Introduction: The Ford Focus was an effort by Ford of America to sort of bring its European lineup to North America. The last effort was the Contour being a near replica of the Mondeo but ended up not doing as well as Ford hoped. The North American Focus did not bring a replica of the European Focus but instead used mostly American designed parts and was built in the US. This brought the Focus into attention as one of the most recalled vehicles in US history. A staggering 21 recalls were made for the Focus for the 2000-2003 models. This lead to the Focus to being repealed from Car of the year for a few North American car publications.
My cousin drives one of these cars, he told me things about it so I knew before hand what this car was going to be like.
Performance: I got the base model so it only had the 2.0L 4-cylinder engine that produced 136 hp and 136 lb.ft of torque which is an improvement over the previous unit that had 110 hp. This means the acceleration from 0-100 km/h is about 8.7 seconds which is actually pretty good for a small car with low amounts of power. The engine however is a bit noisy and not very pleasant especially compared to the newer Focus. Not enough however to make this a bad engine.
My Score: 8/10 - A surprisingly quick vehicle considering how small the engine is.
Handling: One of the key items from the C170 platform is this platform is used on the European Focus which did give it a distinct advantage over its European rivals. The North American one uses this same platform but somehow I didn't get the sense its handling was all that brilliant. Possibly one of the annoying things was how stiff the wheel was, I normally criticize cars with very light wheels being vague...this one is very heavy but didn't seem to match how the car cornered. It would be wrong to say the Focus handled badly, but I couldn't say it felt that great to put it into a corner since a car like this would get tiring.
My Score: 7/10 - The very heavy wheel might have ruined the potentially great handling. You just don't feel it because of how much effort it takes to move the wheel.
Interior: This is something that was most displeasing in the Focus. The interior of the Focus all I can say is...cheap. Lots of cost cutting occurred in the Focus and I believe an accountant styled this interior, I just can't think of a real designer going through such lengths to cut costs. The door handles are very cheap, the seat levers are small and cheap, the cup holders are awful looking and removable, its a sea of grey and I just couldn't see anything attractive inside. Don't bother to look the European one looks like this too. As said its built in the USA, the recalls in question...unfortunately a few are a result of how well built this car is. Its functional but compared to its competition its pretty lacking.
My Score: 3/10 - Not a good looking interior, lots of cost cutting and not built very well.
Styling: The North American Focus got a face lift over the original European design. I must say, this face lift actually puts it in line with the rest of the European lineup and even though its not a pretty average looking car...I actually like the way it looks. I actually prefer this to the original style which was a bit more outrageous. Every bit fits the car so well.
My Score: 10/10 - I can't think of anything wrong with the styling, it somehow works so well.
Value for Money: The recalls have hurt the Focus' reputation and as a result it suffered. By this point the Mazda 3 has established its the driver oriented car with the improved C1 platform, while the C170 is clearly outdated. Reliability is already weaker considering the recalls leaving it down to driving something American that is decent but clearly not refined. I guess another reason to buy it is it does look good.
My Score: 5/10 - Not great considering the recalls, if Ford put a lot more effort into making it right then this should have been a success.
Overall: 33/50 - There are worse cars than the Focus but I do think it looks good and after all that's said and done it did need polishing which is what the newer one does.
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