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Want to know why the Focus ST is so cheap?


NeilB
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If you look around I am sure lots of Silver A4 sports have different colour bumpers to bodywork....

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Absolutely agree, Audi's coding is not good at all. I had a silver A4 Avant and was reluctant to buy it at first because I noticed the difference between the bodywork and bumpers. I was only convinced it was normal having looked at a number of other cars in the showroom.

Even my Akoya Sportback is not great.

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thats qiute shocking, but not unknown.

Its quite possible the bumpers are painted miles away in a seperate factory.

another issue is paint matching on plastic. like its been mentioned, some Audi's are not that hot. Worst ive seen seem to be A6's particularly in silvers, look at where the high sided bumpers fit into the body panels.

more of the Ford story in this post... "going to court"

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I would've thought it would be hard for Ford to wrangle their way of this one, after all the sell the car on the basis that its has

"colour coded bumpers..."

If theres one ot two people you can see it being brushed under the carpet but if it turns into ten or hundreds, maybe thousands then this could become a major problem for Ford - who's going to buy a new Focus if this makes it to the National press!!!

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I was told by an Audi bodyshop they don't even attempt to blend bumpers in when painting.

The same paint, out of the same spray gun at the same time will always look mis-matched in certain light conditions/angles. The paint simply does not appear the same on plastic material as opposed to adjacent metal.

He said some colours are a lot worse for showing it e.g. silver and light metallics.

Edit - as stated in the Focus posts, close up you can't tell - it's only if you get far enough away and see the light shining on the paintwork at different angles

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[ QUOTE ]

I was told by an Audi bodyshop they don't even attempt to blend bumpers in when painting.

The same paint, out of the same spray gun at the same time will always look mis-matched in certain light conditions/angles. The paint simply does not appear the same on plastic material as opposed to adjacent metal.

He said some colours are a lot worse for showing it e.g. silver and light metallics.

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yep - same here - mine is still mismatched after its bodywork thanks to the woman escaping from a side-street. It was like that wehen i bought it and many A4s are like that still.....

BUT, not as bad as the Focus - jeeez!!!! That is bad. Used to work with a guy who was an engineer at Ford garage in Manchester and he had to get 50% of vehicles that came in on a transporter resprayed in parts due to leaking fludis from the vehicles on top!!!!

Fords - still an absolute bag of 5hit. After drivinf a Vauxhall recently, i would rather part with my money on one of their range...... 169144-ok.gif

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But let's face it, is the average Focus buyer going to notice that all too much.

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Now THAT kind of comment really sucks.

So is an "average Focus buyer" blind to quality then?

Did the Focus not recently blitz the Golf in a JD Power survey?

Alistair McQueen, Lotus test driver who I met two weeks ago has a Focus TDCi - Is he an "average Focus buyer?"

A multi millionaire farmer I deal with has one - Is he stupid?

What an absolute MUPPET statement - You should be ashamed of yourself and you've just made other GTI owners look bad as a "bonus" to your stupidity. smashfreakB.gifopenfire.gif

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Hmm, I've got to say I think the Focus ST is getting a bit of a hard ride on TSN from what I can see.

I'm not sure whether it is badge snobbery or the fact that we have a lot of GTi owners on the forum.

I'd say this - let's wait until we see them out of the streets and until we've read/heard a few more in-depth journalistic reviews on them.

Personally I think they're hitting a lot of touchy nerves - because the car seems to offer an awful lot whilst under-cutting the opposition. That might not last of course.

We all know it didn't win the TG Review (even before the programme goes out) because Jeremy Clarkson seems to have a GTi up his arse. I rate the GTi highly, but I can't say its the saviour of the modern world of motoring like he seems to think it is. Much of his review was sheer artistic licence, such as the 0-60 of the M6 being 3 minutes rather than 4.6 seconds because you have to set the car up first - what a load of bollocks.

Personally I think the ST looks like a threat and will turn out to be a threat. Yes the Chavs will dream about it, but they do that about Civic's, VXR's and....Gti's right now. It doesn't mean that everyone who drives one will be/or is a Chav though.

I've never been a Ford fan (having owned them in the past!) but the ST impresses me on paper, so I'm going to wait and see how the reality pans out.

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I've never been a Ford fan (having owned them in the past!) but the ST impresses me on paper, so I'm going to wait and see how the reality pans out.

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Good point - i have never owned one, but never been a fan (family members have had them, driven some from work etc.). I have to say, its a shame that this paint issue has arisen, becuase its a great looking car!!!! Those pics on the OC forum are testiment to that 169144-ok.gif

Its down to personal opinion again - i wouldnt bu a Focus ever. My Stepdad loves them and he drives a lexus and a merc..... They have their market set out perfectly and will sell and sell..... providing they can paint them correctly sekret.gif169144-ok.gif

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I'd add something else too.

Ask MOSE about his problems with paintwork on his BMW M3 Cab - it was so bad (not to mention the technical problems) that he got rid of it.

So it's not just the likes of Ford that have problems.

I'd also have to say that I think some of the problems highlighted in the FFOC thread are ones I find difficult to see from the photographs. Yes, there are some that are obviously wide of the mark and need addressing - but if you look at your own car, in the right light, from the right angle, and take a picture....you can bet that with the aid of natural light reflecting at different angles that you'll be able to get your eye to think there is a difference in the paintwork shades.

Finally though, and much more importantly, it adds strength to the fact that you should always check a car thoroughly before you accept delivery of it. Reject it and don't be afraid of doing so if it doesn't meet your expectations.

As soon as you've signed that sheet and driven off it in...well you've got a problem.

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5th Gear are going to be testing th new ST in afew weeks, so it will be interesting to see what they have to say as the GTi is still their Car of the Year so far.

Personally, the orange one is ghastly (did I just tyoe that word) but the deep blue one looks really nice, maybe I'm biased a bit as I like my DBP R32, but hey if it turns out t o be a good drive and build quality is good enough then I see it hitting some of the other marques 'GTi' sales.

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