The all-new Ford Focus: The car that parks for you

MANILA, Philippines - Let’s revisit a classic Philippine parking scenario that perhaps most of us, if not all, have at least once in our lives experienced, or at least witnessed happening. We shall call it “Death by Parking.” And it goes something like this..

You’re on your way to an event, running late, and parking turns out to be a bitch. However, after applying the law of positive attraction and/or praying to your patron saint of parking, lo and behold...a vacant parking slot reveals itself! Everything suddenly seems to be in your favor except for one minor problem: the parking configuration seems to be... er, parallel.

To make matters worse, here come your friends walking nearby yelling, “Hey, we’ll wait for you, so we can walk inside together!” And at this point you are torn—whether you should miserably attempt to get into that parking space and risk total humiliation upon failure of doing so, or rather, save face and be the complete weirdo who ditches this prime slot and gets lost in the sea of desperate drivers seeking settlement. Whichever course of action you choose, both are clearly embarrassing. In other words, you die.

It was pretty thoughtful then of Ford engineers to incorporate a new feature to the all-new 2012 Ford Focus. Dubbed ‘Active Park Assist,’ it’s a feature that allows the car to parallel park by itself. That, or maybe it secretly comes with a built-in guardian angel.

The 2012 Ford Focus’ Active Park Assist allows the driver to parallel park his/her car (as long as certain parameters are met) hands-free, via a sophisticated set of sensors located all around the vehicle. At the push of an activation button, the car may identify a qualified parking space, and after giving initial positioning instructions to the driver (via the monitor), it intelligently steers the car into the parking space! Yes, you literally do not touch the steering wheel, you just control the car with the brakes. And yes, I tried it myself. This thing really works!!

But the new Focus would not be your prized guardian angel if its smart features ended there. The car also boasts of an ‘Active City Stop’ feature that monitors stationary traffic ahead... and applies the brakes automatically in the event you fail to step on the brake pedal for whatever reason, thereby preventing a potential collision. After which, the driver will have a few seconds to recover and take control of the brakes himself. This feature will be able to effectively bring the car to a full stop if traveling at speeds of 30 kph or less.

Interestingly, the hood of the new Focus also possesses a ‘safety architecture’ that, in the event of a pedestrian collision, is designed to minimize the injury to the pedestrian from the impact with the car.

The 2012 Focus also now uses a ‘Smart Keyless Entry’ system that takes away the chore of having to fumble into your bag or pockets looking for the keys. Sensors around the vehicle detect the presence of the smart key when near the car, and automatically lock or unlock the doors when the driver grabs the door handle. Once inside, the driver can start the engine via a convenient push-button start.

Additionally, the new Focus embodies your guardian angel in shining metal via its ‘Blind Spot Information System’ (BLIS) that lights up an orange LED to gently caution the driver whenever a vehicle enters the car’s blind spot. This also works when backing out of a parking spot with limited visibility—BLIS warns the driver of forthcoming traffic from both sides.

Beyond any doubt, this Ford Focus encourages safer driving by providing an alternative to stubborn drivers who like to use their phones while driving: a software platform that allows the user to operate his/her mobile phone via voice commands! And yes, the car can read you your incoming text messages too! So you can keep your eyes on the road 100 percent of the time.

And the final deal-maker of the all-new 2012 Ford Focus? Why, it’s gotta be the looks! Because akin to your guardian angel, its Kinetic Design exudes inherent beauty too.

The all-new Ford Focus officially launches in the Philippines tomorrow, July 5.