2012 Focus gets Ford’s new Door Edge Protector

Ford has come up with a modern version of clip-on door protectors. The 2012 Focus will be the first Ford fitted with the new active door protection.

When Adam was a lad, dings on the edges of doors caused by careless passengers opening a door without any thought were mitigated by a quick trip to Halfords for a set of clip-on plastic door-edge protectors. But they’ve rather gone out of fashion.

Which isn’t terribly surprising. They may have been unobtrusive when new, but after a few months of use they tended to yellow and become more brittle and looked quite unappealing. So you either dumped them or bought new ones. But now Ford has come up with a 21st century version of the plastic clip-on door edge protectors with its new Active Door Edge Protector, due to arrive first on the Focus from the start of 2012.

The edge protector is an active system where a protective flap, which is invisible when the doors are closed, pops out when the door is opened to provide a buffer between your careless passengers and the car alongside. As it’s plastic it should also lessen any impact on the poor car parked next to your over-eager passengers.

Ford’s engineers in Germany seem to have covered all the bases with the Door Edge Protector, with the edge protector jumping out once the door is opened by as little as 15cm and retracting in as little as 60 milliseconds – perfect for children with a penchant for slamming doors (well, once – until they get a proper bow-locking).

Ford reckons that the new door edge protector can defend against dents as much as 85 per cent of the time on back doors and 90 per cent on the front.

It may be an expensive and over-engineered solution compared to the old clip-on protectors, but it’s a nice little innovation nonetheless.