[rpvitiello]

anyway before the escort apral fools stuff...

It does seam ford ws somewhat trying to go after scion with funky styling, and the interior lighting, but they did not get it right at all...

IF they want to do that they need to ELMINATE 90% of the factory options to the car. Offer one trim level, and a choice of auto or manual, and make ALL other options dealer installed accessories. Just sell the thing in massive volume fully loaded and let people "customize" the car to make it look better etc...

Also i DID think ford should rename this car something else and make it their "value" scion fighter. Don't try and target it at the Civic etc... where it clearly can't compeat, and target it right at the "value" cars like scion...

Then ford could take the focus name, and do what saturn is doing. Import the current euro focus in limited volume (say 10-20,000 a year) price the car higher, and only sell it as a hatch back. This way they can still have a car for people that want hatchbacks and not leave a hole in their line up. IF the cheaper car goes well they can redesign it, or replace it with a b segmant car to continu after scion, and they can have the focus as there premium small car going after the Rabbit, Civic, ETC as the focus was designed to do.

I see NO reason why they can't do this. Unlike the mondeo/fusion the cars would not directally steal sales from each other since one car would be sedans/coupes, and the other could be hatchbacks and waggons. And they could both be targeted at different price brackets.