Of course the resale value is quite bad, but I do not buy with “selling back” in my mind, which many malaysians should correct.

@wei-tsung
If fc is ur main concern, then go n get urself a beca. No need to complain when fuel price increase again.

On a serious note, I’d rather sacrifice a bit more of fc to enjoy true driving experience Focus can offer that the “safe buy” Civic couldn’t. It’s a case of “I’d rather watch F1 live at Sepang n pay expensive ticket to truly enjoy the sonorous music notes of F1 cars than just watching it on tv which is cheaper, cooler, and safe”. So go ahead, buy the Civic if u want to tell the world you hate driving and doin it for the sake of gettin A to B, nt out of pleasure and enjoyment. Oh, and of course, to be able to re-sell the car wit a higher price tag than the former.

for other makes you will notice the car brake lights going off in one or 2 years near new cars. so i beleive it comes down to where/who the car is made and using components sourced from where…..rather than the brand itself.

im not sure where focus is made but im guessing south africa or some euro country. i know the corolla sportivo with the celica vvtiL engine is made there and reports of quality from isnt as good.

doesnt mean the focus is a bad car. just means more choice to choose from is better.

yeah.. to most Malaysians (i guess between 85 ~ 90%), re-sale value rules. That’s why most dream of and actually buy Honda-Toyota stuff.

Never drove a Focus but from what i’ve heard and read, i believe this is one good car.

Again pity we Malaysian (whether we like it or not, most don’t like it I believe) had to face the reality of life and play safe (by buying the so-called and sadly believe ‘maintenance-free’ Honda-Toyota stuff when you finally got the money or had to stick to Perodua – the newly added marque in the ‘maintenance-free’ marque list).

To make it clear, to me there are no maintenance-free or fault-free car, Malaysian just trick themselves and refuse to admit it now coz it’s too big an impact to change this mentality.

The force of this belief is so strong now that only Honda-Toyota stuff have acceptable and reasonable resale value in the secondary market, Benz too but that is a different ballgame). Until this force / belief / trend / conceptual / cocoon is broken, all other marques have very little chance to grow in sales or image; therefore we as a whole would have very little chance to ‘taste’ good car beside the ‘normal & sedate’ Honda-Toyota offering.

Finally, Focus boleh!

August 29, 2007 @ 6:30 pm

i’ve always loved the ford focus. spent quite a bit of time in the previous gen. focus.

unfortunately, I wouldn’t get one in malaysia coz it will take a beating in the 2nd hand market. If one is logical and worries about his/her pocket, the civic is the current best buy in that class of cars. 2nd hand value of civics are also very very good historically.
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>>>I hate everytime I see ppl over-worried abt re-sale value, especially for a good car.

I’ll tell you somethin, Jeremy Clarkson owns a Ford Focus mk1, and he once mentioned that for 7 years, no matter how hard he beats it, it never ever goes down. Simply the most reliable car he had ever owned. Also, it is fun to drive thanks to its (then) class-leading ride and handling (now Golf GTi).

I know that re-sale value matters a lot for buying a car, more so especially here cuz well, Msia boleh. Bt Focus to me, is sooooo good, it is a car I would buy and never sell it back, thus, screw re-sale value. It will perhaps, be driven by my children when they get their licence. Emotionally, this car beats all others in its class. And the Japs obviously.

Mk1 was quoted by a fomec forummer to be able to go up to 250,000km easily and trouble-free most of the time. Considerin it is 2001 n 2002’s best-selling car ever in the world, this calls for an amazing feat. I’m nt sure for mk2, bt it is, in many ways is much improved over its predecessor.

Abt the looks, while at first I thought it was designed by Toyota, I later realised it’s quite elegant. Must’ve been influenced by its sister, the Swedish Volvo’s design.

And oh yes, the Ford Focus is sooooo gonna be my first car (with my own money, cuz now oni drive dad’s Saga, hehehe). Sadly though, I’ve reached a stage I feel soooo tired of sharing my love for this beauty to Msians. They oni worship Japanese car for the sake of financial and quality security, parking a proud face that they’ve made a safe and smart choice that can never ever go wrong (o rly?). Which then naturally leads to re-sale value. Sheesh……..

Looks good and sporty.Proton should learn from FORD.But sadly they cant.Because PROTON has local designers who are back dateted 50 years.None of any proton models every impressed.Only the Malays go for it.Malaysia Boleh!!!!”
I’ve got chinese friends driving wajas. I’ve got Indian friends driving gen2 and saying that it’s a ‘not bad’ car. Most of my Malay friends drive Hondas or Nissans or Toyotas or Bimmers.
Happy 50th Merdeka Day. It’s amazing that our country have lasted for 50 years or more, even with people like you around.

No sales in Malaysia. Sales good elsewhere. And looks are subjective. ALWAYS subjective. I like Jessica Alba while my friend, Thomas doesn’t. Go figure. Have you heard of Ford Transit? Or Ford Ranger? Or Ford F150? That’s branding. To Ford, Malaysia is an insignificant market, as opposed to what Honda or more recently, Mitsubishi, perceive us – an important SEDAN market in Asia. And whenever I set my eyes on a focus, I remembered that it is a good handling car and that I had so much fun test driving it. Pity, because my wife did not like it.

“Looks good and sporty.Proton should learn from FORD.But sadly they cant.Because PROTON has local designers who are back dateted 50 years.None of any proton models every impressed.Only the Malays go for it.Malaysia Boleh!!!!”
Funny, because ive got chinese friends who drive wajas. And indian friends driving gen2s and saying that these are ‘not bad’ cars. Most of my close malay friends either drive a honda or a nissan or a bimmer. Happy merdeka day. It’s amazing that our country have survived for 50 years even with people like you around.

solid car.. good driving dynamics, 5 EURONCAP starts, good interior quality, good comfort, good price.. if oni it has got good marketing.. wonder y.. coz ranger is doing well locally..

Splashing 100+k on a car, is not done entirely by driving dynamics and build quality alone, 80k out of that 100k is spent to LOOK COOL or MAKE PEOPLE ENVY UPON. This car lacks one thing – The ability to thrive people’s emotions while looking at it.

Good Ford Engineers + Bad Designers + Bad Packaging + Bad Marketing + Bad Branding + Bad Parent (Ford US) = Car that drives and rides well but NO SALES.

ford focus designs age quickly. problem with them is that they do make a splash when the car debuts. best handling in class etc. but one year down the track (or even a few months), car journalists are reporting on the mazda 3 more (extended reviews, repeat reviews) and recommend it over others in the same class. the focus just drops of the radar or out of focus completely until a superseding model is released.

Not much focus probably the ford dealer here does not market it well