News outlets are reporting that Ford no longer plans to sell the Focus Active in the US. Ford will now be left with the Mustang (which may be on the Exploder platform) as the lone car sold the US. Apparently this is due to the car being manufactured in China and there is now a 25% tariff.
Thoughts?
Snrub said:News outlets are reporting that Ford no longer plans to sell the Focus Active in the US. Ford will now be left with the Mustang (which may be on the Exploder platform) as the lone car sold the US. Apparently this is due to the car being manufactured in China and there is now a 25% tariff.
Thoughts?
Car and driver article also says that ford wouldn't bring it in even if the tariff was lifted, so sounds like the tariff is just an excuse they can use.
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/ford-focus-active-not-in-us-trade-war
Wasn't the Focus active really more of a SUV than a car?
As time goes by I find the difference between what I personally like or am interested in diverges more and more from what the average person in the US likes or is interested in.
Ford can't compete with other manufacturers that sell that very same platform. Honestly I think that market for that platform is saturated. I thought about trading in my Mazda3 for the Cx-3. After I sat in one and did a comparison, the difference interior wise is less then a inch. AWD isn't alluring to me because I have snow tires on my Mazda3. Mazda3 has plenty of power and great MPG. I sat in the Crosstrex, felt the it was the same as the Cx-3 but had the subaru premium. If want bigger and AWD I would just go with a Cx-5 which my wife has.
T.J. said:Wasn't the Focus active really more of a SUV than a car?
I think it's some kind of "tweener" thing. They already have an SUV (well, CUV) on the Focus platform, it's called the Escape.
Meh. So I can't get a car I was never going to get anyways. I don't really see this impacting my life at all, because other than the Mustang, Ford hasn't had any cars that have interested me in the slightest. Even the FiST and the FoST--meh, they still feel like a FWD econobox TO ME. I looked at the Fusion Hybrids, and while they were nice and fine, there was nothing that I loved about them other than the mileage. I'd have been fine in an Escape hybrid too at that point.
I have to be honest, I just don't care. I look at the cars over the last 30 years, and there are extremely few that interest me. My dad is the same way. SUV's and Pickups and Vans all have a specialized purpose. They're great. Cars though? Like an every day driver CAR? There are ton of competent options, but for someone like me and my dad, there is a reason that I bought a 17 year old Lexus GS, and he started a search for one after he sold his 5 year old Infiniti (that replaced a 19 year old BMW).
The Focus Active is a slightly lifted version of the Focus with body cladding added. It's sort of like the VW Golf All Track or the Mazda CX-3. Theoretically this is the kind of "car"/"crossover" that should be sellable.
I don't think anyone else uses the same Ford C1 platform. Once upon a time Mazda and Volvo shared the a version of the platform.
I have trouble understandin the present administration's stand on protective tariffs.
If you add a tariff, then the manufacturer just decides whether to build a new factory in the US or to cancel sales in the US. I suspect that the net result may be to drive manufacturing for world markets off shore (in the factories they already have there) and diminish the range offered in the US. Not sure what that is supposed to accomplish....
In reply to mtn :
I said the same thing about the focus RS years ago "If they ever make in AWD I will buy one" then I found out how much electronically its controlled and even the guys at team o'neil can't unberkeley enough to make it a proper rally car.
Basically got turned off by buying it the more I read about it and had friends with 1st had experiences. Its never quite what you expect it to be or want for that matter...
stupid high expecatations!!!
I've had first hand experience with the new tariffs from china. To properly classify your product for the right tariff schedule you need divulge ip. We are selling a camera. They need to know the size of the sensor, the number of pixels, the memory, speed of processor etc. To properly apply the tariff.
Zero sum game.
And on topic that active focus looks cool.
IB4L
Which is all I have to say about that.
It's really sad that the domestics are abandoning cars. The Asians and Europeans don't seem to be. I have to agree with mtn, there are so few vehicles that interest ma anymore it hardly makes a difference.
I'll be honest amongst the many ads during LSUs addended whumping of the U. from the Peach Bowl to the AdvoCare Classic I actually took notice of the one ad for the Nissan Kicks and thought to myself what the heck that's the same price as a Sentra. Now for context I've been seeing a lot of Sentra SR turbos lately and I've thought would one of those yokes fit in my 200sx? But during the Kicks ad I only thought 'why the hell would I ever buy a Sentra anything?'. And I don't hate Sentras. For further context I've always been a Juke fan despite never have been in one yet every time I see a CRV of recent vintage I just see soul destruction. So clearly my thoughts on crossovers are not consistent. But I'd take a Kicks over any Sentra based on sight alone. 
Now back to ads. Les Miles being amazeballs in the Dos Equis and Dr Pepper ads?! And the NOS human destroying a Challenger after I bought a Wally World 8pk?
An LSU win and a raft of ads better than most of the NoFunLeague big dance each February?
To wrap up my thoughts I'd buy a Nissan Kicks. What Ford does really no longer interests me. Like Dodge destroying the Neon nameplate they destroyed the Taurus nameplate. So I'm pretty certain Ford will make decent trucks and that's about it.
Don't even get my dad started on how the MkII Escort lived off the glory of the MKI Escort.
Where does the Rondo figure into this?
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