Queue lengthens for Ford Focus RS

Ford Australia cannot currently say with any certainty whether a Focus RS ordered from a dealer today will arrive in time for Christmas 2017.

The problem, according to Ford Australia CEO Graeme Whickman, is that the head office is not tracking all Focus RS orders taken by Ford's national dealer network.

"We are sold out this year," Whickman told journalists this morning. "We'll probably come close to being sold out the following year, the way things are travelling.

"So the best answer I can give you on that is none [are] available right now. It probably wouldn't be until next year that we'd even be contemplating whether that's [possible] or not. The reason I say that is we're not 100 per cent sure exactly how many orders our dealers are sitting on at the moment, whereas the Mustang, we kind of know that."

Whickman wouldn't reveal the allocation of Focus RS for Australia, but did say that supply of the all-wheel drive hot hatch here would be equitable, albeit constrained by the total global volume available.

"At the end of the day there are only so many RSs being built for around the world, and Australia will get its fair share, on the basis of what we've been able to sell of performance vehicles in the past, and the like..."

Asked whether Ford Australia was lobbying for more Focus RS allocation, the local Ford boss drew a parallel with its other sell-out sporty success, the Mustang.

"Like the Mustang, we have continual discussions with our global team in Detroit, around what we're seeing as a demand in the market, what we're experiencing and what our projections might be. And we continually update every single month...

"And so we continue to go back and have a dialogue around what we think is the right kind of number, for both Mustangs and RSs – and a number of other vehicles. Because it's not just that; sometimes we run a little bit short on [Ranger] Wildtraks...

"So we go through the same process, fairly well regulated and it's a pretty fair objective. But one thing for us, which is very good, is there's a lot of noise, so that's very visible, and we have a lot of good history around those types of products."

Clearly that 'noise' has had some impact in Dearborn, but it makes precious little difference for local buyers who won't see a newly-ordered Mustang until "well into next year", Whickman declared.

"We improved our allocation recently – and that allowed us to push through a few more [Mustangs] to customers. We'll continue to work on that."

Ford Australia does appear to have undercalled demand for the Focus RS, although Whickman recanted his admission of 'surprise' at the demand for the car. He shifted some of the blame to the manufacturer's inflexible logistics. It's all upside for Ford though – both at the factory and the local arm in Australia.

"With the demand in the likes of Germany and Britain, along with Australia, it's proven to be fantastic… we'll just work our way through that.

"With the right-hand drive programme you have to be very specific around the supply base. They tooled up for certain volumes... and you don't just step into doubling [output] the very next day. We've had some good progress... and the company is very well aware of how appealing and how much demand there is in Australia for that product."