Ford fettles Focus and Fiesta
New safety tech for Fiesta, and Focus gets an extra wheel to increase appealFord has announced its Focus small car and Fiesta light car will be bundled with extra features in a bid to attract more buyers to the Blue Oval brand.
The recently updated Ford Fiesta has been given another boost with the addition of Emergency Assistance, a system that can detect the car has been in an accident and automatically alert emergency service operators of the incident.
Previously only available on the top end Fiesta ST, Focus ST and Kuga compact SUV, Emergency Assistance is now standard on all Fiesta models, which are priced from $15,825 plus on-road costs. The system operates when drivers have their Bluetooth phone paired to the car's SYNC connectivity platform, and if the airbags go off or the fuel-pump shuts down, it uses the driver's phone to send out an SOS message.
"Emergency Assistance is a potentially life-saving service we think our Fiesta customers will value and appreciate," said Ford General Marketing Manager, David Katic.
"We continue to aim to cascade new features into Ford vehicles and the addition of Emergency Assistance is the latest feature to join the Fiesta range," he said.
Popular entry-level Ford Focus variants, Ambiente and Trend, now get a full-sized spare wheel as standard. The move to add a full-sized spare wheel came after Ford responded to customer feedback.
"The feedback from customers was that they would prefer to have a full-size spare wheel, so we’ve responded," Katic said.
"With the recent addition of cruise control and lumbar support on the Focus Ambiente and Trend, we continually look at adding even more value into the range for customers," he said.
The Ford Focus range starts at $20,290 plus on-road costs for the Ambiente model.
The changes to Fiesta and Focus cars will take effect from October-build.
Ford Fiesta sales to the end of September 2013 are currently 6561, down 17.4 per cent on last year's 7943 tally for the same period.
The Ford Focus meanwhile is faring better, with sales up by 15.7 per cent, from last year's 13,001 units sold to this year's 15,050.
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