Official 2008 Ford Focus Pics and Information!

[Black331]

This one..

[halftoned]

Originally Posted by bbychvz

well thats better, i'll take one


Bobby

i'm glad someone liked my chop. i'm starting to like the car more that i play with it. give it some time...

[blackice]

ugly ass Saturn. Leave it to Ford NA to create a hideous Ford. No wonder their stocks are so low. I cant belive they acually thought this would attract younger drivers. This is disapointing. I hope that the SVT or ST will be a completely diff look to it (exterior wise) The interior can stay. Its looks good.

I would like to hear the input of the engineers of this Focus.

[Ledjar]

i actually kinda like it. the interior looks really cool.

i think it kinda looks a bit like a Tc not an ion, but really alot of the compact cars these days look pretty similar, but haven't all cars made in the same year always kinda looked the same...

[screwdiver]

Originally Posted by rejectZX3

I like these ...

For some reason these remind me of the ford gt wheel

[rejectZX3]

Well .. here's a shot at appeasing some of the complaints ...

[zurno]

Originally Posted by Black331

And its exactly what makes it look like an Ion.






This is why..



http://www.blueovalnews.com/index.ph..._articleid=448

ok, I guess it looks more like an ion 2? (whatever they called it when the coupe came out) when you have the flat bottom

if the top was flat, then the bottom would lookbetter flat (and look like every other car out there), but it has that area that juts out at the top outer corner, so I think the bottom cutout needs to stay, either that or cut of that inner turn and skinny up those headlamps a bit

[STANG302]

Originally Posted by halftoned

figured since theres no way to change what ford plans to do for design, why not start concepting what we can do to it...

started to play around alittle... chopped the grille, tinted the windows, vented the hood, swapped out the headlights, adapted the bumper, and put svt wheels on it..

I like it. And with potential like this it could be my next car. Depending if they make a ST version with the 2.3. It should do fine filling in the gap till we get the next world platform in 2010.

Originally Posted by Black331

There is no more SVT, the last thing they had their hands on was the GT500, it's dead, so is performance at Ford unless you want a Mustang.

You have no idea whats going on with SVT. They are not dead they just restructured them selves to be more profitable. The GT500 was the first of many to come after this restructure. Who do you think is doing the work on the Hertz and Shelby GT mustangs! But give it time and there will be more to fallow.

[SilverFocusZX3]

I have to admit the RS wheels help this car GREATLY!

[rejectZX3]

now with carbon fiber! heh *shrug*

[SilverSVT]

Originally Posted by sixt5cuda

I didn't see anyone mention, how much the sedan looks like a Saturn L200:



Not that is is a bad thing, to look like a D-segment sedan from Germany.

WTF are you smoking?

[Garrick]

Two words: Ford's dead.

First, ditching the hatch and wagon. I guess if you want reasonable utility behind a Blue Oval, you'll have to get an Edge, Freestyle, or truck. No thanks. I was able to stay under the FoMoCo corporate umbrella by going with Mazda, but I don't know what the Ford nameplate is supposed to mean anymore.

Second, I'm usually not one to care much about style, but I was sickened at what a discontinuous mishmash of stylistic crap this car is. This writeup was so sad, it was funny: http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do...cleId=119104#1

I'm sure the car will still be a pleasure to drive, and that's important to me, but who's actually going to buy this car? I suppose I'll be seeing plenty in rental fleets, so maybe I'll drive one someday.

At least it's being offered with a manual tranny...

[Black331]

Originally Posted by STANG302

You have no idea whats going on with SVT. They are not dead they just restructured them selves to be more profitable. The GT500 was the first of many to come after this restructure. Who do you think is doing the work on the Hertz and Shelby GT mustangs! But give it time and there will be more to fallow.

I don't? I was at SEMA and they had zero presence there, there is zero indication from Ford that they are working on anything SVT. People in the know say there's nothing going on either, what do you have?

Yea, nobody knows who is doing the work on the Shelby Mustangs, it's a big secret, I hope we find out who is building these Shelby Mustangs soon...

[Thameth]

Originally Posted by Garrick

Two words: Ford's dead.

First, ditching the hatch and wagon. I guess if you want reasonable utility behind a Blue Oval, you'll have to get an Edge, Freestyle, or truck. No thanks. I was able to stay under the FoMoCo corporate umbrella by going with Mazda, but I don't know what the Ford nameplate is supposed to mean anymore.

Second, I'm usually not one to care much about style, but I was sickened at what a discontinuous mishmash of stylistic crap this car is. This writeup was so sad, it was funny: http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do...cleId=119104#1

I'm sure the car will still be a pleasure to drive, and that's important to me, but who's actually going to buy this car? I suppose I'll be seeing plenty in rental fleets, so maybe I'll drive one someday.

At least it's being offered with a manual tranny...

First line in the above article....

The rebodied and reconfigured 2008 Ford Focus looks as if it were caught in the middle of the design-studio equivalent of a food fight

[bustonit]

The aftermarket won't touch it being only a 2 year production run. With a new front end, aftermarket headlights, and body color grill....maybe there's a chance.

Those fender gills are st st st st stupid but ma ma ma ma momma said they look like angle wings bringing smiles to all that buy.

[blucarz]

Eh - I don't think I like it.........

[wilko]

Late to the party...

Any ways I really like the new styling. Caint wait to see it in person. And cant wait to drive one.

[sixt5cuda]

Originally Posted by DisrupTer911

i was seriously hoping the new coupe was going to be a sexy lil car...unfortunetally it's an abomination of the Focus name exterior looks wise.

I don't care how much better this car performs and how great that duratec engine is...ppl don't see that kind of thing when they just notice your car on the street...they see something ugly.

and I don't want a GTI i want a Focus, I shouldn't be forced to go to another brand of car manufacturer just b/c they offer something that Ford does but won't sell us.

I may be resilient to change and being nostalgic as well, but call me crazy, I <3 the 00-04 style b/c it was edgy, it was away from the norm, it didn't have the same lines as every other car on teh market and it sure as hell didn't appear to be an old lady's saturn remake

I'm sorry but I'll be sticking to the 00-04 used cars and then dipping into the 05 redesign because even that body style has more flair and edgyness to it then this piece.

I'm seriously at a loss for words really tho about how much i'm dissappointed in the '08 body styling, performance might be up to par, and the interior is nice but i could do w/o the mood lighting LEDs or that fancy SYNC that I'd probably never even bother using if they offered something with more an eye catching body style that was completely stripped.

The way the aftermarket is for the 05 redesign front end I can only imagine how much more miniscule teh aftermarket will become for the 08 styling...I'm gonna feel bad for those ppl who will want to mod them..

anyway, I digress and I'll go my way being nostalgic in the Rigz gallery......

I do like the looks of the new coupe and sedan. I think it is, at least partly, because there seems to be more curvature to the panels.

I am in agreement on the GTI. In spite of VW's somewhat poor quality reputation, I have considered the GTI. Unfortunately, if I want a VW hatch under $20K, it has a 5-cylinder engine and 5 doors instead of 3. Want TDI? Any body style you want, as long as it has two doors on each side.

The new Focus certainly has me considering the 00-04, and maybe 05-07, because I really like the idea of a $15K 3-door. I would prefer to buy a new ford in this configuration, but it seems they no longer consider that market viable.

Of course, if the aftermarket is quick about coming up with a dark cover to put over the shiny silver dash, I might be able to live with a coupe. The SYNC system would definitely be something I would buy, that way I wouldn't have to try and retrofit the iPod controls from my current Alpine head unit.

Something I saw mentioned on Jalopnik.com. Where is the locking gas door?

[sixt5cuda]

Originally Posted by rejectZX3

Well .. here's a shot at appeasing some of the complaints ...

The original of this is a bad looking image. I really hope the B-pillars don't come out like this image, with two different colors on them.

[focaljet-1]

From the Edmund's article:

Certainly the chassis has not become worse over time, but the chassis of competitors have improved.

O RLY? Like all the twist-beam rear axles on the majority of them?

[aaron_zx3]

I have to agree with the Saturn thing. It was the first thing I thought when I first saw it. But I'm still impressed and I think they did a great job with this design. It's about time FORD!

[hatched]

Originally Posted by rejectZX3

now with carbon fiber! heh *shrug*

I can't help but see Escort from behind the door on the coupe. However, I don't think it's unattractive. I just keep thinking Escort (more precisely European Escort).

[mwfocus]

Stang302 wrote....
"You have no idea whats going on with SVT. They are not dead they just restructured them selves to be more profitable. The GT500 was the first of many to come after this restructure. Who do you think is doing the work on the Hertz and Shelby GT mustangs! But give it time and there will be more to fallow.[/quote]"

Svt is dead. There are very few who want tuner cars anymore. We do who frequent this site but not the general public. The GT was designed before the restructureing. The new versions of the mustang are being developed internaly or outside tuners contracted by ford. Not svt