Ford Giving Newly Assembled Focus 30-Mile Shakedown

Ford is treating the launch of the new Focus like it’s made of glass. This is probably its most important global product, so the carmaker wants a flawless market arrival. Not being contentment with the extensive testing and development it has previously done, Ford is also giving the first batch of cars to roll of the assembly line a shakedown around the Dearborn, Michigan, test track before shipping them to dealers, according to Automotive News.

"Porsche does it to every car they build," said Jim Hall, managing director of 2953 Analystics, a consulting firm in suburban Detroit. "It's unprecedented for this road testing to be done on an entry-level vehicle and it's genuinely puzzling. Is this the way to make sure you have a painless launch and that molding won't fall off in 500 miles? It's impressive, but it indicates there might be other issues they're not talking about."

Dealers were naturally concerned if there was a problem with the car that would justify such extensive testing, but they were assured that the very thorough checks are merely to ensure spot-on quality. The fact that Ford is launching a 40 mpg car at a time when gas prices are very high makes this a very important market arrival as well.

"The pre-shipment drives are a key part of our quality process to ensure we deliver the highest quality to our customers," Ford spokesman Said Deep explains.

The US-spec 2012 Focus was been certified by the EPA at 40 mpg highway/28 mpg city in the case of the version with Super Fuel Economy package and a six-speed automatic transmission. It is put together in the Michigan Assembly plant in Wayne, Mich., which resides only a few miles away from the automaker's Dearborn test track.