriptions of the handling as both "tricky"
and "excitable").

Looks like Ford may be following Mercedes A class into a real
Moose/Mess?????????????????

At least it says that on country roads the "old" Focus will eat the new car
alive -
methinks this doesn't bode well for the new Focus

End of repeated portion
Justin Case
ps There were "spy" pictures of the new Focus undergoing trials on the
Channel 4 motoring section

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