There is always a risk of reposting an old article, but this is the first time I saw this official magazine test besides the one on Motor Trend a few years ago.

Enjoy!

http://www.popularmechanics.com/auto...31.html?page=2

No matter how hard people try to trick out a focus...its still a focus.

Thats why I also have my little ricer to drive when I want something quick. Also, it was a red 230, I heard those have less HP than other colors

The only Focus I'd ever drive is something like this:

wut's the point of this??

to make the suckers who bought a ford product feel that it is good enough to be compared to a Benz, so that they have more approval as a wanna be


Hmmm Popular Mechanics, the foremost authority on automotive journalism? It is like comparing USA Today to the New York Times

Good comparison. Same thing comparing Focus and C Klasse. They both get you from point A to point B at the same speed and in the same time. But the luxery of MB comes at a premium price

I heard the Focus is very popular in Europe. Can anyone comment on this?

It is. At one time it was the best selling car in the world, IIRC. Its also a much better car in Europe. Here, in the US, we are about to get the third version of the original Focus, each time the car become less interesting. The Europeans have an all new from the ground up Focus. I get a Focus every now and then as a rental when its a day trip...its really become a boring little car, compared to how edgy and fun the original version was.

Keep in mind the readership demographic of "popular mechanics"...be glad they didn't test the focus against the lazy 2.5V6 and 7 speed slushbox.

The Quality of Ford in Europe is like night and day vs. the North American counter part.

If this Focus was to be sold in America it would really make Civic Si, RSX-S, SRT-4s, and bunch of other "fast little" cars look bad. Not to mention the Tuning ability of this car!



Focus RS

Then the question is why those morons at Ford don't sell it here? They lost 12 bil, sold Auston Martin (which was profitable) and still don't get their europeand devision does much better than noth american. Something really weard, or is something new brewing in their design labs?

I have no idea why they wouldn't bring their European devision here, but if I were to guess.......probably have something to do with the "Image" side of the business, since North America is suppose to be the Ford's headquarter!!!, and importing cars will increase the overall cost of the vehicle, and maybe a little emissions reasons on their vehicles.

have u ever seen the Saleen Focus?

i saw bunch of clips and full shows of Top Gear on youtube and they LOVE the focus over there. A very capable little car over there. Looks and drives like a much more expensive car. i also checked ford's uk website...dang...they still have the Fiesta! haha...but it looks much nicer! really terrible they dont bring those cars over here..shame..

ford is going to be the first american automaker to DIE.. for a while it looked like GM but nah fix or repair daily is worse than generic motors.

If they are about to go belly up it is really silly of them to loose american market on copact cars. Ignorance will kill them. "Image is nothing, thurst is everything"

Its all about market perceptions. Its widely held belief by many old schoolers that the US market won't buy products made for europeans, and that to really sell well, the car has to be dumbed down, or custom tailored to US tastes.

There's plenty of evidence to support this. Several previous euro fords, the Capri(the first one, not the mustang clone), the Sierra(XR4ti), the Granada(Scorpio), and the last Mondeo have all BOMBED in the US market. Some, like the Capri and XR4 started out strong, then petered out when ford didn't know how to market them after the initial curiosity wavered.

GM is hoping to break this curse with several of its new Saturn's being heavily, if not entirely, Opel influenced. The new Sky is styled after the VX Lightning, a stunning european show car, the Aura is much like its Vectra parent, but with a better engine, and the Astra, which will replace the ION, is 100% Opel...even being built in Europe.

Ford is actually thinking of bringing us some euro fords again...the Galaxy- a pretty cool little van, sorta like a Bigger B-Class, but with much better styling and performance- and the new Mondeo. Problem with the Mondeo is its a better car than the new Futura, which is really a tarted up Mazda 6.

Ford is definately in the weakest position of the traditional big 3, coming in fourth last month in sales, but I wouldn't count them out just yet. They still sell 3 times as many F150's as Toyota does Camrys.

my mitsushi FTO.... i miss her a lot....

What really surprises me is that at the end of the entire article, Popular mechanics say that "front-wheel drive nor rear-wheel drive is really better than the other." I don't know about you but I would never buy a FWD car. I won't even consider buying a transversely engine mounted car even if it powered the rear wheels or all four wheels.

In each of the cars that they tested, I would've chosen the RWD car over the other if I were to choose between one.

There's a reason why Rolls Royce, Mercedes-Benz (with the exception of the A and B Klasse vehicles), and BMW all only use RWD (arguably the best car companies in the world). It's simply better. Period.

mostly to me, most car that got into an "out of control" accident r FWD car lol

most RWD or 4WD car would get into "ram-on" accident

Well, that's not statistically significant because most cars are FWD cars so it's expected that they'd get into more "out of control" accidents than RWD cars.

Not trying to sound like the lawyer here, but just pointing something out. However, I do agree with you that FWD cars are more prone to out of control accidents than RWD cars.

There's a huge difference between the C230 and the Focus. Both dealers offer free car washes but MB gives you a full service wash, Ford only puts it through their quicky machine and gives you the car wet. MB gives you pastries, water, coffee, internet access, 50" plasma TV to watch, Ford gives you lousy coffee. So clearly, MB wins but Fords getting very close. Chevy won't even wash my car when it's in for service (both local dealers) so don't know if I would buy another one, it's very dirty right now.

They are American company, that's why....

Fletcher Jones in Fremont does not have anything for me to eat like pastries. They only have coffee and water.

smythe have cookies

Smythe's got Julie Passon - the best damn mod-friendly service advisor there, PERIOD.

Sure, but FJ gives you Starbucks, MB of LN gives you dark brown water that's warm but they make it up with pastries if you get there early, they are gone by 9AM, haha. Starbucks is not as good as McDonald's coffee but it's free so why complain.