First generation of Ford Focus
The Ford Focus (first generation) is a compact car that was manufactured by Ford in Europe from 1998 to 2004 and by Ford in North America from 1998 to 2007. Ford began sales of the Focus to Europe in July 1998 and in North America during 1999 for the 2000 model year. Manufacturing in Argentina continued until 2008, and it was still on sale in Brazil until 2009.
In Europe and South Africa, the Focus replaced the various Ford Escort models sold in those markets. In Asia and Australia, it replaced the Ford Laser.
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Design and engineering.
Codenamed C170 during its development, the original Focus took its eventual name from a Ghia concept car which was shown at the Geneva Motor Show in 1991. Certain elements of the design had been seen even earlier in prototypes used by Ford to demonstrate forthcoming safety features, such as the eye-level rear lighting clusters. As a continuation of Ford's New Edge styling philosophy, first seen in the Ford Ka in 1996, and Ford Cougar in 1998, the Focus's styling was often described as polarising. The styling had been overseen by Jack Telnack and executed by Claude Lobo and Australian designer, John Doughty, concluding in January 1996 upon program approval.
The decision to name the new car the Ford Focus was made in early 1998, as Ford had been planning to keep the "Escort" nameplate for its new generation of small family cars. A last minute problem arose in July 1998 when a Cologne court, responding to a case brought by the publishers Burda, ordered Ford to avoid the name "Focus" for the German market cars since the name was already taken by the publisher's "Focus" magazine. This eleventh hour dispute was overcome, however, and the car was launched without a different "German market" name. The Focus once again represented an attempt by Ford to introduce a truly "world car" that could be sold in disparate markets with little modification. Previous attempts to achieve this had met with limited success - the concept for the original 1981 Escort had infamously mutated into two entirely different cars for Europe and North America with only superficial similarities between the two. Ford had tried again with the 1993 Mondeo and Contour/Mystique but the two variants still had too many differences to be called a true single car for both American and European consumption.
The Ford Focus was officially revealed at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1998.
Design.
Focus models had been designed under the directorship of Richard Parry-Jones and were noted at introduction for their styling, class-leading rear suspension and tall interior packaging  – as well as a stiff and light body structure, low-friction steering and suspension, and extensive safety and convenience features including driver and passenger airbags, available head-and-chest side air bags, rear ISOFIX child-safety seat attachments, safety belt system with pre-tensioners and load-limiting retractors, battery saver to automatically switch off lights after 10 minutes, interior light dimming feature, and flip-up/flat-folding rear seat cushions.
Styling.
The Focus' styling, often noted as polarizing, was marketed by Ford as "New Edge" design. The design language had been overseen by Jack Telnack and Claude Lobo and executed by Australian designer, John Doughty. In 2000, Karl Brauer, writing for Edmunds.com described the styling: "While ergonomically sound, the Focus' interior, like its exterior, displays much of Ford's "New Edge" philosophy that had editors split on loving or hating it." Sherri Koucky, writing for MachineDesign.com said the styling "mixes round shapes with funky geometric ones and adds sharp angles, somehow making them all work together." James R. Healey, writing for USA Today, called the styling a "collision of curves and lines." After the international Ford Focus, which shared styling with North American models, had won the prestigious European Car of the Year (1999), William Diem of the New York Times wrote, "To some extent, the prize vindicates Ford's risky design for the Focus, especially the "New Edge" styling -- a combination of straight lines, curves and planes."
Rear suspension.
Engineers for the Focus, including Richard Parry-Jones, developed a class-leading, space-saving independent multi-link rear suspension, marketed as "Control Blade" suspension, combining the packaging of a trailing arm, with the geometry of a double wishbone suspension. The system was developed from that used in the "CDW27" Ford Mondeo estate, but with various modifications to make it simpler and cheaper to build and therefore economically viable on a mass-market vehicle.
Where many competitors in the compact class, or small family car (European) class, used the less expensive semi-independent twist-beam rear suspension, "Control Blade" offered enhanced elasto-kinematic performance, i.e., strong body control, sharp and accurate steering regardless of the car's attitude, and an absorbent and quiet ride over bumps.
Unlike conventional multi-link suspension, "Control Blade" features a wide, simple, uniform thickness, pressed steel trailing arm with hub carrier – taking the place of two longitudinal locating rods, eliminating an expensive cast knuckle, and offering the same level of body control – with a lower center of gravity, reduced road noise, and at lower production cost. The long rear lateral arm controls toe, a pair of shorter front lateral arms, vertically above each other, control the camber, and the "Control Blade" reacts to brake and traction loads.
In testing the suspension in 2000, Motor Trend writer Jack Keebler noted "The Focus' average speed of 62.6 mph through our slalom makes it faster around the cones than a $62,000 Jaguar XJ8L and a $300,000 Bentley Continental. The impression is of having plenty of wheel travel for gobbling the larger stuff and big-car, full-frame isolation when encountering expansion joints and smaller road imperfections." Engineers also worked to improve the front suspension, removing sticking and friction (aka "stiction") from each component.
Following the 1998 introduction of the "Control Blade" suspension and its popularization by the Focus, other manufacturers (e.g., Volkswagen with the Golf V) began offering multi-link design rear suspensions in the compact class, or small family car (European) class.
Tall packaging.
Focus engineers developed a new interior packaging for the car's class, with a computer-modeled interior, long wheelbase, tall doors, raised roofline, increased passenger and cargo volume, raised rear seating and raised H-point front seating providing higher sight lines and increased rear footroom. James R. Healey, writing for USA Today, said "Focus is bigger inside than cars much larger outside." Ford later marketed the high H-point seating as "Command Seating," noting that "the higher the H-Point, the higher you ride in the car, and in some cases, the more comfortable you feel behind the wheel".
Markets.
Europe (1998–2005).
Manufacturing.
Historically, the Saarlouis, Valencia, and Halewood plants had produced the Escort, however the Focus was only produced at Saarlouis and Valencia since Halewood was to be switched over to production of the Jaguar X-Type. However the sixth and final generation of the Escort remained in production in Halewood until 2000 as a budget alternative to the Focus, and the van versions continued until 2002 until its replacement by the Focus-based Ford Transit Connect.
The Focus production also took place in Santa Rosa, Philippines (though it was only for export and never offered in the Philippine domestic market); General Pacheco, Argentina; Chungli City, Taiwan and Vsevolozhsk, Russia.
2001 facelift (Mk1.5).
The Mk 1 Focus facelift in late 2001 included:
A new flexfuel engine was introduced, based on the European Zetec 1.6 L version. This could use both gasoline and bioethanol, but was only available on the Swedish market. This version is still available in some countries despite the advent of an all-new Mk 2 Focus.
North America (2000–2007).
Ford began marketing the Focus in October 1999 for the 2000 model year initially as a 3-door hatchback, 4-door sedan and 5-door wagon – with a 5-door hatchback debuting for the 2002 model year at the Canadian International AutoShow in Toronto.
The Focus became one of the ten best-selling cars in America shortly after its introduction.
Engines included a , Duratec 20 dual-overhead-cam, inline-four cylinder engine (PZEV models have 10mm lift and much lower 2 Deg overlap camshafts to reduce NOX emissions, lowering HP to 127hp) replacing both the base , single-overhead-cam inline-four and the Zetec DOHC inline-four, while a Duratec 23 DOHC inline-four engine derived from the Duratec 20 family was available in all 50 states for the ZX4 ST. The Duratec 23 has a larger displacement and performance-tuned exhaust, while in California, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont and Maine, the Duratec 23E was also available, qualifying the Focus as a Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle (PZEV). Manual transmission was now listed as standard equipment rather than a delete option on wagons.
Body styles and trims.
On 2005 and 2006 models in the US and Canada, the second generation Focus received a body-configuration badging (e.g., ZX3, ZX4, ZX5, ZXW) along with separate badging to designate trim levels SE and SES trim; there was no trim badge for the S trim level. The body configuration badging were deleted from the liftgates/trunklids of 2007 models, the trim badging remained.
2005–2007 trim designations
Debut marketing.
Targeting Generation X and Generation Y in the Focus marketing campaign at its North American introduction, Ford created a now defunct youth-destination website (www.focus247.com), aired 64 live television spots featuring comedian Annabelle Gurwitch beginning September 6, 1999, during the MTV Video Music Awards, featured the Focus in co-sponsoring Ricky Martin's Livin La Vida Loca North American tour (September 1999), and developed a strategic partnership with the WB Network show "Dawson's Creek" – including a private live concert event (November 1999), featuring of the Focus in two "Dawson's Creek" episodes, and a Focus signed by the "Dawson's Creek" cast auctioned on Amazon.com.
In January 2001, Ford partnered with Atom Films and J. Walter Thompson (now JWT) to create three short films featuring the Ford Focus. Costing $80,000 the films were later shown at the Sundance Film Festival and on Atom Films' web site. In "Little Man on Campus," the lead male, undersized, uncoordinated, who had trouble living up to his
father's hopes, gets a Ford Focus from his parents and then makes a varsity sports team, wins 'the girl' and finally carries a squad of cheerleaders in the Focus. The film features a cameo appearance by Barry Livingston, who played "Ernie" in the TV show "My Three Sons". Another of the films was titled "The Kiss." The third film entitled "gulp" and by director Jason Reitman was selected to premiere in the 'Official Sundance Screening Room'. The film depicted the efforts of a young man to save his tropical fish. All three films were available for viewing at a now defunct web site, www.focusinfilm.com.
Marketing packages At introduction, Ford offered five specialized packages for the Focus targeting the youth market marketed as "Tailored For You" kits, allowing buyers to customize their car's interior:
Special editions.
Sony: Ford marketed 7000 examples of the Sony Limited Edition in January 2000 featuring an AM/FM CD receiver with wireless remote, four red and black three-way speakers (one pair in each door), trunk mounted 10-inch subwoofer. Exterior colors were Rainforest Green, Infra-Red, Pitch Black, and Going Platinum, each with an MSRP of $15,535. 
Kona: the Kona Mountain Bike Edition (May 2000, 5000 examples), featuring an "Out of Bounds" Kona bike, bolt-on bike rack, nylon washable seat covers, unique colors Dirt Metallic and Rainforest Green, unique side moldings with molded-in Kona Moto logo and bike tire treads; 16-inch six-spoke machined aluminum wheels and heavy-duty black rubber floor mats, also with Kona Moto logo and bike tire treads
Street: the Street Edition (September 2000) with European suspension, black trim, 16-inch polished aluminum wheels, a 6-disc CD changer, leather-wrapped steering wheel. On the exterior, the front chin, rocker panels, bodyside moldings and lower rear fascia were black, while exterior colors were Infra-Red, Egg Yolk Yellow and Malibu Blue. The models used same springs, dampers and anti-roll bars found in the European Focus. Interior details included sport bucket seats with diamond, silver-masked instrument cluster, radio bezel, door accents and a silver shift knob. 7,500 total Street Editions were manufactured, approximately 85 percent of them were made as sedans ($15,750 MSRP), the remaining models as wagons ($17,745 MSRP).
S2: The Focus S2 (2001), available only in the three-door ZX3 model, featured European-tuned suspension, grey body trim with unique front spoiler and rocker panels, color-keyed bodyside moldings and S2 badging, rear spoiler, six-spoke 16-inch aluminum wheels and chrome exhaust tip, six-disc in-dash CD changer, sport bucket seats with diamond-patterned inserts, and exterior colors including CD silver, Sangria Red and a Focus Liquid Grey.
Mach Audio: The Focus MACH Audio ZTS