Twenty-two years in the past, Ford launched the compact household automotive generally known as the Focus, changing the legendary Ford Escort and filling a much-needed hole between the ‘supermini’ Fiesta and the mid-size (later full-size) Taurus. After the wild success of the Escort – promoting over 250,000 automobiles yearly via the 80s and 90s – the Focus had huge boots to fill, and Ford didn’t disappoint, creating arguably the perfect daily driver with the perfect stability of energy and enjoyable.

After a decade of robust gross sales, Ford shifted away from the European-designed, Volvo-powered mannequin and shifted the design and manufacture in-house, creating what would turn out to be the world’s highest-selling automotive and resulting in a resurgence of the new hatch section. This shift led to the creation of a now legendary efficiency mannequin; the Focus ST.

In 2018 Ford announced they were discontinuing all cars besides the Mustang and crossover Focus Active, then in 2019, after tariffs have been imposed on Chinese imports, Ford scrapped the Focus nameplate in North America totally. While it was nonetheless accessible abroad, specifically all through Europe, Ford has now confirmed the Focus will meet its finish in 2025, bringing a detailed to 2 (and a bit) a long time of compact, sporty enjoyable.

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The Ford Focus ST, A Compact Classic

The Ford Focus ST was initially launched in 2005 because the ZX4 ST, replacing the performance SVT model, the brainchild of Ford’s Special Vehicle Team – though it wouldn’t be till the third era in 2012 when the Focus ST could be upgraded from trim to a standalone mannequin. Ford’s Special Vehicle Team was behind fashions such because the SVT Lightning and Terminator SVT Cobra Mustang, so the Focus was in good palms on the time and this set the stage for the basic it was to turn out to be. Since 2005, Ford had been providing the Focus ST in Europe with a turbocharged five-cylinder Volvo engine, and whereas the North American mannequin’s engine was one cylinder and half a liter smaller, it pushed out 25 extra horsepower than its European counterpart.

Turbocharged Goodness Upgraded The Focus To Hot Hatch

The inventory 2012 Focus had modest energy to say the least, providing simply 160 horsepower from its 2.0-liter Duratec four-cylinder, the one engine on provide within the Focus on the time. Ford took this small however succesful Mazda-designed engine and added a turbocharger for the ST mannequin, pushing the facility as much as 252 horsepower with a handbook transmission, and heating the new hatch market.

In 2015, Ford added an excellent smaller engine for these with gas financial system in thoughts; a 1.0-liter three-cylinder with 123 horsepower, whereas on the opposite finish of the size, it formally unveiled the Focus RS which shortly launched to the highest of the new hatch world with 350 horsepower and torque-vectoring all-wheel-drive.

Performance Specifications

(Source: Car and Driver, Ford)

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Escorting Ford Through The 2000s

Following on from the Ford Escort was a tricky ask, given how successful the car had been within the compact market, and with some fashions fetching very high prices at auction years later, it’s clear folks nonetheless miss the automotive. Luckily for Ford, followers of the model shortly took to the Focus, with gross sales figures instantly hitting numbers much like the Escort at its prime.

Aside from an comprehensible dip throughout (and barely after) the worldwide monetary disaster in 2008, the Focus offered round 200,000 models yearly till it was discontinued by Ford in 2018, together with all different fashions that weren’t a Mustang. Despite this disappointing information for followers of the new hatch Focus ST, you may’t take away from the legacy it leaves behind as probably the most impactful compact household automobiles within the 2000s, main not solely to huge gross sales for Ford however a market shift in direction of potent hatchbacks with correct efficiency upgrades.

Highest Selling Car In The World

After a profitable launch within the early 2000s, Ford went from energy to energy with the compact Focus, and in each 2012 and 2013 turned the highest-selling car in the world with over a million fashions offered every year, partly on account of an explosion of demand in China following Ford’s enlargement there.

It was on the again of this stellar efficiency that Ford launched the Focus ST in North America, they usually did so on the excellent time; the Focus was in standard demand, scorching hatches have been making a return with fashions just like the Golf GTI and Civic Si placing a highlight on the category, and emissions rules have been beginning to come into the image, resulting in smaller extra environment friendly engines and a divide between smaller automobiles and bigger vehicles.

Turning A Compact Family Car Into A Performance Machine

Automotive Hall Of Fame, 2016:

It wasn’t only a turbocharger and a heap of additional energy that reworked the modest Focus into the monstrous Focus ST; the third era Focus (and the primary to be designed absolutely by Ford) was part of Ford’s new “One Ford” plan to supply ‘world cars’, slightly than have a number of variations throughout a number of markets. Stepping up from the inventory 2.0-liter four-cylinder with 160 horsepower, the ST introduced that as much as 252 horsepower and 270 pound-feet of torque with a turbocharger and stored the six-speed handbook transmission as normal, but nonetheless maintained impressive fuel economy at 27 miles per gallon.

While solely the Focus RS affords torque-vectoring and all-wheel-drive, the Focus ST has Torque Vectoring Control to regulate the velocity and energy on the entrance wheels to maximise cornering and scale back understeer. Pair that with AdvanceTract digital stability management, MacPherson strut front suspension, and Control Blade multilink rear suspension, and also you get a speedy little beast that virtually glues to the bottom whereas cornering.

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The Model That Gave Us The RS

Given the wild success of the Focus and the efficiency ST mannequin, it’s no shock that Ford determined to ramp things up with the RS, taking an already quick and agile scorching hatch and including simply what each fanatic would need; extra energy, and all-wheel-drive. Not solely did the Focus RS carry the identical 2.3-liter EcoBoost engine because the Mustang, nevertheless it added Drift Mode and Launch Control as a transparent message to drivers – it is a automotive you’ll need on a monitor.

The automotive was instantly troublesome to purchase with many orders and restricted provide, and the MSRP was already high at simply over $40,000, particularly when in comparison with the Focus ST on the time, which started at a mere $23,700 – so buying a Focus RS was a tricky resolution for anybody who wasn’t an fanatic.

A Very Hot Hatch That Kept Up With The Big Guns

Launching itself immediately to the highest of the new hatch class, the Focus RS squeezed 350 horsepower and 350 pound-feet of torque out of the EcoBoost engine (vs the Mustang’s 315) and managed a 0-60 half a second quicker than the Mustang, placing it on par with the Porsche 911’s 4.6 seconds. The Focus RS dominated the new hatch market till its retirement in 2018, and but, when Car and Driver put it up against the Golf R and Subaru WRX STI, they discovered that, except you actually thrash it, the driving expertise shouldn’t be too completely different to the Focus ST. This reveals simply how robust the Focus ST was as a automotive in a market of small, underpowered household automobiles, and regardless of its compact measurement managed to maintain up with fashions that on paper ought to have outperformed it.

Performance Specs

Source: Edmunds, Ford, Porsche

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Soon To Be Gone But Not Forgotten

The Focus ST was a automotive on the leading edge, and in the event you look again on the options it included at its launch in 2012, you’ll be shocked that it has been over a decade. As the Focus instantly topped gross sales internationally, and the Focus ST was met with rave critiques, what was it precisely that made the Focus ST simply so good? Ford’s SYNC system introduced options like voice management, navigation, hands-free calling, and wi-fi hotspot, all via an eight-inch contact display.

Active parking help can reverse parallel park for you, automated wipers are a pleasant contact in consistently altering climate, and Ford’s Active Grille Shutter System can open and shut the entrance grille to enhance gas financial system or enhance efficiency by mechanically adjusting airflow.

No Sign Of A Hybrid Or Electric Future For The Focus

While the Focus left the US in 2018, Ford has continued producing the mannequin for the worldwide market, however 2025 will see the top of the Focus at its meeting plant in Saarlouis, Germany. Ford is in reality seeking alternate opportunities for the manufacturing facility that would embody promoting it. It’s a disgrace to see the top of the Ford scorching hatches regardless of a push into EVs and hybrids.

Ford hasn’t given any indicator that it’ll provide up an electrical model of the Focus ST. For the time being, lovers can nonetheless choose a used one for an affordable worth with models averaging around the $19,000 mark, and for the cash, you’re nonetheless an important buy in order for you a automotive that may day by day drive you in consolation and nonetheless tackle larger sports activities automobiles on a monitor.