Ford Focus Gets “Used Car of the Decade” Award

If you think that only new cars get awards, apparently you're wrong. Somebody thought about the used car awards and made it happen in the UK. The big winner is the Ford Focus produced between 1998 and 2005, as it has been voted “Used car of the decade” by CAP, an independent used car specialist from the UK.

The jury voted unanimously for the Ford Focus as the used car of the decade, as it took into consideration four different areas of a used car: affordability and practicality of ownership, trusted reputation, sustained popularity and inspired product improvement across the whole industry.

As judges say, in order to qualify, one of the criteria which had to be met was "the model range that existed as a 3 year old car at any point during the decade from the beginning of 2000 to the end of 2009.”

"The Focus shook up a conservative small family car sector in which the only truly desirable car had, for a long time, been the Volkswagen Golf. The introduction of the Focus was also a truly brave move by Ford. In reinventing their offering to that core sector Ford chose to drop the Escort name, a brand which was woven into the fabric of British motoring,” said Mark Norman, chairman of the CAP judging panel.

"Instead of simply re-vamping this trusted name, Ford began with a blank sheet and created a new vehicle completely from scratch. Every aspect of the car was different from its predecessor, from the radical external styling to the new 'command' driving position.”

Other winners of these awards were:

• Overall winner and best medium used family car of the decade: Ford Focus 1998 - 2005
• Small used car of the decade: Ford Ka 1996 – 2008
• Large used family car of the decade: Volkswagen Passat 1996 – 2005
• Executive used car of the decade: Audi A3 2003 – 2008
• Luxury used car of the decade: BMW X5 2000 – 2006
• Most improved used car brand of the decade: Seat