Ford confirms ST – no more small XRs

Ford Australia has killed the XR... At least as far as small cars go.

As part of a number of announcements at a preview drive of the new four-cylinder Falcon EcoBoost, the Blue Oval's local arm confirmed the arrival of Focus ST Down Under in 2012.

In doing so it has effectively put an end to questions regarding the continuation of the XR nameplate on small Fords.

ST is Ford of Europe's mainstream performance grade. It sits one rung below the RS hero brand. Though Ford Australia sold ST170 variants of the first generation Focus in this country, it chose to rebadge later ST Fiesta and Focus models as XR4s and XR5s Down Under. When Focus ST arrives in Q4 of 2012 it will reverse the decision.

Ford Australia President and CEO, Bob Graziano told motoring.com.au the change to ST was consistent with the company's new global approach.

"I think it's consistent with the global strategy -- the global ST strategy. For us it's the right [production] addition to our portfolio and I think it keeps the Focus brand [in front of customers]."

But Graziano ruled out harmonising the ST and XR nameplates on Falcon. We're not likely to see a Falcon ST?

"No, I don't think so," Graziano stated.

"Certainly the XR6 is going to continue and we've been evaluating the XR8 and, you know, that's still under study. We've got no announcements on that one way or the other," he said.

The new Focus ST was unveiled at September's Frankfurt Motor Show. Packing a 180kW version of Ford's 2.0-litre EcoBoost turbo four, it will be sold in both hatch and wagon versions in European markets. As Ford Australia has chosen to pass on even the 'cooking' model Focus wagon, it's highly unlikely the hot hauler will come Down Under.

However, the confirmation of the ST nameplate does clear the way for Ford Australia to pair the Focus with a production version of the yet to be confirmed Ford Fiesta ST.

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