I went to look at the 08 SES sedan they have in pembroke last night, as well as the regular SE one they just took off the truck. The SES I looked at is black on black leathers with accent stitching, the larger Euro rims, no sunroof, SYNC, heated seats, the interior accent lighting package, etc etc. When I started it, it certainly sounded like a Focus, and I liked that. I didn't bother to drive it, as I want to have an unbiased opinion on the driving dynamics of the car when I take one out with my gf, who'd be the one purchasing anyways.
I agree with some of you that the interior in these new Focus's are very hawt indeed, especially ones like the double black one I looked at last night. There are many styling cues from the new Mondeo in the UK, as well as some mustang and thunderbird, etc etc. The interior looks richer/more valuable than the previous genereations, and I think it's fair to say that they look better inside than the Dodge Caliber or Avenger, and absolutely BLOW AWAY the Echo, Yaris, and other asian cars.
I'll go and try one or both of them out with my gf this wkd, and leave a detailed review about them...
L8tz
Ok, so we drove the black on black SES Sport Sedan...and what do I think about it? Well, let's see...
The Interior is awesome on the SES. That's all there is to it. The leathers look decent, and add a richness to the interior. Besides the leather, other nice features included that the front seats were/are heated, there are HVAC and stereo controls on the steering wheel, the stock stereo with Sirius sounds very nice, has that cool SYNC system, provision for bluetooth, voice command of the different media types (even commanding an iPod or blackberry verbally), an easily visable information center in the top center of the dash, etc etc. The appearance of the guages themselves are nice, nice colours, nice fonts, and the blue backlighting is a modernized step up from the ancient ford green. Right off the bat, the interior of the 08 Focus has the interior of other cars in it's class beat hands down (with maybe a Mazda3 being the only exception). I think the interior is likely what will be the main selling point of these cars, or at least for a lot of potential buyers.
So, how does it drive? Well, we could only drive one with an Autotragic, but that's ok as that's what my Missus wants (and she's the one shopping for a new car anyways...she said I get to keep the Mustang...yay!). The auto is smooth, quiet, and seems to keep the car in it's effective torque range most of the time, unless you are bogged down in traffic. It's one of the better auto's I've driven in the compact car class. This is the first Foci that I've driven with the Duratec 20 in it, and I will admit that it feels like it has just as much willingness to pull/go as the Zetec in my 01 had. Only thing is, I didn't get to see what it was actually capable of, as the car only had 95km's on it, and I didn't want to harm the engine by running the bags off of it. I can say that these cars will definately blow the doors off a Echo or Yaris, and likely a Fit as well. Besides being quick, they are quiet too...even more quiet than my mustang, and I think the stereo system benefits from this as well.
In terms of the steering and handling...it's still got that quickness in reaction that the Focus has always built a rep on. No, it's not as fast/responsive as a modded ZX3 or SVTF, but it's still pretty damned good. The suspension is taught, yet forgiving on rough pavement and crossing railroad tracks. I think they didn't bugger up the suspension at all on these cars. It's very well suited to realworld driving and driving conditions, but does so with fun. The steering is very responsive, accurate, and feels really well weighted in your hand (it feels kinda heavy actually, rather than overboosted...I like it). The car I drove came with Pirelli P6's, which I know aren't exactly the be-all and end-all of tires, but even in some mild rain, the car held the road very well. The brakes feel confident too, just as good, or better even than the 1st gen foci.
There were some styling things about the car that my gf didn't like, and that was the spelled out name/word "Focus" in large chrome letters across the trunklid, as well as "Focus" being on the guages and on the passenger side dash. She said she's pretty confident that SHE won't forget what she's driving...lol, and she'd likely debage the huge focus emblem on the trunklid, and put the older version one in the bottom left corner instead. She also didn't like the cheap flat black plastic on the window frames, etc. With that being said though, we went and looked at other cars from other automakers that have the same thing, so she said seeing that, she could learn to live with it, or forget about it.
Now, here's one of the better things about the 08's....an SE sedan will run you just over $20,000, and the more ore less loaded SES sport sedan will run you about $24,600. That's more than 4K less then sticker on a dodge caliber SXT, and more than 6K less than an R/T. It's also less money, and more car for the money than cars from Toyota or Honda. I think that we could get the SES sport for even less if we opted to NOT have the ambient lighting package, and a couple of other items too. She said that she would likely wanna wait until 08 though and buy one on the family pricing plan with low interest.
Anywhoo, the cars really aren't so bad, and I'm sure the aftermarket will quickly and easily fix any weirdness in the car's appearance.
L8tz
So, it sounds like the 08 is an improvement on the 07. Still not the car we want, unless we move to Europe. However, it still looks like something my grandmother would drive.
Please note to all, I'm at the age where grandchildren are not too far off in the future, but, unless they re-do the grille, I won't be buying one.
They stopped making Echos 3 years ago and replaced them with the yaris........just pointing that out.
I dont thinkt he fit or yaris is the focus's direct competition either.
Ford festiva would def be a better comparision to those smaller cars.
i saw an 08 focus for the first time in person last night. it was a silver car so the side chrome thingies weren't that obvious. i don't think i would purchase it but to the casual observer definitely looks a different car from the 00-07 models