Ford adds cruise control to base Focus

FORD has added cruise control as standard equipment on entry-level Ambiente variants of its Focus small car in a bid to boost sales of what is easily its most popular passenger model in Australia.

As sales of the Blue Oval brand’s Australian-produced vehicles continue to struggle, the Focus – built in Thailand (or Germany, in the case of the ST hot hatch) – has strengthened its position over last year by more than 18 per cent, with around 13,500 sold to the end of August.

This is well behind dominant players in the class, namely the Toyota Corolla (28,596 YTD), Mazda3 (27,729), Hyundai i30 (19,824) and Holden’s albeit struggling locally built Cruze (17,339), but Focus nonetheless holds a useful 8 per cent share of the biggest-selling market segment in Australia and Ford is working to continue the upward trend.

Applicable from September build onwards, the cruise control upgrade brings the entry-level Focus up to the mark set by its main rivals and applies to hatch and sedan variants of the Ambiente, both of which remain priced from $20,290 plus on-road costs.

Ford has also made the somewhat miserly move of introducing lumbar support as a $50 option to the Ambiente and the second-rung Trend model grade, the latter kicking off from $22,290.