Out Of Africa: Ford's Focus On Reliability

Days after powering Colin McRae to his 25th career win on the toughest rally of all – the epic Safari Rally in Kenya – the Ford Focus will star in a new advertising campaign to promote its victory in a European reliability survey.

The same dependable Ford Focus design and technology that completed 1,500 trouble-free miles of gruelling African desert last weekend, for Ford’s third consecutive rally win, has also been voted Europe’s most reliable car by the German Safety Standards Authority.

"It’s sometimes believed the most reliable cars are German or Japanese marques, but that’s simply not the case", explained Peter Fleet, director of marketing, Ford Motor Company Limited. "I know it, and Colin McRae knows it – Ford Focus is the most dependable car in Europe – now we want to tell everyone about it!"

The TUV test, one of the most comprehensive dependability surveys, took 29 million tests on 1.5 million vehicles, employing over 3,000 technicians from the German Safety Standards Agency for 283 days to reach the conclusion that the Ford Focus was more reliable than any other car on sale in Europe.

The findings will be widely advertised in the UK from August 1, in a new Ford campaign titled "Ford Focus: German For Reliability".

Ford Focus has been the UK’s best selling car every month for over two years. 2002 sales are higher than ever, with over 85,000 new customers in the first six months of this year.