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Originally Posted by rpvitiello
Pretty much. Allot of the original focus owners from the early days of this forum moved on to other cars, a few kept buying them, but the character of people who bought a focus new in the last few years is a bit different than back in say 2002.
the Kuga is a "crossover" though, more as an escape replacement, it is not a CAR. Ford found a good number of sales gains in the Fusion and taurus CARS by adding AWD. It may not be a big selling point in the EU, but it has been a big selling point in the northern US. Just like Subaru was ALL AWD in the US, and Audi is almost always sold as AWD in the northeast. Trucks are almost universially stocked and sold with AWD up here too, unlike the south where it is just 2wd. Try and find ANY suv on the lot in new england without awd. Even though people here are downsizeing to smaller cars, I think they still want the AWD option.
Again this is getting into global marketing, and making cars so they can fit any market. In florida and the south AWD is not a selling point at all ford a ford, since they sell it as a "safety" or "convenance" feature in the north for snow, not for handeling peformance.
VW, Audi, Merc, etc... all tend to offer AWD...
BMW is finally coming around to offering AWD on their cars too, not just the SUV's.
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AWD is way bigger in Europe than it will ever be in the US. Due to better traction at higher speeds.
What do you think is in the ix and X3,5 and 6? 4 wheel drive? The last BMW to have 4x4 was the E30. The E34 was too heavy and was 4x4 was cut from the line before the E30.
The Kuga is build on a Focus C-Max platform with AWD added to it. It is more car than SUV. I have been under enough of them to see it. Today was the most recent. In no way can it be compared to an Escape. The closest is the Mazda X7. But I have seen them both side by side and you can see the C-Max in the Kuga more than you can see the Mazda.