2000 Ford Focus Review
Our test Sony Edition Ford Focus had both available safety options - an anti-lock brake system for $400 and side air bags for $350. These were coupled with the mandatory dual front air bags.
Steering is dead-on and the braking, while not spectacular, is sufficient for a subcompact.
The Focus sedan is a tall car, but despite the added height, it never felt tipsy or anything less than a fine-handling small car. Safety is related to vehicle size, however, a fact that cannot be denied, and the tiny Focus does not want to take on the Ford Excursion in an accident scenario.
It's true. It's true. Size does matter.
Handling
The Focus is designed to replace the Escort/Tracer duo as Ford's subcompact for the world. The Tracer is gone; the Escort will follow after this year. But in designing the replacement, Ford took into account how Americans in particular have taken to sport utilities, where Ford leads all automakers in sales.
What makes those vehicles so popular? Certainly, it's not their offroad prowess. Most owners of sport utes never venture onto anything worse than a gravel road. At the basic level, the appeal seems to be found in high seating, lots of headroom and an overall spacious, in-control feeling.
So Ford made the Focus a full four inches taller than the car it replaces. The Focus footprint is small, making a nimble car that's easy to park. But the increased height makes all the difference in the world. Suddenly, there's lots of headroom. The feel is equal to that found in a much bigger car.
But here's where handling comes in: a taller car raises the center of gravity and affects handling. It can be quite an adverse effect. Sports cars get some of their handling prowess from their low height. Sport utilities lose major points here due to their tall profiles.
The Focus is a fine compromise. It rips around corners at any reasonable speed and never seems tipsy. The steering is very good, taking the Focus exactly where you point it. Braking is good enough to handle performance from the 130-horsepower engine.
Performance
Insufficient data was available from Ford to complete computerized performance testing.
But a Focus with its 130 horses scoots to 60 in well under 10 seconds. This is adequate to allow easy merging with traffic, reasonably quick starts from stoplights but not drag racing that Lexus in the next lane.
On the world scene, the Focus has performed extremely impressively in the World Rally Championship series.
There is currently no "performance" model Focus available - certainly not our tested Sony Edition - but one is coming.
Comfort
Ford Focus models are available in three body styles, a hatchback, sedan and wagon. The tested Sony Edition, characterized by a $1,595 stereo system - was a sedan.
As a matter of fact, to get our tester from its $13,565 base price to a final sticker of $19,005 involved putting just about every available option on the car. It made for a great little car, but you should know that it's not necessary to spend almost $20,000 for a fine Focus.
Among the options: An automatic transmission made city driving easy but added $815; a "comfort group" that included cruise control, a tilt steering wheel and front seat arm rest was $395; a spoiler and tachometer tacked on $375; and leather bucket seats were $695.
Two safety features - anti-lock brakes and side air bags - added another $750.
Sometimes, automakers strike deals with designers to slap on a prestige name, thus creating a more expensive, higher status vehicle. Eddie Bauer comes to mind for his deal with Ford. Just how much involvement the designer or company had is always a question. But there's no question about Sony's involvement in this Sony Edition and its Xplod system.
Open the trunk and you'll discover something no other trunk in any tested vehicle has contained: Two big, boombox-like speakers.
I hear you. Who needs 'em? I share your concern.
When Car Place readers were polled not long ago about the desirability and need for noise control laws to throttle rolling boom boxes, the results were overwhelming. Shut those things up!, you said. And I agree.
Every time that thump-thump-thump enters my vehicle from an adjacent one, I want to get out, rip open a door and stick an ice pick through every speaker in the offending vehicle.
I don't, of course. I smile, knowing the idiot inside that vehicle will start to lose his hearing in his early 40s. He'll end life stone-deaf. It's a just punishment for an aural vandal.
Listen, buster, your right to play your music at deafening volume ends at my ears!
What you do through your headphones is your business. Rap your little heart out. But what you do in public places is everyone's business. We do not have to tolerate ear rape. We should never have to listen to the strings of filth that your "music" consists of (you would be arrested for public profanity if you said what your speakers blast publicly). Your mind pollution is everyone's concern when you invade our space. Air space can and should be regulated. And, no question, we want laws that shut you up! If you don't do it on your own, we want you fined heavily for every offense. Sooner or later, you will get the message.
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So why was I so taken by the Sony Edition stereo system? It certainly wasn't because I have a hidden desire to break glass or initiate road rage in those around me.
No way will I assault my own ears and those of my neighbors or fellow travellers on the road. No way. But what the Sony Edition did in spades is provide a fidelity, a trueness of sound, that I'd rarely experienced in a standard stereo system from any automaker. There have been good ones, of course, but nothing quite like this Sony Edition.
Cruising the beaches after dark, I listened to 50s' music as I'd never heard it before. No AM radio sound. No single-speaker output. No. I was surrounded by sound, as if I were there, in the studio, with The Diamonds belting out "Little Darlin".
If you like music, and I do, then you will appreciate the incredible system found in this Sony Edition Focus.
You'll also appreciate everything else about this interior. It's ergonomically correct, all controls are at hand and the seats are very good. Cruising was a genuine pleasure. No effort. No sweat. Just fun.
Parting Shots
It's true, Bubba.
Not many people are aware of the fact that the Ford Focus is now the best seller in the world. Not only that, but it has received just about every accolade available, most recently being named North American Car of the Year by auto journalists, after taking the same honor in Europe and Canada.
I couldn't agree more.
In the under-$20,000 class, the Focus has joined the VW Beetle and PT Cruiser as highly desirable. Yes, it is that good.
And the Sony Edition is presently as good as it gets among Focus models. The hatchback is popular overseas and wagons are beginning to disappear from showrooms. But the sedan is the most practical Focus and the Sony Edition is the creme de la creme of Focus sedans.
