Business Highlights

2008 Ford Focus

Halfway between the two sits the Ford Focus Coupe-Cabriolet. From some angles it??™s a stunner, from others it looks as if it has, to coin a phrase, a bit too much junk in the trunk. Still, no car is perfect and the Focus counters with a sharper driving experience than any of its direct rivals can serve up.

Buy the 1.6-litre version of the Focus Coupe Cabriolet and it??™s hard to escape the nagging suspicion that you??™ve not bought a whole lot of engine, the lion??™s share of your money having gone on the basics and that fancy folding tin top. Things get a little more satisfying if you??™re prepared to dig a little deeper and get the 2.0-litre petrol model we look at here.

This engine feels as if it??™s made for the Coupe-Cabriolet. Dragging around a hefty welter of electric motors isn??™t child??™s play and the 143bhp 2.0-litre will punch the car to 60mph in 10.2 seconds. Coincidentally, this is exactly the same time as the 2.0-litre TDCi diesel manages but Ford rather greedily wants another ??1,500 model for model for the oil burner. Most will stick with this petrol option. A top speed of 129mph may be academic to some but it??™s indicative of just how much the Focus has in reserve when cruising at typical UK motorway speeds. Suffice to say, you??™re not flogging the car??™s guts out to keep pace.

Like all Ford Focus models, the multilink rear suspension is set up to handle the worst you can throw at it, although the springs and dampers on the Coupe-Cabriolet have been tuned to offer a more supple ride than the surprisingly well focused hatch. The electrically-assisted steering system is one of the better examples of its ilk, although owners of Mk1 Focuses will still probably mutter about how good the original was before realising they sound like their fathers.

In the early days, most coupe cabriolet models looked rather ungainly, with huge distended rears that would open up like something from a Bond movie and then swallow the hood mechanism whole. That??™s no longer acceptable. Nor is having a car that features next to no luggage space. That sort of thing is all rather 2001 and the Focus Coupe-Cabriolet counters with 500-litres of room when the hood is up, although this does drop when the folding roof cartridge is in place. A full four-seater, the Focus Coupe-Cabriolet may not be the answer to the family motorist??™s prayers but it??™s a lot more practical than its fun-loving agenda may suggest.

The two-piece electrically-operated hard-top roof operates at the touch of a button and takes just 29 seconds, with no catches, latches or levers needing to be manhandled. Once the roof is stowed in the boot, the Focus Coupe-Cabriolet??™s lines are a good deal more elegant, with a classic rising waistline and a clean rear deck. Inside, the car??™s dashboard layout follows the style of other Focus models, but with a different colour scheme developed to distinguish it as a flagship. Two different colour schemes are offered: dark, sporty Ebony/Flint, and the warm, elegant Iris/Camel.

There are two trim levels on offer with this engine ??“ CC-2 and CC-3. Even the CC-2 comes with 17in 10-spoke 'Vignale style' alloy wheels, three-spoke leather steering wheel, Sony MP3 player and Ford??™s excellent Quickclear windscreen defroster. Opt for the CC-3 and you??™ll also get leather seats, cruise control, a Sony six-CD system, auto lights/wipers/mirror as well as a chrome detailed front fog lights and grille surround.

Prices start at ??17,795 for the CC-2 and you??™ll need to tack another ??1,000 onto that for the CC-3. Safety of course is paramount in a car like this and Ford??™s new Rollover Protection Device (RPD) plays a vital role in increasing the Coup?©-Cabriolet's passive safety performance. In addition to standard front and side airbags, the RPD is designed to help protect passengers in the event of a vehicle rollover. If the system detects an imminent roll, two safety roll-bars "fire" and extend out by up by 20cm to provide a supportive safety strut along with the ultra-strong windscreen pillars to protect the car's occupants.

The 2.0-litre petrol model is, for the time being at least, the Focus Coupe-Cabriolet model in biggest demand from new, but that doesn??™t always translate into top notch residual values. In fact it??™s pipped by the 1.6-litre entry level car in this regard but does better than the 2.0-litre diesel. Expect this car to retain around 47 per cent of its new price after three years. That??™s still an extremely strong showing from a car that wears a mainstream badge. By way of comparison, a 2.0-litre Focus hatchback will retain around 35 per cent. The folding tin top Focus performs a couple of percentage points better than the Renault Megane CC, although, bizarrely, still not in the league of the Peugeot 307CC. The Ford??™s Group 11 insurance rating is about par for the course with this class of car.

Fuel economy is reasonable at 37.7mpg. Unless your daily commute takes you to Istanbul and back, it??™s unlikely that you??™d ever recoup the additional expense in fuel savings offered by the diesel and the Focus 1.6-litre is only marginally better on fuel despite being a good deal slower.

If you want a Ford Focus Coupe-Cabriolet, the CC-2 version of this 2.0-litre petrol model is the car I??™d recommend. It drives sharply, is respectable value for money and won??™t cost an arm and a leg to run. Perhaps a bigger question might well be why you would want a Ford Focus Coupe Cabriolet in the first instance. It??™s easy to see why you would plump for the hatch. It??™s super practical and is great to drive. The issue here is that coupe-cabrio owners often place practicality and performance at the bottom of their priority lists.

Far higher up in the motivation hierarchy are factors such as what this vehicle says about them and how pretty it is. Those are thornier quandaries. When all is said and done, this is a Ford Focus, that most ubiquitous of cars, and it??™s not the most cohesively proportioned one at that. Although well priced and keenly engineered, I think the Focus Coupe-Cabriolet may not quite make the numbers Ford is hoping.

Source: [url=http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/apwire/ce2214f39df895a46f46f85e9025767a.htm]CNNMoney.com[/url]