Strong signs were already present at the introduction of the 2016 Ford Focus RS, this car was going to do well in Europe and especially in the UK. The car has been described as a real ‘hoonigan’, providing customers with sheer driving pleasure at a very acceptable price.
The result is a huge demand for the positively acclaimed RS in the UK and many would say that it’s quite a luxury problem for Ford to have. However, with only about 500 cars left in their inventory, Ford need to close a gap between supply and demand that is inevitably going to take time. How much time? First indications point to an eight-month wait although several customers have said that their local dealership expects delivery in no less than 12 to 14 months.
While an issue like this could far more easily be resolved if it happened in any other mainland European country, such is obviously not the case as Ford cannot relocate left-hand drive cars to the UK. Ford’s first estimation of sales in the UK was 4,000 units, but with over 3,500 orders already placed it almost seems like they weren’t ready for such a success story.
Another problem may arise, although depending on where you stand it could be a good problem to have. With previous right-hand drive Ford Focus RS models, Ford have ceased production after the initial allocation of units to the UK. For now there’s no reason to believe that Ford in this case will deviate from such a decision, leaving chunks of market share unchallenged. Lucky customers that did get their hands on a Ford Focus RS in the UK might be additionally blessed with their car appreciating in value as a result.
The Focus RS isn’t Ford’s first sports car in recent months in Europe to see a shortage in demand, the same happened to the new Ford Mustang that seems to be immensely popular in Germany. Whether Ford is going to allocate additional RS models to Europe on top of the 8,000 initially assigned, depends on a variety of factors. They will first await the sales in both the UK and Europe and subsequently see what possible impact additional sales could have on the RS’ residual value.
