One of many pleasant little villages you pass through along this road, "it could be missed with the blink of an eye", as they say in Ireland, unless you spot an unusual monument. It's a full-sized stainless-steel replica of a Model-T Ford. Yes, you are on the ancestral home turf of Henry Ford, of Ford Motor Company fame. Erected as a new millennium project, the site has been visited by a number of Ford family members, the most recent being William Clay "Bill" Ford Jr. and family.
Bill is a great-grandson of Henry Ford and currently serves as the Executive Chairman of Ford Motor Company. A commemorative plaque at the site was dated August 3, 2011. That was only a couple of weeks prior to my visit with the latest product from the Dearborn, Michiganbased company, a 2012 model year Ford Focus.
The new Focus was redesigned mainly in Germany and is built on a new C-car platform that will underpin a number of other Ford products. It's a global car in every other sense and is produced in Ford plants in Spain, Russia, China and, as well as Germany and North America (Michigan).
In Canada, Ford sells Focus in both 5-door hatchback and 4-door sedan body styles. And in Ireland it's also offered in a wagon version, called an "Estate". Although different descriptive names are used, both countries also offer Focus models in four prepackaged equipment and trim levels.
Sticker shock, however, is a highvoltage jolt when you do a euro-todollar conversion on the asking prices on an Irish Focus - it's almost double the Canadian price. Our proximity to the largest and most lucrative car market in the world certainly helps keep Canadian auto prices low when compared with most other countries in the world.
Even though diesel models are priced higher (about $700 more) they tend to be more popular with Irish buyers. It's mainly because diesel fuel is cheaper and these engines provide considerable better fuel economy. You pay a bit more, but get more for the car when you trade it in, I was told.
My test Focus came with Active Park Assist, which automatically pilots the Focus into a parallel roadside parking space. A salesperson at the dealership sheepishly described it as a "lady park system" and could only recall ever selling one vehicle with it.
Apparently I'm more in touch with my feminine side than I ever realized - okay, call me a sissy - but I do like Active Park Assist. It first measures a parking space as you drive by and tells you if the car will fit in it. You can then choose to let it do the steering or just use it as a guidance system - so parking is a much easier task.
On a side note, Ford is planning to build (in Detroit) a full electric version of the Focus and it's expected to be released next year. A full recharge, with a 240-volt charging station is reported to take less than four hours, which would be best in the industry.
The Healy Pass spans Ireland's spectacular Beara Peninsula. It connects the counties of Cork and Kerry and it's a very special driving experience. The road is long, winding and narrow, but the valley views on either side of the mountain ridge can be absolutely stunning when the weather cooperates - and it did.
The Focus also proved to be a highly enjoyable driving experience as it danced back and forth along the winding mountain road with Michael Flatley-like agility. Some credit must go to the new, and standard Dynamic Cornering Control system that uses "torque vectoring" techniques. It enhances cornering ability by lightly applying the brakes to an inside front wheel.
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