New Focus not for Australia yet

If you have just bought the latest Focus as facelifted in July this year, don't panic at the news of a new 2008 European model (more here). The local 2007 freshen-up from South Africa had already placed the local range ahead of the European Focus to coincide with the launch of the new Focus TDCi diesel.

This freshen-up of the local Focus gave the whole range aggressive new upper and lower grille styles similar to the XR5 Turbo. Along with the different fog light surrounds, it was a clever update that didn't involve any sheet metal changes.

The 2008 Focus facelift for Europe is still basically the same body with minor changes to the front of the bonnet to allow for the new grille and bigger cutouts in the front guards to house the larger wraparound headlight units. There are minor tweaks at the rear including new tail light lenses, new lower rear fascia, chrome garnish above the number plate and a new crease line in the rear hatch.

The latest Australian Focus is already half way there with the July 2007 facelift. Eventually, these 2008 European panel, grille and headlight changes will reach Australia via South Africa but Ford Australia will save them to coincide with another mechanical upgrade such as an automatic diesel or an upgraded automatic transmission.

The story for the local Focus XR5 Turbo is different when it is sourced direct from Europe. It did not receive a facelift in July 2007 to coincide with the other Focus models when it was still relatively new to the Australian market. However, the XR5 Turbo will receive the 2008 European update as soon as European demand is met for the new model and RHD production is underway.

Currently Ford will not place a timeframe on how and when the 2008 European upgrade will impact on the local Focus range.

Our guess is that the European-sourced Focus XR5 Turbo will be upgraded before mid-2008 depending on local stocks in line with the XR5 Turbo's April 2006 launch date.

For the rest of the range which is sourced from South Africa, the latest freshen-up will run for at least a year which means they won't receive any major appearance changes until after July 2008 at the earliest.

The most likely rationale behind these moves is that the interim July 2007 freshen-up along with the delayed introduction of the 2008 European facelift will generate an extra time margin for Ford Australia to prepare for the local manufacture of the next generation Focus while keeping the hero XR5 Turbo model up to date.

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