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Motrolix

Question: How Many Units Will The New Ford Focus Move?

At the time of this writing, the 2012 Ford Focus has been available in the U.S. for about a month. In April, the Focus moved a respectable 17,265 units, representing a 22.4 percent year-over-year boost in sales (although some of those may have been the very last of the previous-generation Focus.)

The final cost of The Blue Oval’s all-new compact, however, has risen between $1,500 and $2,500 (depending on who you ask). Add to that the fact that the new Focus options up fairly quickly, and what we see is a higher price that will most likely lead to a substantial increase in average transaction prices for the nameplate — not a bad position to be in at all.

And this brings us to the real question: how much better will the new Focus sell than the outgoing model in the long run? For the sake of this conversation, let’s assume that production has properly ramped at the Wayne plant and old Focus inventory is out of the picture.

For reference, Chevy’s new Cruze — one of the Focus’ most direct competitors — has seen a very successful U.S. launch, beating the Corolla to take second place in the compact segment. In fact, the Cruze did so with only the sedan model — since the hatchback variant doesn’t seem to be destined for U.S. shores. Also, the (last-gen) Focus sold 172,421 units in 2010 in the U.S. — will the 2012 top that?

Motrolix Founder with a passion for global automotive business strategy.

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