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"Compromise sucks. It&amp;#039;s half-sandwiches and cups of soup for lunch. It&amp;#039;s O&amp;#039;Doul&amp;#039;s and cubic zirconia and &amp;quot;staycations.&amp;quot; It&amp;#039;s good enough, passable and okay. But it&amp;#039;s never enough.   Or, then again, maybe it is.        2013 Ford Focus ST vs. 2012 Volkswagen GTI vs. 2012 Mazdaspeed 3    This is a battle of the hardcore, turbocharged compromises. But over three days of blasting through southern Ohio in late summer, they never felt like halfmeasures or flabby pretenders. There&amp;#039;s hero in their souls, even if their sheet metal is blisteringly ordinary and there are baby-seat tethers in back. They made rushing through cornfields feel like a gallop through the Alps.        2013 Ford Focus ST vs. 2012 Volkswagen GTI vs. 2012 Mazdaspeed 3    Yeah, the new 2013 Ford Focus has 252 bhp, but\u2014like all three cars here\u2014wrong-wheel drive. Like its competitors, the Mazdaspeed3 has a slick 6-speed manual transmission and room for a week&amp;#039;s groceries. And under the sporty trim, trick seats and thick, leather-wrapped steering wheel, the Volkswagen GTI is, like the other two, based on a commodity-grade commuter car. They&amp;#039;re affordable because they have to be; all start at around $24,000, because who wants a $40,000 hatchback? They&amp;#039;re the All-Stars of compromise.        2013 Ford Focus ST vs. 2012 Volkswagen GTI vs. 2012 Mazdaspeed 3    The DNA coursing through every hot hatch is the result of the almost random mutation that transformed the VW Golf into the GTI back in 1976 (the U.S. version didn&amp;#039;t arrive until 1983) Thanks to the addition of Bosch fuel injection, the 1.6-liter four in that Euro-spec original GTI thumped up from 74- to 108-bhp, making the Mk I Golf suddenly athletic and giving rise to imitators from the Dodge Omni GLH to the insipid Chevrolet Cavalier Z24. And since then, there&amp;#039;s been a paradigm shift in hot hatch science; direct gasoline injection and turbocharging have altered expectations about how high-performance 4-cylinder engines should perform. Unlike their forebears, these engines don&amp;#039;t need to spin maniacally and their power doesn&amp;#039;t disappear the moment it&amp;#039;s time to pull through an apex.        2013 Ford Focus ST vs. 2012 Volkswagen GTI vs. 2012 Mazdaspeed 3    Climbing out of the fertile plains and into Ohio&amp;#039;s Hocking Hills, it&amp;#039;s the amazing flexibility of all three engines that impressed and had a stainless-steel grip on our stomachs and squeezed them hard. Welcome to the new era of the muscle hatch, where compromise produces greatness. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/car-comparison-tests/reviews/a18410/ford-focus-st-vs-volkswagen-gti-vs-mazdaspeed3/>