By Michael Booth
Ford Focus CC specifications
Price:
from £16 795 (about R233 000).
Performance:
206km/h, 0-100km/h 10.2sec.
Fuel consumption:
9.3 litres/100km.
I know why it's taken Ford so long to come up with a folding hard top and it has nothing to do with the sloth of the global conglomerate's decision-making process.
Since Mercedes launched the SLK in 1996, the brand managers at Ford have been doing the corporate equivalent of standing in front of the mirror and wondering if they can get away with a pair of those new Kate Moss hot pants.
Ford, you see, is not really a convertibles company. It is a "durable plastics with decent loading capacity" company (those awful Escort convertibles kind of prove my point) and it clearly had to think long and hard before taking its top off.
"Could we get away with that?" the Focus brand managers asked themselves back in 2001, when Peugeot launched the 206CC.
No, they decided, putting their corporate polo shirts back on and going back to making cars for dads and mums. Then, finally, VW had a go with the Eos.
"Come on," said Ford. "If these crusty old farts at Wolfsburg can get away with it, then so can we!" (And there's a pretty fair chance that it will reach South Africa, though Ford SA is still sealed-lips.)
It reminds me of the time when, in a deluded attempt to convince myself I still "had it", I bought a tight tank top and a pair of low-slung jeans to wear to a launch party for a very cool magazine that had unwittingly commissioned me without realising how I dressed.
I took one look at myself in the mirror and did the right thing and went in a suit. Ford, on the other hand, has done a Borat and stripped down to its thong.
Off has come the Focus's roof, around 10 years late. They might as well have launched a "Cool Britannia" version with Union Jack paintwork and sand-blasted denim seats.
Fashion tardiness aside, the Focus CC is good because it is based on a Focus, which is one of the greatest cars of the last decade (really, I mean it), so it has wonderfully fluid, consistent controls, great ride and handling and is exceptional quality for the price.
But not so good because they've cut the roof off a car that was never supposed to be a convertible.
At this point in any article about soft-tops, car journalists are obliged to point out that they lose structural rigidity and the extra chassis stiffening means they weigh more and performance suffers. So I have.
It's all about looking cool
More serious is that the CC looks a bit of a duffer. Ironically, for a type of car that is entirely about appearance, four-seat folding hard-tops almost never look happy.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I give you all the Peugeot CC's so far, the Astra Twin Top and Renault Mégane CC, while the Focus is proof that even Pininfarina, which styled it, does occasionally have an off day.
The Focus suffers more than others from the typical folding hard-top's hunchback profile, rear wheels swamped by the rear bodywork, messy boot line and, in this instance, a windscreen that arches over the top of the front passengers' heads and will administer a sharp reminder to anyone who does not give full attention to their ingress or egress.
Not entirely convinced
If there is one thing worse than ignoring trends altogether, it is turning up in last season's fashions. I could never get away with a sarong (though there is no question I have the ankles for it) and I am not entirely convinced Ford has quite pulled this off either. - The Independent, London