Ford Focus Coupe-Cabriolet TDCi CC-2 (2006) CAR review

Yawn! Another coupe-cabrio! We've had hundreds of them in 2006...

Ford might be talking about the way forward, but it's pretty backward when it comes to spotting emerging market segments. It was late with common-rail diesel technology, late with its C-Max mid-size MPV and now it's the last of four big coupe-cabrios to be launched this year (following the VW Eos, Volvo C70 and Vauxhall Astra). And it won't even go on UK sale until 1 January 2007. Ford, however, claims its contender has a host of features that make it worth waiting for.

It doesn't look worth waiting for...

Ford has gone for the simplest option, a two-part roof, rather than the three or five pieces of the Vauxhall or Volkswagen. Ford argues that this simplicity is a plus, and watching an Eos roof go through its complicated motions does make you fear for anything going wrong. The downside is a seriously big butt to store those long panels, just like those early bird CCs from Renault and Peugeot. But the Focus scores highly for practicality. The boot is the biggest in a class noted for large trunks with the roof up. What Ford has achieved, with some ingenious cranking of the rear window as it folds, is best-in-class luggage volume with the roof down, and easy access to it without the need to raise the roof.