Ford Adjusts Focus Facelift

Consumers speak up

Last January Ford displayed with great pride their new facelifted 2008 Ford Focus for the US market. “We know the formula for success in the small car segment: Affordability, quality and a fun to drive, sporty personality,” said Cisco Codina, Ford group vice president, North America Marketing, Sales and Service at the Detroit Motor Show. “These are the priorities that drove the redesign of the Focus for 2008.”

But before its November showroom launch, the 2008 Ford Focus Faclift receives yet another facelift because consumers were not all too happy with some of the changes, saying it looked unfinished. Ford asked for feedback and, somewhat reluctantly, acted on it with the following as a result: added mesh to lower grill, round fog lights, satiny silver instrument panel finish, chrome paddles, chrome interior door handles and a chrome strip to the gearshift knob and the interior is now stitched with white thread on black leather. “It's highly unusual,” said Beth Donovan, Ford's product marketing manager for small and medium cars, although last minute cosmetic changes have occurred before at Ford, namely on the Lincoln MKX and Ford Edge.

Ford has removed the earlier photos from their press site so we had to dig into our archives to make some comparisons. All in all, the changes work out well for the new-ish Ford small car but we are still confused why the facelift doesn't look more like its European counterpart, which is and has been a best seller for a while now.