It’s not a problem not to buy a three-cylinder, but why should we advise you not to buy a Focus?

Let me ask you a question first. Is it wrong to buy a car that sells 30,000 units a month? Just by hearing this sales volume, do you think it is very mainstream and recognized by the market? Yes, but! That was the result 7 or 8 years ago. Today, the monthly sales of this control king are only 3,000 or 4,000 units, and it is the Ford Focus.

In fact, this car has a very high status in the eyes of men born in the 1980s. It mainly focused on control. It could be seen everywhere in the streets and alleys at that time. In 2013, Focus sold more than 400,000 units throughout the year. The average monthly sales volume is more than 30,000, steadily surpassing the classic models such as the Lavida and Sylphy, which have no personality. Even the current "Internet celebrity" Farayu was beaten to the ground by it at the time. Why did Fox, which had no rivals back then, become a little transparent in the eyes of those born in the 1990s?

Why was Fox so “awesome” before 2015?

Why was the Focus so awesome in China? Because it was already so awesome in North America when it was born. Its direct competitor was the Volkswagen Golf. The first-generation Focus was released in 1998. We often say that choosing a good name is the key. That's half the battle. Its English name is Focus, which means focus in Chinese. In the following ten years, it has indeed become the focus of the auto market.

The first-generation Focus was codenamed CW170 and was a direct competitor to the Volkswagen Golf

From 1998 to its withdrawal from the market in 2004, the first-generation Focus sold 5 million units worldwide and won numerous awards. , because it has not been introduced, so I will omit it. I will only mention two things here: one is that Fox won two WRC World Rally Championship team championships (2006 and 2007), and everyone in "Flying Life" directed by Han Han We have all seen that the new POLO racing car costing several million can break 100 mph in 2.9 seconds, but it must be modified on the basis of a civilian mass-produced car. In other words, the original car is not good at all, no matter how strong the maintenance force is. Unable to finish the race.

The second thing is that a British company specializing in the production of racing engines is called COSWORTH. It has many years of experience in F1 engine production. It was also mentioned in "Flying Life". Ford once Acquired this company and jointly built the famous Focus RS, a high-horsepower front-wheel drive car, and its powerful sports genes have become the most distinctive label for people to recognize Focus.

Here is a foreshadowing. I will detail how these two things backfired on the current Focus later.

In 2005, Changan Ford introduced the European version of Focus into domestic production. It has the same frame and chassis as the imported Mazda 3 and Volvo S40, but has different engines and gearboxes. But it is a pity that the 4-speed automatic manual gearbox cannot fully utilize the power of the 1.8L and 2.0L engines, and the fuel consumption is too high, but fortunately, the controllability has been recognized globally, and the safety is in the European NCAP and domestic NCAP. It is also a double five-star model, so monthly sales of the Focus hatchback and sedan models can still reach more than 10,000. It can be said that without it, Changan Ford's domestic sales would have been cut by at least half.

Second-generation facelift model

2010 Focus RS500, limited to 500 units

The real legend begins with the third-generation Focus in 2012. Power has also been updated globally. The 1.6L engine replaced the 1.8L engine that was revised in 2010. The new 2.0L engine uses in-cylinder direct injection technology, plus it still has excellent control stability and is decades younger. In terms of appearance, Focus has taken off domestically. Everyone knows that it is the only sports benchmark in the compact A-class car. It is a WRC championship car, a Cosworth-tuned engine, and a blade-type independent suspension. Anyone who has driven the second and third generation Focus is the happiest person. .

Focus RS is still the representative of the performance king to this day

Focus’s “Black Swan” event

No one expected that the third-generation Focus would “follow the trend” "The equipped 6-speed dual-clutch gearbox has become the biggest hidden danger. In the two years of 2013 and 2014, when the sales were the largest, there were endless cases of dual-clutch gearbox jitter, abnormal noise, sluggishness, oil seal leakage, etc., and they were global. Yes, various repairs cannot be done, and the after-sales service has not kept up. With 400,000 units sold a year, large-scale repairs and replacements are required, and it is strange that the after-sales service can keep up.

It was ultimately proven to be a design flaw, and it could not withstand the pressure. One year before the replacement, Focus was forced to replace it with 6AT on the 2018 Focus, but it failed to recover sales in a short period of time, which ultimately It affected a large number of potential customers in the future, and also damaged the "driver's car" brand of this classic global car, Focus.

The author interviewed a car owner who bought a car in 2015

At the end of 2018, Ford, which was holding back its anger, launched the fourth-generation Focus after much thought, hoping to make a turnaround. , after all, Focus has always been Ford's flagship product domestically and even globally, but life is always ups and downs. In the first half of 2019, the new Focus's report card was a cumulative sales volume of 14,648 units, with a monthly average of only 2,441 units. Launched only one month earlier than the new Focus, the Hyundai Festa, which is also positioned as a compact sports sedan, has sold a total of 54,959 units, with an average monthly sales of nearly 10,000 units. The Honda Civic, which was once beaten to the ground by the Focus, sold 112,268 units in the first half of the year, with monthly sales of 112,268 units. Both are 18,711 units. At this point, Focus is afraid that it will never stand up again.

Focus’s three-cylinder engine is a good engine, but it has failed in itself and the times

Some people say that the failure of the new Focus is due to the use of a three-cylinder engine, and it is a whole series without the option of gambling. Three-cylinders, even though the BMW X1 (1.5T is a three-cylinder) and the Honda Lingpai (1.0T is a three-cylinder) all have three-cylinders, and they are also selling well, they still want consumers to choose four-cylinders. right.

But we also need to rectify Fox’s name here. Ford’s 1.0T EcoBoost three-cylinder engine has been the world’s best engine at this level in the past 7 or 8 years, and it has passed the test of time. , as for what jitter and what is not jitter, it has been suppressed to a very good level.

The EcoBoost? 1.5T three-cylinder engine on the current Focus also inherits Ford’s technological accumulation on three-cylinder engines, as well as a bunch of technologies such as dynamic variable cylinders and variable valve timing. As of the end of last year, 1.6 million vehicles equipped with Ford's three-cylinder engines had been sold. Even if the three-cylinder engines were criticized, it would not be Ford's turn.

So the problem is not the three-cylinder, but the acceptance of the Chinese people. No matter how good the three-cylinder engine is, Chinese consumers will not understand it. There are still many automotive media that blindly evaluate the shortcomings of the three-cylinder engine. be infinitely magnified. In fact, the technology of the three-cylinder engine on the Focus is higher than that of the previous four-cylinder engine, and the materials are more expensive. At the same time, it has excellent low torque. If someone says that the chassis of an SUV is too high, people with a fear of heights must not buy it. Will you still spread the rumors and not buy an SUV?

In my opinion, the failure of the new Focus is not just a three-cylinder problem, but an all-round problem:

1. Historical issues

The previous generation model had dual The clutch problem has ruined the reputation. This kind of reputational loss is irreparable. This is also the biggest and core problem that will definitely cause the new Focus to fail to sell well. Secondly, Changan Ford's other products have not made people worry about it in the past few years. The Escape's broken axle, the Mondeo's interior smelling bad, and being ridiculed as "smelly" by car owners are all causing Ford's brand value to drop. There is also the sentence "A hundred years of Ford was destroyed by xx", I won't say more about this, I will take a closer look at it.

2. The hatchback market was replaced by SUVs

In fact, when domestic private cars just started, no matter whether you were an A00-class, A0-class or A-class car, everyone was poor. Therefore, the acceptance of hatchbacks is unprecedentedly high, such as Fukang, Alto, Xiali, Sail, POLO, Fit, etc. The key is that they are cheap. Later, sedans began to explode because of the upgrading of car consumption. When everyone switched to The starting point of the car market is set in the field of A-class or even B-class cars. There are already many sedans in A-class cars, let alone B-class cars. By the way, the sedan version of the new Focus is really hard to watch, the hatchback is the essence.

In addition, there are also problems with hatchbacks themselves. Many updated models are not as good as their predecessors in three major aspects, such as reducing equipment, replacing four-cylinder engines with three-cylinder engines, and replacing independent suspension with torsion beams. , talking about the black-hearted xx brand. But the fact that these hatchbacks don't make much money is one of the reasons why manufacturers don't want to invest more energy.

There is a set of data to support this statement. Ten years ago, hatchbacks accounted for 21.4% of the sedan market. In 2016, it was 12.7%. Now it has dropped to less than 10%.

In the past five years, the proportion of hatchback sales leads has been declining year by year, with a significant decline in 2017. This year coincided with the rapid development of SUV models, with market sales exceeding 10 million for the first time, accounting for 40% of the annual passenger car market. It makes sense to think about it, why not buy an SUV if you spend over RMB 100,000?

3. Space

Since its birth, the Focus has been larger than the Golf. This is due to the thickness of the body steel and the design. In addition, the independent suspension of the double wishbone has greatly compressed the body. There is limited rear space, so people who buy Focus value handling and safety, and would not choose it otherwise. Nowadays, all 1.5L entry-level models have been replaced with torsion beam suspension. The cost is lower and the comfort is reduced, but the space does not bring much improvement, so the "American method of wasting space" is not in vain.

In addition, the concept of buying a big car has been copied for a long time. Focus, which does not have an advantage in space, did not consider solving this problem when it was replaced with new models. I can only say that Focus has its own persistence. , but Changan Ford is also suspected of giving up this market segment. Of course, your positioning is still sports, but it still needs to be combined with China’s national conditions.

But what does this picture on the official website mean? Mid-size car?

4. Selling Points

Do you still remember the two major selling points of Focus mentioned at the beginning? One is the WRC championship car and the best control, and the other is the Cosworth (COSWORTH) F1 tune. The old engine technology is now a complete joke. The entire 1.5L model series has a torsion beam suspension, and one cylinder is cut off. In the eyes of consumers, this is a product that only sells feelings, has no competitiveness, and is a bad marketing with reduced configuration.

So opponents who really use control and power as their selling points have come to humiliate the former boss Focus. The tenth generation Civic, Lynk & Co 03, and Festa, I can only say that they are all too capable.

But what does this picture on the official website mean? A new generation of performance cars?

5. Excellent?

The Duoxiang sold by Yinglang next door is among the top three in sales. It suffered a loss from three cylinders, so it will be replaced by four cylinders immediately, and the discount is huge, so As long as competing products sell four-cylinders, no one will choose the three-cylinder Focus. Then you can lower the price of the three-cylinder, or try replacing it with a Ruiji engine?

Sorry, Focus is a global car and will not change its great strategy for the sake of China. After all, it is also a century-old car company that invented the assembly line. Doesn’t Ford want to lose face?

6. Brand strategy

The Ford family has a great business, so it will definitely not die. It is just a pity that Focus. In 2018, Ford stopped its plan to produce cars in North America, euphemistically called it It is "reshaping the U.S. business," which actually means it is preparing to focus on high-profit SUVs, crossovers and pickups.

Changan Ford is now vigorously promoting Ruiji as a life-saving straw, which means giving up entry-level consumers. From a sales perspective, in 2020, Ruiji accounted for nearly 25% of Changan Ford’s sales volume, Ruijie is not To 10%, Escort has 20% (profit is not high), Focus has dropped from 80% in its heyday to 15% now. It is estimated that with the launch of new SUVs, this number will continue to drop.

Ford will not fail for a century, and capital will not allow it to fail. Historically, it is also a very resilient company. During the 2008 financial crisis, General Motors went bankrupt and reorganized, and Chrysler was acquired by Fiat. Only Ford defended the dignity of the Detroit Motor City.

In global car brand sales in 2019, Ford ranked third behind Toyota and Volkswagen. In the 2020 Fortune U.S. 500 list announced last month, Ford ranked 12th. . So Ford is doing very well. Its influence on the other side of the ocean is like Volkswagen's position in the Chinese auto market.

It’s just that in China, Ford has fallen out of the top camp of joint venture brands. Now they are beginning to understand that the Chinese market is different from any other market, especially for Ford’s own product line. One trick is popular all over the world. It is necessary to accelerate the development and production of China-specific cars according to the needs of the Chinese people.

As for Focus, over the past two decades of continuous evolution, each generation of its models is highly individual and continues the glorious tradition of its predecessors. Global sales exceed 15 million units, almost the same as the Ford Model T. It is still the most successful compact car in the century-old history of Ford, which invented the assembly line production method. But at this moment, it has been forgotten by the Chinese market.

This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.