Saw the 2008

[shepski]

Dropped by two Ford dealers today, and had "success" at the second - Miller Brothers Ford in Ellicott City, MD. They have a blue 4-door sitting on their lot.

It was late (10pm), but I got a good, long look under the lights.

There are a few cars in the past decade that immediately come to my mind as just being completely "wrong" looking: the Pontiac Aztec, Saturn Ion, and the Toyota Echo. (Maybe the new Scion xD, too.) Add the 2008 Focus to the list.

It is as dumb-looking as Bill Ford (and that's saying a lot). I thought it would look better than its pics, but it's perhaps worse. Just an ungainly disaster. I didn't notice ONE nice exterior detail, nor one that didn't look cheap.

Although I couldn't open the doors (and about two minutes after I tried, a P.A. announcement saying something like, "security, investigate a silver Focus [my SVT] on main lot..." They must have read my thoughts of immolating the thing), I will say that the interior looked "ok" in the dark - certainly better than the lame-o 2005 redo.

But the sticker - like in the recent Car & Driver road test - was over $19,000!!! WHO in their right mind would buy that instead of, say, a 2.3 Mazda 3S? (Well... no one, of course.) Baffling.

I laughed at every Echo buyer a few years ago, thinking how they all could have bought a Focus instead. And I will laugh at every buyer of the new Focus, and think that they could have bought ANYTHING else...

I'll love my SVT until it dies, but Ford has completly lost me (and I'm sure many of you feel - or will soon feel - the same way). Try to avoid seeing this monstosity for as long as you can.

Hopefully, it will go the way of the Edsel. And fast.

The Focus is Dead! Long Live The MKI Focus!

[Sponsor]

[Turtle]

Wow. That bad, eh? I wasn't really impressed from the photos, but I had hoped it would look better in person. JUst more proof that Ford is trying to squeeze every last penny from this platform before they get rid of the Focus in the US.

[XxXREDZX4]

the what??? edsel...never heard of that...(i know "exactly" right?)

i have yet to see the new (and i use that term lightly) focus...but i'll have to test drive it to pass judgment on it...

[shepski]

<<JUst more proof that Ford is trying to squeeze every last penny from this platform before they get rid of the Focus in the US.>>

That's what I don't get - Ford could've saved a bundle in development costs just by doing some SIMPLE tweaks to the original MKI design - like Euro facelift lights and signal-less grille; different bumpers maybe; a few interior detail and/or color upgrades; maybe LED tails; new wheels, of course. Whatever, you know? (Even the 2005 facelift - which I hate as much as the 2008 - was unecessary and was the beginning of the downward spiral.)

I, for one, bought a used SVT because there wasn't anything NEW that I liked better (still isn't anything under $30K that I prefer). So they could've sold ME a new Focus, if there was one available along the lines of my simple suggestions above.

I really wonder how the numerous people who made the decisions at Ford the past few years got their jobs (besides Bill Ford, of course), much less how they keep them...

[XxXREDZX4]

ford made a huge mistake in financial choices...they overextended their budget with the 08 focus redesign and lost money, whereas they could have imported and used the euro focus here and it would have cost less...

[stivo]

If it actually cost less to bring the MkII focus to the states I am positive they would have.

The problem is why they have not found the way to make it cost efective to bring it here... GM and Chrysler have both made some major cost savings deciscions in the past couple weeks, maybe Ford will join them.

[SkaAddict]

Yeah, it seems like every dealer that has one only has an automatic 4-door...the dealer I used to take my car to for warranty service has a silver auto 4-door, I checked it out tonight, and maybe it was just the lack of lighting but it didn't look too bad...my thoughts upon seeing it in person were if they got rid of the razor grille, the chrome fender accent and had factory HID as an option (sans the stupid bars across the headlights) I could maybe see buying one if I was in the market for another underpowered four cylinder.

[XxXREDZX4]

Originally Posted by stivo

If it actually cost less to bring the MkII focus to the states I am positive they would have.

it would have been, had ford realized it. what meant was that ford thought the euro focus would be too expensive to import...but what happened was they spent too much on the redesign and found that it would have been cheaper to import and or use the euro chassie...i had a link to the page on motortrend or one of those sites that said it...but i can't find it.

[bigdaddyssvtf]

Originally Posted by shepski

There are a few cars in the past decade that immediately come to my mind as just being completely "wrong" looking: the Pontiac Aztec, Saturn Ion, and the Toyota Echo. (Maybe the new Scion xD, too.) Add the 2008 Focus to the list.


The Focus is Dead! Long Live The MKI Focus!

Amen brother...just saw a four door tonight. I thought they looked ugly in pictures but it looked even worse in person. I wouldn't care about how it drives or what features it has. It's too damn ugly to even consider driving it.

[Stuka]

Originally Posted by stivo

If it actually cost less to bring the MkII focus to the states I am positive they would have.

The problem is why they have not found the way to make it cost efective to bring it here... GM and Chrysler have both made some major cost savings decisions in the past couple weeks, maybe Ford will join them.

It would have been cheaper to bring the MkII focus here. Ford has already said this. The previous management is the one that redid the US '08 focus. The current management has said that since its done, they have to sell it, for 2 years. Then we get a C1 chassis based focus.

My next car (this spring sometime) will most likely be a Mazda3 (probably in the Speed variety), or a Mustang GT. But certainly NOT a focus :/