2008 Ford Focus SES Coupe: Compact Blues

The euro Focus is so cool and the polar opposite of the US version.
The old 3dr hatch looked cool, they even fixed the horrid interior for at least a year or two didn't they?
 
The new one looks like a cheap rental car, inside and out. Even if it's technically "good", it's so boring and generic in every way that I don't care to even consider it.
 
It doesn't look sporty, stylish or luxurious... or anything! It looks like an appliance devoid of any excitement... have you seen the new refridgerators lately? They have more excitement than the Focus.
 
I think Ford saying the euro Focus is "too expensive" is a cop-out. Just sell the car with less options!
Even if you just kept the euro Focus body and put a blow-molded playschool interior in it, it would be 200% better than the turd they have sitting there now.

here's hoping that more good quality small cars will hit our market. I too have always liked the smaller cars but found most of them to have such cheap materials and looks that they were hard to take.
 
It can be quite a chore finding a 'good' small car that still gets good mpg. The higher end ones are usually higher performance which hurts the gas mileage too much. Give me a good fit and finish with some style and an engine option that gets 30 or better highway and I'm sold.
 
For the currently available quality small cars: the Mini is a possibly a bit too quirky for me and the nearest dealer is over an hour one way from where we live and when I was last there they basically asked if I was trying to compensate for some type of shortcoming by looking for a S model.
The Audi A3 is a bit closer for a dealer but a terribly pushy salesman there and my wife permanently removed that car from our list. That and the automatic transmission seemed to be shifting about 2 times a second at low speeds which was annoying.
The Mazda3 grand touring wagon is high on the list but the dealers don't get many of those (probably not a lot of demand for the decked out econo car as mentioned in the post) I do also wish the Mazda3 would get just a bit better mpg, although people seem to beat the epa numbers with it.

Last July I bought a Mazdaspeed3 to use as my work beater/track rat for a year or so; if the European Focus ST had been available I would have given it serious consideration(especially since I can buy a Ford on A Plan). The current US version was never on the radar screen.

The Euro version you have pictured there is a no-apologies good-looking car. Too bad they dumped the crappy one on us.

I guess the huge success of the Mazda3 somehow escaped notice of the Ford bigwigs. Instead of bringing desirable models to North America, they poured hundreds of millions into Jaguar and Land Rover just to lose their core market with Foci and Tauruses no one wanted. What dunderheads! If the Ford family didn't own the (minority)controlling shares, the management at Ford would have been out on their corporate tushies long ago. Ford Europe has been making good cars all along but for some reason the home office claims that they won't sell well over here. I wonder what idiot does their market research.

For too long Americans have had a bigger = better policy. If gas stays the way it is the premium compact market will surely grow. If ford came out with a non-ugly TSX beater for 20-25k i'd buy it.

A coworker of mine just got a new Focus. The trip mpg when we went to lunch read 38, which was very impressive. I'm only doing 31.4 in my Mazda3, manual, and driving like a Grandpa. But when I got back into my car at the end of they day, I was amazed at how much better it looks and feels. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what's wrong with the Focus. I can't ding it too hard for exterior style because the Civic looks just as weird and would be a total outcast without that H badge. Imagine Suzuki trying to get away with that space ship style. But everything in the Focus interior is just a step or two lower grade than the Mazda. The total package just doesn't do it for me.

I agree with all those who think the "too expensive for the US" is a cheap excuse. This Focus is on sale here in México, though obviously not as well equipped as in Europe. It sells well, and the northern parts of México have very similar car tastes to the US so I'm pretty sure it would also be a hit in the US.
 
The Mazda3 is based on that platform and Mazda can make it sell, what makes Ford think it's version wouldn't? Ford has a good global car, but for some reason they keep insisting that they don't. For their sakes I hope there's a solid reason, and not some corporate tug of war.

How can any vehicle be called Global, if it isn't sold in the the U.S.? Isn't the U.S. one of the largest markets for new vehicles?

This blog hit the nail on the head as far as compacts go. If Ford brought the Euro Focus to the U.S., it would sell extremely well. I think that Lexus should produce a small 4 cylinder car that gets about 35 MPG highway because a lot of people would buy it.
 
My dad bought a 2002 Toyota Sequoia Limited for about $45,000. He just got a Civic EX (about $19,000) because he wants high mileage. He can easily afford another vehicle like the Sequoia, but he chose the Civic because of its mileage. If Lexus built the aforementioned vehicle (or if Ford brought the more expensive Euro Focus to the U.S.), he probably would've bought one of them instead.

"I think that Lexus should produce a small 4 cylinder car that gets about 35 MPG highway because a lot of people would buy it. "
 
Why Lexus? I don't think Lexus is in a business of selling cars to "a lot of people", that should be Toyota's job. By the way, Lexus will be introducing a dedicated hybrid (probably a glorified Prius) that'll get over 60 mpg with LI batteries in next year's Detroit autoshow.

Lexus, Acura, Infiniti, MB, BMW, etc. A luxury brand, 4 cylinder, fuel efficient (35 plus MPG), and around $30k. Lexus was just the first one that came to mind since their sales are struggling.

"Lexus was just the first one that came to mind since their sales are struggling."
 
We are getting OT so this will be my last post regarding this.
 
Lexus' sales are struggling not due to that that it doesn't have a fuel efficient model. It is because of that it has an aging lineup (especially the RX) with no new volume model for this year.
 
Anyways, I think the new Lexus dedicated hybrid should come pretty close to the "luxury brand, 4 cylinder, 35 mpg and ~$30k" requirements of yours.

"I think that Lexus should produce a small 4 cylinder car that gets about 35 MPG highway because a lot of people would buy it."
 
I would be heading for the nearest dealer :)
 
"I was amazed at how much better it looks and feels. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what's wrong with the Focus."
 
I guess it costs a lot more to get the good designers to work on your car. But I've always wondered why inexpensive cars had to look so much like that is what they were. So many economy cars just yell cheap when you walk up to them. It isn't one thing that says it, just the overall car.
 
VW tends to do a good job with a solid looking small car.

The success of the Mini Cooper and the Volvo C30 in the U.S. market are clear signs that small and cheap are no longer inextricably linked, that small cars CAN have cachet - and prices to match - if vendors build 'em that way.
 
The Focus just screams cheap. Its packaging - inside and out - was behind the times five years ago. In this day and age, when the same money can buy competing vehicles that demand no excuses, that don't need to be whispered in conversation, the Focus will remain a cheap car. Which is too bad, because under the grandpa skin, it's not a bad piece of kit.
 
I'd still put m money into a Fit, though. Fun to drive, great on gas and completely devoid of excuses.

Nobody brings up the Cobalt in Focus comparisons. There's another example of a not-so-stellar execution by a domestic manufacturer. Not to mention Chrysler which doesn't even offer a compact.

On the Focus, the FAKE fender vents (it literally looks like a PepBoys $1.99 sticker) and ugly chrome grill tacked onto the anonymous body make it look like a 1950's refridgerator...
 
The Focus would make a great background filler car in movies. No one would ever know what it was, wouldn't care, and would be just as anonymous 20 yrs from now.
It's the perfect "generic car". A toaster oven on wheels.

When are you going to publish the Gas-Sipper Smackdown????

jpr18 -- It's already been posted.
 
http://www.edmunds.com/advice/fueleconomy/articles/126370/article.html

"Not to mention Chrysler which doesn't even offer a compact."
 
Yes they do, it's the Caliber. It's just styled to look like a little SUV or crossover.

Firstwagon, the Caliber is over 3000 lbs. That makes it too porky to be a domestic compact, no matter how slow, poorly designed, and cheaply built it might be.

Considering the popularity of four cylinder Camarys and Accords, I don't know that people outside of those with trucks are willing to give up space and utility for a few more MPG...I think people buying premium compacts are the exception to the rule.

Altima-
Thanks...don't know how I missed it.

The VW Jetta is a good premium compact. IMO, its the head of the compact market. Good looks, good power, average mpg(will improve when the TDI goes back on sale), and spacious. The civic ex-l imo isn't better than a jetta se in any way other than mpg.
 
Both the civic and jetta are heads and shoulders above the focus.
-Cj

The Jetta has below average MPG with the 5 cylinder...22/29 with the auto vs. 25/36 for the automatic Civic. The Jetta is also a pig at 3,200 lbs...a good 600 to 700 more than the Civic and Focus. And the powertrain in the Focus is probably under rated as far as MPG in the new EPA ratings...as I regularly see 26 in the city and 38 on the highway in my wife's 2006 with the same engine and shorter gears.

so the jetta's EPA mpg ratings are assumed to be right on and the Focus does better than the EPA's ratings?
 
from a recent article on small car safety:
"One of the safest vehicles is the VW Jetta..."
"Volkswagens, in general, he says, "tend to be safe, but they are heavier and get lower fuel economy. If you improve safety, you make a vehicle heavier, at least with today's technology.""
 
keep in mind that since it is heavier it's frontal crash star ratings aren't comparable with lighter car ratings. A higher star rating on a car that weighs 500lbs less isn't necessarily better.