The popular three and five-door Focus hatch, and Focus wagon are no longer made. Those versions represented nearly 50-percent of Canadian sales.
Here is a a more descriptive tells it like it is review. USA based.
Ford is taking a uniquely American approach with the new Focus' bodystyle choices.
The styling, however, looks better in conceptual ink than in real life because of incongruous details. Take the side windows, for instance. The door glass is recessed from the body and framed in thick, matte black rubber trim. Move to the rear quarter glass immediately behind it and it's mounted flush to the body with no external finishing trim. The blackout edging is laminated to the underside of the glass, which means the surface is shiny and smooth. From door glass to quarter glass, the greenhouse looks like a hybrid of two entirely different vehicles. The chromed-up front fender vents, clearly non-functional, look like J.C. Whitney add-ons, especially on the anti-sporty sedan body; even on the slightly sportier coupe, they grasp for relevance. Likewise, the taillights exude the sophistication and appeal of late-'90s APC aftermarket "Altezza" lights; the gaudy chrome band is simply too wide to be tasteful.
It's obvious where Ford cut the corners on cost with the new Focus. For instance the side mirrors don't fold away; a shame on a small car that will likely see ruthless urban or campus duty. Open the trunk and you'll see paint only an inch or so inward from the seams. There is no inside release for the trunk either; you'll need to use your key every time. The steering wheel no longer moves forward and back, just up and down. It's the little features like these that, when executed properly, make owners happy.
Cheapness abounds elsewhere as well, but mostly in the interior. While the rest of the industry, even at the low end of the market, has moved on to better fabric than the decades-old mouse fur for headliners, Ford has decided that trunk carpeting might make a unique quality statement for its roofing finish. The look is consistent with the circa-1978 Subaru sunvisors that are bolted to it. The dashboard has a nice graphic appeal, once again very American with its Mustang-influenced design, but the materials let down the otherwise interesting styling. A big deal was made about the fact that the dash and door panels don't try to "pretend to be an animal skin," but the resulting surfaces look neither edgy nor modern, and they just feel cheap. The absence of rear-seat headrests in this day and age seems short-sighted and punctuates the bargain-basement atmosphere.
The 2008 Ford Focus is a basic, no-frills car that is short on substance and sophistication. In every dark corner is evidence that the accounting and marketing departments had final signoff on most decisions. Its one saving grace may be the ingenious and well-executed Sync system, but whether or not that's enough to excite buyers remains to be seen.
http://www.motivemag.com/pub/feature...rd_Focus.shtml
