Next Ford Focus to be built exclusively in Europe?
2009 Ford Iosis Max concept - click above for high-res gallery
Since it first came to the market in 2000, Ford's Focus has been consistently lauded for its crisp "European handling," and thanks to a Ford of Europe press release yesterday, that bromide sounded like it was about to become truer than ever. The release in question announced that the next all-new Focus is to be sourced from a single location – the Blue Oval's Saarlouis Plant in Germany. Quite understandably, that proclamation caused a bit of consternation here in the States, with some news outlets reporting that North American Focus models will also originate from the German facility. Not so.
Autoblog spoke with Lincoln, Mercury communications manager Mark Schirmer this morning (despite his title, Schirmer has been tasked with preparing for the U.S. launch of the 2010 car) and he has re-confirmed that all North American Focus models will originate from a freshly renovated Wayne Assembly Plant in Michigan (something that Ford officials initially promised back in May).
The intention of FoE's confusingly worded statement was to note that Saarlouis is to be the single point of origin for all European Focus models. In addition to Saarlouis and Wayne, Ford will also likely produce the next Focus at a plant somewhere in Asia, but a location announcement has not yet been made.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Tdogg 11:07AM (7/02/2009)
They better not repeat the 2008 focus.
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Alex 11:34AM (7/02/2009)
agreed, I don't care where its built i just want the crisp "European handling"
Randy 1:54AM (7/03/2009)
Well... I think you're both right on the repeat thing in regards to styling.. The car is nice though. My friend has one. It's pretty cool inside and it drives nice too!
Throwback 11:11AM (7/02/2009)
Is that the same Mark Shirmer who wrote for Automobile magazine a few years back? I liked his writing. Will we get the next C-Max also?
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Jim 11:12AM (7/02/2009)
as far as I recall, the 2012 Focus will be built at the former Michigan Truck plant (now Michigan Assembly) since Expedition and Navigator moved to Louisville. Wayne Assembly builds the current N.A. Focus, and I don't know what's in store for that plant after changeover.
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Jim 11:18AM (7/02/2009)
Why was my post removed? It was on-topic.
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Jim 11:19AM (7/02/2009)
er, now it's back.
Taglane 11:21AM (7/02/2009)
Yeah I hate that too.
9600baud 11:29AM (7/02/2009)
too bad.... european made Fords would bring more credibility to the brand. oh well.
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Jim 12:18PM (7/02/2009)
and they'd have to be priced up where nobody would buy them, or couldn't be sold profitably. Witness the Saturn Astra.
Ben Roethig 12:56PM (7/02/2009)
Europe doesn't have much credibility in this market save the Luxury brands. What it might do is get people to not buy the focus.
Neil 11:52AM (7/02/2009)
It's also to be produced in Melbourne, Australia by FoMoCo Aus, which would be the 'Asian' plant that you speak of.
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David Ederer 1:21PM (7/02/2009)
They would have to build it in the US to price it competitively in the states or somewhere that has a different cost structure than Europe. Wouldn't want them to be like the Opel Astra is for Saturn, nice car but too expensive. The European Mondeo is also very nice.
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Landy 12:09PM (7/02/2009)
It's due to the fact that the current EU Focus is built in Saarlouis-Gemany + Valencia - Spain + Skt. Petersburg - Russia (for Russian market only).
Saarlouis plant currently builds the C-Max and the Kuga as well.
For the next generation Focus/C-Max, Saarlouis will build all EU market Focus and Valencia will build all EU market C-Max. The next Focus will be build in Russia as well as in the US for those specific markets.
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Harley Cook 12:21PM (7/02/2009)
same old political Ford BS
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epwolfram 12:26PM (7/02/2009)
I'm a very happy '06 focus owner and figure I'll be ready for a new car about the time this next gen focus comes out... as long as they don't mess it up.
Ford, PLEASE! Design it in Europe, Assemble it in America,& Stick with the Mazda powerplant!
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jinushaun 12:35PM (7/02/2009)
I don't care where it's built. Just give Americans the same Focus Europeans get, not this gussied-up last gen BS we get in the US.
I hope Mullaly is able to cut through all this internal political BS in Ford.
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Gloria 12:44PM (7/02/2009)
Good grief.
Let me state it in simple words, so all can understand................. as it is quite obvious that the "complex" wording, in the article above, confused some.
The 2011 Focus (it goes into production 2nd quarter of 2010), will be a world car. This means that it will be the same car, everywhere, with minor differences for differing regulations and cultural differences.
In other words.................. EVERYONE gets the Euro Focus.
The 2008 model was just a stopgap model, until the new Euro Focus was ready.
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Evan 1:30PM (7/02/2009)
Building it in two different places opens up the possibility that the U.S. version will differ from the EU version in more ways than the color of the turn signals. Let's hope Ford resists the temptation to gimp the U.S. version.
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unknown_92111 2:41PM (7/02/2009)
Why can Ford sell this car in the US also ???no wonder this company keep losing money
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