Camshafted?

Since you seem to be the only writer/reviewer of cars on the planet who actually informs readers that their potential new car will or will not require a regular change of timing belt I thought you might like to know that the new Ford Focus coming soon to North America will come with a chain-cam engine, not the belt cam engines you folks in the UK and Europe will be supplied with. I find it bizarre that car companies are still producing, let alone introducing belt-cam engines in 2011. It seems to save them a few quid/bucks/euros in production costs while greatly increasing the customer's long-term service bills.

Asked on 23 February 2011 by MV, Ottawa, Canada

Answered by Honest John
That's a development of the 2.0 litre Mondeo/S-Max/C-Max/Galaxy engine. SCTI Ecoboost versions use a turbo and offer 203PS, 240PS and 250PS, so far. The Focus ST will get the 250PS version. You are right, though. For lower power outputs of 100 and 125PS, we get the belt cam 'VCT' 1.6, and for higher outputs of 150 and 180PS we get the belt cam turbo SCTI Ecoboost version of the belt cammer. Car makers seem to be adding as many names to engines as they add superlatives to brochure copy.
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