The people who spent £32,000 on a brand new Ford Focus ST in 2020 probably weren’t thinking that hard about likely residual values. If they had, they’d have reckoned that in four years’ time, even if they kept the mileage down, it would have lost half or more of its value. But it didn’t. Not even close: so long as it was petrol powered, that car would today be advertised on PistonHeads for around £22,000.
What’s going on? Well part of it is that people either don’t want or can’t use an EV and are scared of buying a new ICE for fear of being either taxed or legislated out of existence, so simply stick with what they’ve already got and await further developments. But there’s something else going on here too, for why otherwise has this Ford depreciated at about the same rate as the historically residually far stronger VW Golf GTI? I have one answer: Ford ain’t doing another one.
I have commented before on Ford’s highly courageous decision to kill the Focus and Fiesta, the at times class-destroying cars upon which its reputation in Europe was built. I’ve raised an eyebrow at the speed of its drive towards an EV future and wondered out loud why Ford has been so happy to abandon all those new drivers who bought five hundred quid Fiestas as their very first car and had so much fun they stayed with the brand forever. And now the fast Ford, at least as we have come to know it, has gone too.
