Fiesta gives hints to next Focus

Ford Australia is still to confirm when the facelifted version of the current Focus is coming Down Under, but it could be closer than we think.

 

The facelift was launched in Europe earlier this year, but so far has only made it Down Under in the German-built XR5 variant only (more here ). With the rest of the Aussie Focus models still sourced from South Africa, no timetable has been announced for the wholesale makeover.

 

Speaking at last week's local Fiesta launch, Ford Australia Vice President Marketing, Sales and Service, Beth Donovan, would not comment specifically on plans for the facelifted Focus. However the marketing and sales boss did admit the midlife makeover was "not far way".

 

"I can't speak to that [specifics]... It's really not far away," she told the Carsales Network.

 

Indeed, Donovan would not confirm whether the updated Focus would pick up the same changes as the Euro model (specifically the availability of a twin-clutch transmission on selected models), but did say the new Fiesta provides strong hints of the new strategy Ford Australia would adopt for Focus.

 

"We didn't plan Fiesta anywhere in the world in isolation," Donovan told the Carsales Network.

 

"Although Fiesta existed in two markets -- Europe and Asia -- it [the new car] gave us a real opportunity to go forward with a positioning strategy. Everything else in the light car segment is an A-to-B, it's an appliance -- not something you want to be seen in and you certainly wouldn't tell your friends you have it. To be able to move to this positioning --that that says it's stylish, it's got great features and capitalises on lifestyle technologies and connectivity -- it moves [Fiesta] up... And gives us the opportunity to move Focus up," Donovan explained.

 

"Focus today, again it's a very capable car... And has a lot of the same elements [as the last Fiesta]. So we line that up and we said ... [new Focus] needs to make sense -- the series differentiation has got to be logical. That's what you're going to see... CL, LX and Zetec [in Fiesta]... CL LX and Zetec in the Focus.  And also [alignment in] what the [standard equipment] walks are.

 

"Bottom line on Focus is, we said Fiesta's got all these characteristics, we've got to make sure that [the walk to Focus] is completely logical... Focus is not going to have 'that' [feature] but it may have a couple of [new] things."

 

According to Donovan, Fiesta is only fractionally smaller (in total cabin capacity) than Australia's top-selling small car, the Corolla. She admits that may see Ford cede sales of its small car to the new light car entrant.

 

"We knew physically we were moving up in size but I actually think you're going to have some customers that will buy Fiesta [mainly] because of its style. The Focus is more conservative.

 

"On the other hand we might have other people who have had a Focus and want more choice. We didn't have that opportunity before because maybe Focus and Fiesta were too similar," Donovan opined.

 

According to Donovan a change in marketing message for Focus has driven more consideration from prospective buyers. Ford's 'Focus on the Facts' campaign has also helped richen the sales model mix, she said.

 

"The [Focus] driveaway [price] we've been advertising is $20,490, but we've had dealers advertising the next series up -- the LX.

 

"We're been doing a much better job [on pricing] with automatics now. We owned the manual CL space and what we found was when we advertised a price point for the automatic, for a little bit more the buyers could move to an LX.

 

"So for that last three months since we did the 'Focus on the Facts' campaign we're getting more consideration, because we're doing head-to-head comparisons," Donovan explained.

 

Donovan did confirm Ghia was dead as a nameplate for Fiesta, Focus and other Ford models.

 

"Ghia is another one of these 'give the customer what they want'... Field of dream marketing guys don't exist any more and where they do they're not successful... Build it and they'll just buy it... It's not going to happen.

 

"Ghia is an example of that. People [in testing] said that sounds like something my grandpa would have... [It goes] Along with words like haberdashery..."

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