US plans to receive Ford Focus RS Canceled

Ford Focus RS Spied in US

By Thami Masemola
May 27, 2009 5:27 PM
Filed Under: American, Ford, Production

About a month ago WCF published a story about a Ford Focus RS spotted in Michigan. This raised some hopes of Ford taking some RS stock stateside. Further fueling this speculation was an interview done by Automotive News with Ford's director of advanced product creation and global performance, Hermann Salenbauch, in which the man was quoted as saying his company was looking for feedback (about the RS) from media and the public. "How much do they like it? Is it really what they want? We are pretty confident that it is," he said.

Fast forward to now and it appears the wind has changed direction. AutoCar interviewed Jost Capito, the new head of Ford's global performance division. Capito and his team of bean counters reckon the whole exercise of homologating the RS for North American consumption would be too pricey to bear.

"We'd like to," said Capito, "but the base car isn't homologated for North America and that's too costly a job to carry out just for a niche vehicle like the RS."

Again we cannot help but wonder how it is that Ford's best-performing hatchback ever will not be sold on the Blue Oval's home soil. That's a bit like Sony selling the PlayStation console series everywhere else but in Japan.

Source: autocar.co.uk via egmcartech.com

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Tags: Ford Focus RS, Ford Focus, Ford Focus ST

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Comments

rickyb

May 27, 2009 6:19 PM

I understand that it's too expensive to import the Euro Focus RS to American, just like it's too expensive to import the Mondeo and the Kuga. BUT... Ford owns the designs and tooling for all of these vehicles. A World Class Auto company should be able to transfer those designs and tools to operations in a different region (like North America), retool the factories and find local suppliers. Or is it that Ford doesn't want Americans to have these products to that they can continue to feed us the same boring and bloated cars, trucks and SUVs that they have for the past 20 yrs?

With the world market being what it is these days, Ford has put off a lot of potential customer by pulling this nonsense on the American people. We deserve to have at least the same top-notch products that they offer the rest of the world, esp since this is their home country. I find it insulting.

Same goes for GM, though some credit has to be given to them for starting to trickle Opels to the US, finally. We'll see how long that lasts if the sell Opel.

genie

May 28, 2009 10:54 AM

The cost of tooling up a factory to produce them certainly isn't free. And I assume Ford US have calculated that they wouldn't sell enough of them to cover the cost of retooling, even with cheaper american labour.

Targa_Florio

May 27, 2009 6:50 PM

It would worth if the whole Focus range and maybe platform-related products like the C-Max would be built in US (with RS-specific parts imported).

However the Focus is quite close to the end of its lifecycle and US is not found of the practical 5-doors vehicle except SUVs.

Edited by user on May 27, 2009 at 6:51 PM

mroctober

May 27, 2009 6:58 PM

crap! oh well, let's hope for Fiesta SVT

DeRay

May 27, 2009 7:10 PM

The Mondeo, the Ford Falcon, now the Ford Focus RS. I think the american public would have accepted these vehicles. Why do they keep doing this?

rickyb

May 27, 2009 7:36 PM

Because they love shooting themselves in the foot and because they think that the American public has no exposure to what they do outside US. Really stupid of them.

captwhizbang

May 27, 2009 8:20 PM

it figures..they are probably scared of the UAW uproar over bringing in an American owned car that wasn't actually put together in a factory employing Americans. Just think, with our labor cost this car would end up costing $65,000 here

AG4

May 27, 2009 8:28 PM

The MK2 Focus was not designed for the US-market. It would be too expensive to federalize just one low volume model which will be replaced in a short period.

The 2011MY Mk3 Focus which will make its debut sometime in late 2010 will be a global model, wait for that one and just hope that it will have an RS performance model.

Edited by user on May 27, 2009 at 8:33 PM

Pentium

May 27, 2009 10:47 PM

Why US market is missing every cool hot hatch?

Razz

May 28, 2009 12:06 AM

In one way, i am "glad" to hear that .. because also i, as european, can't buy in theory a car made in US by GM (Export the Camaro to Italy) or Honda let's say, the policy prohibits exporting the new cars made in USA.

Instead, Ford allows that .. and i'm about to import a Mustang for me. So .. in the same way, i think there will be some private/independet dealer to import the RS from Europe or any other hot hatch, just wait to see how great volumes will be sold by Ford with the new Fiesta in US, and then .. they will rethink their sales strategy for hatches.

Edited by user on May 28, 2009 at 12:07 AM

Sacto8780

May 28, 2009 3:28 PM

I think they're referring to the -current- version of the Focus RS. But since the next-generation Focus is coming in 2010, Ford might offer a US-specific Focus RS based on the next-generation model by calendar year 2011, probably using a modified version of the same drivetrain found on the Mazdaspeed3. It'll probably be rated at around 263 bhp for the US version and will likely offer the Powershift dual-clutch transmission with paddle shifters on the steering wheel.

Starscream123

May 28, 2009 8:58 PM

I feel sorry for the Americans. Fortuneatly, I am from England so I am lucky.