[Music]
it's the once-upon-a-time
world's best-selling car the escorts
modest stepbrother and the vehicle Ford
built to connect with the youth a humble
four-door sedan a forgettable coupé
Cabriolet and a bunch of sporty models
that the American brand didn't want us
to have it's time to focus you nerds
because this is everything you need to
know to get up to speed on the Ford
Focus no you can't dude yes I can Nolan
you don't know what you're talking about
it's literally impossible no it's not
cuz I can do it uh-huh uh-huh uh-huh
uh-huh
see told you little cool
[Music]
in the late 90s Ford was looking to
replace their long-standing and outdated
compact car the escort the once beloved
everyday driver and World Rally
Championship winning racer had evolved
into a sixth generation basic [ __ ] in
the UK and a third-generation pile of
jelly in the US now Ford had learned
from previous experience that it wasn't
wise to completely dump a model from
their lineup to make way for its
replacement they did that with the
Cortina when they released their new and
improved Sierra and that upset all those
sensitive Cortina snowflakes aka British
people in 70s so Ford kept the escort in
the lineup and released the all-new
focus in 1998 to the european market and
in 1999 to america the new little sporty
compact was met with mixed reception at
first up front and had sharp lines and
distinctive headlights while outback it
was kind of boring people either loved
it or hated it it's like the pineapple
pizza of course I love pineapple pizza
I'm from Hawaii so I like pineapple
everything polarizing as it was the
looks stood out and got the attention of
younger buyers which was exactly what
Ford was open for maybe it was the
aesthetics or maybe it was because the
focus sponsored Ricky Martin's livin la
vida loca tour and partnered with
Dawson's Creek to be featured in various
episodes of the groundbreaking teen
drama if you have no clue what Dawson's
Creek is because you're not old like me
leave a comment below the focus was
affordable got great gas mileage and
came in all sorts of configurations to
appeal to just about anyone also it was
a great handling car and fun to drive
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[Applause]
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it took a bit for the focus to catch
some heat in the sales department but
once those loyal Escort fans began to
dig the new cool kid in town sales of
the focus reached close to 500,000 cars
in its second year and then as the new
car from the land of hot cheetos started
to take off it was plagued with recalls
left rear wheels were falling off roof
pillars were folding in during crashes
and the ignition cylinder failed making
it impossible to turn the car on the
first two years of the focus got banged
over the head with 12 safety recalls and
seven defect investigations it was one
of the worst cases of vehicle recalls in
history second only to the X platform
cars GM released in the 80s but Ford
pressed on fixing the problems that
plagued the focus during its first few
years improving upon their build quality
and trying to get the public to forget
about the focuses tarnished reputation
and one way Ford went about giving
amnesia was by building a more sporty
model the 2002 focus our s only 4500 and
one of the mark 1 rally sport focuses
rolled out for public sale using a
turbocharged version of the two liter
Ford zetas engine the RS got 212 for CS
& 229 pound thick's of turn works
that might not sound all that impressive
compared to current day hot hatches but
in the early 2000s this made the RS a
great buy for the performance
it didn't get all-wheel drive like the
Cosworth it got front-wheel drive with a
torque biased differential design to
compensate for torque steer which occurs
in high power front-wheel drive cars a
tightened up suspension brembo brakes
18-inch oz racing wheels and upgraded
bodywork completed the package time out
is it Oz or is it Ozzie I think it's so
Z what do you think by the way we're
gonna start doing a thing now any time
we talk about a car that we didn't get
here in the States
I'm gonna go on our subreddit into a
post called James list so go to our
slash donut media to see my list and
while you're there let me know other
cars that we didn't get in the US so we
didn't get the RS but we did get the
next best thing we got the SVT the
special vehicle team took the 2-liter
z-tech forward banger and massage the
lactic acid out of that pony to get an
extra 40 buff horses for a total of 170
the SVT got variable intake cam timing a
dual stage intake manifold and high flow
high compression cylinder head this
thing was a blast to drive I'm guessing
because I've never driven one during
this same time Ford also decided to make
statement cars special edition focuses
built from 2000 to 2003 he got the Sony
Edition that came with a high
performance Sony Xplod audio system a
Centennial Edition and a Kona Edition
that came with a bicycle specifically
the Kona blast and they sold them to
their young and hip focused buyers
ironically a crank bolt problem on the
bicycle led to the first ever automaker
issued bicycle recall can't catch a
break aside from the statement cars they
built they offered specialized packages
marketed as tailored for you kids pet
lover you can get the pet package that
included a custom pet bed a lint roller
and a pet safety bill the friends
package which came with a ice cooler and
a candy dispenser and the complete first
season of friends on VHS or if you're a
business person maybe you'd opt for the
professional package which got a mobile
workstation that had a tray to hold your
laptop and other supplies needed to run
a business out of your car I can't
imagine anything more depressing than
working out of your car while parked in
the parking lot of a Carl's jr.
[Music]
if you are working in your car you need
to get a new job unless you're a private
detective or cop or an uber driver or a
racecar driver sometimes I'm at work
when I'm in a car being the host of talk
to you would be cool I guess you work in
cars there
turns out working in cars is a it's
actually pretty tight
[Music]
saline even got in on the focus fever
with s 121 although it was more of a
looks package using the duratec 2 liter
inline-4 the cars got a 10 percent
performance bump by replacing the
factory paper air filter with a more
freely flowing air filter and a cat-back
exhaust system but the cool thing is you
can get an n 2o Edition nitrous oxide
anyone yes please oh wow
[Music]
you got a factory installed seventy-five
horsepower shot of nitrous with the
bottle mounted in the boot but if you
hooked up the bottle it would void your
warranty so whatever in 2004 Ford took
away the SVT and Anglin got the ST this
was also the first year where the focus
models split up into various markets the
mark 2 makes its debut in the UK while
here in the States we have to wait until
2008 gone was the 2-liter z-tech now the
focus was powered by a 2.3 litre 155
horsepower duratec motor developed by
Mazda the foreign Focus ST got the
restyle as well as a 2.5 litre
five-cylinder turbo volvo motor have
pumped out 225 horsepower getting the
car from zero to 60 in six point four
seconds with all these different models
and packages it's funny that Ford left
out one particular group of cargos oh
yeah who someone who likes to take a
spin on the coast with the wind blowing
through your hair you mean a convertible
Focus yeah well actually they did make
what it was called the coupé Cabriolet
huh yikes that does not look good the RS
made a UK comeback in 2009 this time
getting 300 horsepower out of a
turbocharged five cylinder Ford used the
S T motor and beefed up the internals
gave it a new intake and exhaust and
threw on a larger bore Warner K 16 turbo
the hot hatch could get it with a top
speed of 163 miles per hour and a zero
to sixty and five point eight seconds of
the second gen focus is the one that
tops the food chain is the rs500 the
swansong for the 2nd gen RS and an
homage to the Sierra rs500 racer of the
80s only 500 of these matte black
mobiles were made sporting 345
horsepower the RS 500 got a larger
intercooler airbox and down pipe
all helping it scoot to 60 faster that
is little RS bro bro
by four tenths of a second
if you're a focus fan that lives in the
US of A and have never seen this version
it's because yes we didn't get it the
you're an American car company and
you're not even given America and either
cool freakin cars it's going on the list
now we haven't talked much about WRC
cars because they share literally zero
parts from the street model from 99 on
manufacturers were no longer required to
build homologation specials in order to
meet requirements to race but similar to
how it is in NASCAR the brands would tag
their cars with a model in their lineup
in order to get people to buy one off
the showroom floor even if it's nothing
like the racecar you see on TV good old
Frankie boy might mosey into a Ford
dealership thinking he's gonna get that
WRC edition sorry Frankie you got duped
the Focus RS WRC did win 44 rallies and
two manufacturer titles during its run
from 99 to 2010 so very successful Ford
reunited the International and North
American Focus with the mark 3 in 2011
design of the mark 3 was developed using
the third age suit a wearable device
that simulates the physical limitations
of being old weird Ford push to make the
focus a global phenomenon and it worked
the third-generation focus was the
best-selling car in the world in 2012
with over a million cars sold
that same year Ford brought the ST
package back built as part of the 1 Ford
program which was Ford's way of
combining all the various design and
engineering teams around the globe to
produce a single car worldwide which
sounds great because now I get to cut
down the list of fun cars we don't get
here in the States
well unless you ought to get the Focus
ST Wagon we did get that only Europe got
that the esti uses a tuned two litre
EcoBoost four banger that makes 250
horsepower and 250 pound Peter tour
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when horsepower and torque are the same
number I call that horse pork half buff
horse half buff pig 100% delicious they
got all those 250 horse porks by way of
a high-pressure direct injection system
a low inertia turbo and twin independent
variable cam timing it took them a few
years but the RS line returned in 2016
to outshine the ST AST I got more power
baby and for the first time in the
Focuses history it got all-wheel-drive
making this car eat is a 2.3 liter
EcoBoost the same one that's in the
Mustang we did an episode of the new car
show on the Focus RS so you can check it
out here it's basically the tip-top hot
boy hatch that you can buy sorry could
buy 20 18 was the last year of the focus
here in the States as you might know for
to stop making a bunch of passenger cars
focusing on building crossovers and
trucks the last mark 3 focus for the NA
market rolled off the assembly line in
May 2018 ending an era that spanned two
decades but the focus name will still
live on in the focus active a Chinese
made version that will be imported into
the States while other countries across
the world still get to enjoy the new s T
and RS models we'll only get one model
to choose from a five-door hatchback
from China that looks like a crossover
hey guys huge announcement we're
launching a podcast finally it's called
passed gas for the cars you love who
could be behind them and will be telling
the best stories in automotive history
and because it's longer we get to go
deeper into the juicy details
fun stuff that we sometimes have to skip
in our shorter shows so you can watch it
here on our YouTube or Facebook page
every Sunday and then you can listen to
the next episode Monday wherever you get
your podcasts iTunes Spotify stitcher
wherever fine podcast or delivered go
check it out pass gas
it's about cars not about parts Enzo if
you stopped racing your brand is dead we
all know that don't say that it's that
way Fela so
Oh what's the problem I feel like
everybody like a food nobody like a
Ferrari