Ford Focus 5-door
The Ford Focus is a compact car which was first manufactured by Ford in Europe from 1998 to 2004 and then North America from 1999 to 2007. Sales of the Focus began in Europe in July 1998 and in North America in 1999 for the 2000 model year. In Europe and South Africa, the Focus replaced the various Ford Escort models previously sold in those markets. In Asia and Australasia, it replaced the Ford Laser.
Design and engineering
The concept of the original Ford Focus took shape under the codename CW170, and was briefly referred to by some Ford contractors as the Ford Fusion. The car's name was inspired by a Ghia concept car, displayed at the Geneva Motor Show in 1991. Certain design elements of the car had been previewed earlier through prototypes, which Ford used to showcase its new safety features such as the eye-level rear lighting clusters. Its styling was an extension of Ford's philosophy on 'New Edge', which was first seen in the Ford Ka in 1996 and the Ford Cougar in 1998. While the styling of the car was polarising, the design had been overseen by Jack Telnack and was executed by Claude Lobo and John Doughty, an Australian designer.
The Ford Focus name was chosen in early 1998, as Ford's management originally planned to keep the "Escort" nameplate for its new generation of small family cars. However, a last minute dispute arose in July 1998, when a Cologne court, responding to a case brought forward by the Burda publishers, ordered Ford to avoid using the name "Focus" for its German market cars as the name was already taken by the publisher's Focus magazine. This was eventually resolved, and the car was launched without a different name for the German market.
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