[Honkeytonk Monkey]

There is almost nothing I like about the new car.

-Biggest surprise. As hatchbacks are sfinally gaining a foothold in the market, Ford decides people would rather have a tall coupe with a useless trunk. Sure the trunk may actually be big, but with an opening that small, you can't actually put anything in it bigger than a suitcase on it's side through the opening. I had the same complaint about the MK4 Jetta and the Cobalt Coupe.

-Gone are the trademark bumped out fenders the Focus is instantly recognizable for, in thier place are mishapen slabs which have no flow at all with the car's lines. The Focus is supposed to be edgy, this screams "non intimidating design" The headlights are borderline hideous and the big plastic looking square foglights look crooked from any angle but dead on. The chrome grille isn't bad but you can see the mesh underneath which begs the question, why the heck didn't they put in a third bar? The tail lights look like cheap APC units that if I were to install on my car then post in Rigz, I'd be told should be thrown out.


- The coupe's profile which i was hoping would resemble a slightly tall coupe looks more like a last gen Hyundai Accent coupe with a droopy Sentra ass. The creases they added to the front and rear bumpers only have the effect of making the car look narrower and taller which doen't help. I have no idea what they are doing with that wierd chrome thing on the fenders that completely breaks up the styling line on the doors of the car. It almost looks like 3 teams were designing this car at the same time, each team took 1/3 of the car and none of them ever talked to the others. This is the mess they came up with.

I think the interior is the car's only strong point, but I have problems here too. From the shots, it looks like solid plastic, which I am sure will be cheap feeling solid plastic. If the radio sucks (and all factory radios do), well that's just too bad because it's scattered all over the center console. And looking at the dark interior shot, I see panel fit and finish has not improved since the escort was released in the 80s.

Huge thumbs down from me the Focus is dead. This thing is disgusting.