2008 Ford Focus

It’s conventional wisdom that no car company makes money building small cars in North America. But, when Ford took the wraps off its reworked Focus compacts, there was renewed hope as high fuel prices have made smaller cars fashionable again. Ditching their wagon and hatchbacks, the handsome new Focus sedan and decidedly sporty coupe looked better equipped to do battle with segment leaders Civic and Corolla. So, is the new Focus ready to make some hay?

With gas prices and small car sales both up, Ford is counting on the new 2008 Focus compacts to boost the brand’s appeal, especially to young first time buyers.

To get their attention, Ford has given the Focus a new look, and new technology.

Styling is a Ford family mixture: the larger Fusion sedan, a bit of Mustang, and even a hint of truck.

There’s a chrome thick-bar grille, prominent bumpers, barrel shaped fog lamps, and headlamp housings that sweep up into the hood and fenders.

The flanks bare the sharp character lines of a reverse side scoop, headed by a chromed fake vent. Rear styling, on the other hand, is broad, flat, and rather generic.

Base wheels are 15-inch, with 16-inch rims on our top grade SES test car, all with tire pressure monitoring.

All the details translate slightly better to the coupe. Still, it’s a surprisingly conservative, American look that might be a tough sell to young buyers who so readily embraced the previous car.

The interior of the new Focus is very clean with peaceful multi-color ambient lighting available. It’s laid out more like an upscale European car, complete with large round and rectangular switchgear, and a dash top status screen. Gauges again go for a Mustang theme.

Two-row head curtain airbags are standard, as is a CD/MP3 audio with speed sensitive volume control, and aux input for MP3 players.  For hands free use of digital devices such as iPods, memory sticks, and cell phones, buyers can opt for Sync; a voice command interface from Microsoft, that will even read you your text messages.

Our 4-door’s rear seat was fine for all but the tallest. And, the split folding seatbacks increase trunk space, which is already a sizable 13.8 cubic-feet.

Both sedan and coupe are fitted with a carryover 2.0-liter twin-cam 4. 2008 ratings are 140 horsepower and 132 pound-feet of torque. Gearbox choices are a 5-speed manual or our car’s optional 4-speed automatic.

We dropped it into drive, for a pokey 0-to-60 time of 10.1 seconds. The quarter-mile strolled by in 17.5 seconds at 82 miles-per-hour.

While it feels peppy off the line, the 2.0 revs slowly. However, noise and vibration are about the same as a Civic or Corolla. The automatic shifts slowly, too, with more rev drop off than we’d like.

On the flip side are good Government Fuel Economy Ratings of 24 city/33 highway. We were pleased with 30 miles-per-gallon of regular gas. Its Energy impact score is also an earth-friendly 12.2 barrels of oil per year.

We also were impressed on how the Focus takes corners. It’s no slot car, but in our slalom tests proved to be a rather entertaining little driving machine with easy turn-ins and only mild push.

Brakes were adequate for the occasion: disc and drums with optional ABS. Stops from 60 averaged the 132 feet. Chassis feel is very solid with good pedal feedback.

On everyday roads, the Focus delivers a most comfortable ride, even over choppy pavement, so all-in-all, commutes will be quite comfortable.

Pricing for this new Focus compact is also comfortable: $14,995 for the S-grade sedan; $15,995 for SE-grade; and our top of the line SES starts at $16,995. Coupe prices are $300 less. Fully loaded, our test car wears a $20,200 sticker.

The 2008 Ford Focus is a capable compact with many modern and attractive features, including economy and price. It’s a solid if unremarkable buy. While not a challenger for the segment’s best, yet, it does show that Ford has refocused its attention on the car market. And, we think, in the end, they will profit greatly for it.