The Ford Focus 2-door Coupe SES first introduced in 1998, has gained a slow, steady following, and its time might have come now, given the fuel and economic climate in America as well as the buying trends of its target market.
Built in Wayne, Michigan, the Focus is the hottest-selling vehicle in the Blue Oval arsenal, with sales rising by 44 percent in May and continuing at the same clip in June. The current market has turned Ford purchases back in time, as last month’s sales of passenger cars exceeded those of trucks and sport-utility vehicles combined for the first time in more than 20 years.
The 2008 Ford Focus has incorporated fresh, new styling, an upmarket interior and more performance as part of a driving-experience package that increases what the public can expect from the small-car market, without sacrificing the elements that make the genre attractive to today’s buyers: fuel economy and aggressively low pricing.
Ford has also chosen to gear the model’s capabilities and it marketing campaign to younger buyers, the “Millennials,” by adding to the vehicle’s technology inclusions. Industry reports from J.D. Power show that 32 percent of 2008 Focus buyers are 16 to 35 years old; that’s up from 28 percent of 2007 Focus buyers.
Ford has paid attention to the fact that an increasing number of Millennials are becoming drivers – and vehicle buyers. Born between 1980 and 1995, approximately 70 million Millennials live in the U.S. Ford’s own studies show that Focus customers getting younger on average and they’re also buying more feature content than they were a year ago.
Focus starts with its look and exterior lines, and moves efficiently under the hood and into the cabin.
My Metallic Vista Blue test Focus Coupe showed a muscular build, accented by chrome-bar grillework borrowed from its sibling, the Fusion. Flared wheel arches and sweeping, crisp lines create a small car that stands out with a sporty stance. The front-wheel-drive Focus Coupe is 175 inches long, 67.9 inches wide and 58.6 inches high on a 102.9-inch wheelbase to create a canvas that is more upmarket than its price would suggest.
Under the hood is a 2.0-liter DOHC Inline-4 aluminum-block engine that works in concert with a 5-speed manual transmission to create 140hp and 132 lbs.-ft. of torque. The 2588-lb. Coupe is not a speed demon, but it accelerated evenly through shifts as I was able to test-drive it from zero to 60mph in 8.3 seconds with a 16.5-second quarter-mile run.
The Focus Coupe is EPA rated at 24 mpg in city driving and 35mpg on the highway, and that was a decently accurate barometer as I achieved close to those economy numbers during my 500-mile test runs along interstates and highways, through township streets and borough boulevards and down country roads in and around Central Pennsylvania and Western Maryland. Acquitting itself as an economy vehicle should, my weeklong examination yielded 34mpg on the Interstates and 22.5 in the city, for an overall average of 31.1mpg. This makes the Focus a perfect candidate to go hybrid, and hit the 40mpg mark, if Ford execs are listening.
A nimble, fun ride, it is a stretch to say that it provides sports-car handling, but it does offer agility, responsiveness and enough pick-up when called upon to be called a sportslike coupe.
In the Charcoal leather interior, drivers and passengers get an intuitive, roomy and clean-lined cabin that incorporates some excellent features, but does not rise above its economy-price level.
With seating for five passengers, the Focus Coupe provides 39.2 inches of front headroom (38.3 in row two), 41.7 inches of front leg room (36.1 in the rear) and 53.5 inches of front shoulder room (53.7 behind). Cabin inhabitants still must endure a high-degree of road and engine noise, but they can drown it out with available options that include AM/FM six-disc, in-dash CD/MP3 player; Audiophile system with four coaxial speakers and 8-inch subwoofer; SIRIUS® Satellite Radio and Ford Sync™.
Sync is a cutting-edge way to use cell phones and media players inside a vehicle. This industry-first technology offers unprecedented levels of connection, control, simplicity and personalization for electronic devices inside a car. Using Bluetooth technology as a foundation, Sync can wirelessly connect up to six different mobile phones to the vehicle through a process called pairing while offering full hands-free, voice-activated command and control over portable media players and USB storage devices.
SIDE Focus is also focused on safety and has received 5-star safety ratings from the NHTSA in frontal crash tests for driver and passenger, and 4 of 5 stars in rollover tests.
Aggressively base-priced at $16,475, my test vehicle stickered out at $20,050, with the following upgrades: Power moonroof for $625; heated seats for $115; anti-lock brakes and traction control for $385; 6-CD/MP3 audiophile system fro $645; ambient interior lighting for $295; leather bucket seats for $695; Sirius Satellite Radio for $195 and destination and delivery charges of $620.
Ford has its focus on youth and economy with the 2008 Focus.
Visit www.CarlisleEvents.com for more on the automotive hobby.
Mike Blake, former editor of KIT CAR magazine, joined Carlisle Events as senior automotive journalist in 2004. He's been a "car guy" since the 1960s and has been writing professionally for about 30 years.
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