Ford's all-new Focus is due on sale here around April 2005 following its local debut at the Melbourne show. The bigger, more powerful Focus shares its chassis architecture with Mazda3 and Volvo S40 and offers 107kW/185Nm. Available from April in three and five-door versions, from around $22,000.

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Mercedes revealed its much anticipated CLS four-door coupe-sedan at the 2003 Frankfurt show and later confirmed it will enter production, with Australia set to take delivery in 2005. Based on the E-class platform, the slinky four-door offers a sedan-like 829mm of rear legroom and boot volume of 470 litres.

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Holden's VZ Adventra range goes on sale in April 2005, complete with 3.6-litre Alloytec V6 for the first time. In addition to the V8-powered Commodore wagon-based Adventras (currently $49,990 for the CX and $56,990 for the LX), the V6 will reduce Adventra's starting price to $40,990.

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