Ford Focus Estate
The Ford Focus, the first generation of the compact car, was manufactured by Ford from 1998 to 2004 in Europe and 1999 to 2007 in North America. It was released to the European market in July 1998 and to the North American market for the 2000 model year. In Europe and South Africa, the Ford Focus replaced the Escort line of cars in the same markets, while in Asia and Australasia, the Focus replaced the Ford Laser.
Design and engineering
The development of the original Focus was codenamed CW170 and was briefly known as the Ford Fusion. It was named after a Ghia concept car seen at the Geneva Motor Show in 1991. Ford contractors had seen certain elements of the Focus design in prototypes that Ford had showcased for safety features, most notably the eye-level rear lighting clusters. This design was based on the New Edge styling philosophy of Ford, first seen in the Ford Ka in 1996 and in the Ford Cougar in 1998. The Focus' styling was met with a lot of criticism, superintended by Jack Telnack and executed by Claude Lobo and John Doughty, an Australian designer.
The decision to name it the Ford Focus was made in early 1998 as Ford had intended to title its new line of small family cars with the Escort nameplate. However, in July 1998, Burda, a publisher, filed a case in a Cologne court that prohibited Ford from using the name "Focus" for the German market cars since the name was already taken by the publisher's magazine. Nevertheless, they managed to solve the dispute in time and the car was launched without changes to the name.
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