Autocar - First for car news and reviews

I have recently put down a deposit on a Ford Focus with the all new Powershift twin clutch gearbox. It amazes me that not only has Ford yet to release the full brochure for the Mk3 Focus (its been on sale 2 months), but no one in Ford seems to know anything about the Powershift system. Even phoning the Ford technical number left me with nothing but a slightly vague answer.

It has been reported many times in this magazine that this system uses a paddle shift on the steering wheel as well as the full auto and manual override.

So what exactly am I spending £18000 on in the near future? An email to GETRAG (the actual company that has co-produced this with Ford) has infomed me that the system does not use a paddle shift system and is similar in use as the Durashift.

So who am I to believe? Why can I not get any info on this from Ford? Even a search on the Volvo website has not enlightened me as they will be introducing this on the C30?

 A poor service from Ford and possibly misleading information from this magazine?

I can't pretend to know for certain - and I'm happy to be corrected - but I imagine it is something like the 'CommandShift' system I drove in works Freelander 2 recently (another Ford product, of course).  In which case if it is, then you'll get a conventional looking automatic stick but with the ability to flick it over to a Tiptronic-type change.  So no flappy paddles, but a very accomplished system all the same: and I usually hate automatics.

Not sure that I would order a car without knowing about it first................ however you are right, the Ford web site is singularly uninformative about Powershift; in fact their web-site is pretty uninformative about most things, their configurator seems not to work most of the time and is incredibly slow to update the info at each stage (I'm sure its not my computer, it works fine with other manufacturers' sites). Also it seems that the new Kuga is going on sale in June but it still barely features on the site; seems like a strange way to gain or enhance sales to me.

RP,

New Focus brochure here:

http://www.ford.co.uk/spg/images/3_28/Focus_Pre_2008_V1_GBR_EN_Ebro.pdf

Unfortunately, according to figs on p7 it uses more diesel than the conventional 6spd manual - I thought it was supposed to save fuel - or is that only against conventional autoboxes?

And no, Autocar are talking rot, again. It doesn't have steering wheel mounted 'flappy paddles'.

PS or better still, pdf Focus brochure from Ford Germany site with 29 pages rather than 8 only of UK's:

http://www.ford.de/spg/images/4_31/Focus_Pre_2008_V2_DEU_DE_Ebro.pdf

Ah, but that's the preview brochure and not the full brochure.

The Ford site is awful and needs a complete revamp.

Although I have put a deposit on the car I do not have to buy the car if I do not like the Powershift system but I will loose my £500.

 The dealer is very understanding and also thinks Ford are being a bit rubbish with the info they provide. He did show me an offical Ford magazine that goes out to dealers that did a direct comparison between the Powershift and DSG (VW) auto boxes.

At the moment my car has no build date due to not having the parts needed for the power seat. Doh!

 Rubbish!

RP, look at the brochure - second link - page 11(of the pdf file) top right - there's a small picture of the actual PowerShift selector-lever. There's no feature highlighting of flappy paddles - there ain't any.

And you do realise that the PS box is thirstier than the 6spd manual from Ford's own figures? So why do you want it? It's supposed to more economical after all.

Well I have now done the sensible thing and changed my order to that of a manual, saving myself £1200 in the process.

 Ford you are rubbish when it comes to releasing info (or brochure's) but the Focus is a very good car and this will be my 3rd focus. My current V reg 1.8 Zetec has given me no problems at all, I also had an RS for 4 years without problems, so here's to another 5 years motoring before flying cars come out. Hmmmm, right!