Ford Focus Cabriolet joins Ford family

The Ford Focus Coupe Cabriolet can be ordered from October with deliveries starting January. Derived from the saloon, the Focus CC has a strengthened floor pan and shares only the front wings, door skins, bonnet and bumpers with its donor derivative. The interior trim and colours are unique to the model, which is the first European Ford to have a power operated hardtop.

Using the same roof folding mechanism as the Volvo C70, the Focus CC has a particularly high rear deck which means the boot space is 234 – 534 litres and it seats four people.

At launch there will be a choice of 100PS 1.6 and 145PS 2.0 petrol engines as well as a 136PS 2.0 diesel, with five-speed manual gearboxes on the petrol units and a six-speed box in the diesel.

Only the 1.6 will be available in the CC-1 trim level opening the range at under £16,800 while the CC-2 comes with the 2.0 Duratec petrol at £17,800 and 2.0 Duratorq diesel at £19,270, before the CC-3 completes the line up at £18,800 and £20,210 respectively.

All models have the latest braking and safety technology including multiple airbags, pop-up roll over protection bars, cd player, air con, powered windows and mirrors.

The CC-2 gets larger alloys, MP3 player and front fog lights on diesels and petrol versions also have leather wheel, heated front windscreen and sports suspension.

Top CC-3 models have cruise control, powered heated seats, 6-cd player, self-dimming mirror and auto headlights and wipers.

Developed from the Vignale concept which was shown at the Paris motor show in 2004, the Focus CC is a joint venture with StreetKa creators Pininfarina, which will assemble 20,000 a year in its Turin factory for world-wide sale through Ford dealers.

Roelant de Waard, chairman and managing director of Ford of Britain, said the Focus CC would open a new market for the company at a time when its UK sales were ahead of the rivals and it would have strong appeal with its styling, driving dynamics and value for money.

In Britain, Ford expect to sell about 5,500 Focus CC models in a full year, just behind the market leading German sector on 7,500 models predicted.

Ford research in the coupe cabriolet sector shows it is led by style and the chairman said he believed the Italian look of the new Focus would have strong appeal, backed by strong driving dynamics and careful pricing. He is also revising estimates of what percentage of the Focus CC sales will be diesel as opposed to petrol following overwhelmingly strong praise of the 2.0 Duratorq unit in the launch models.

Ford of Europe design manager Guy Colborne said Ford set out to be different with the Focus CC and started by creating an attractive closed car which also looked very good with the top down, reversing the usual design approach to convertibles.

It is created by the same team which was responsible for the Focus ST performance derivative and it uses many common components but reworked for greater comfort.

The seats are set lower in the Focus CC to enhance dynamics and reduce wind buffeting and the roof opens or closes in 29 seconds with a single switch operation for the five cylinders, three motors and 11 sensors. Chief programme engineer Steve Thomas said strengthening beams along the sills, under the front of the back seats and around them had given the open-topped body shell a rigidity approaching a conventional closed car and it retained a useful boot capacity.

On the road, it was very responsive with reassuring grip and forgiving handling.

The 2.0 petrol engine with the five-speed box was hard work in the hills and needed very frequent gear changes but the lower down delivery and wider spread of power from the 2.0 diesel combined with its six-speed box was far superior and ultimately more economical and pleasant to drive without sacrificing performance to a noticeable degree.

It is very attractive inside with the new unique detailing to the fascia and console along with the distinctive colours of the plastic.

First impressions of the Focus CC were of an extremely rigid body shell which did not suffer from vibration or flexing over some demanding rough roads. The pre-production models did however let in rain water along the roof rails but Ford says it is tackling this issue for the production cars.