Ford Focus

The Ford Focus is a compact car (C-segment in Europe) manufactured by the Ford Motor Company and created under Alexander Trotman's Ford 2000 plan, which aimed to globalize model development and sell one compact vehicle worldwide. The original Focus was primarily designed by Ford of Europe's German and British teams.

Ford focus

The Focus was released in July 1998 in Europe, succeeding the Ford Escort, and replaced the Mazda Familia-derived Ford Laser in Asia and Oceania along with the Laser-based North American Escort. Wayne Stamping & Assembly started producing the Focus for North America with sales beginning in late 1999. The last North American-produced Focus rolled off the line at the Michigan Assembly Plant on May 4, 2018. Production of the fourth generation Focus began in 2018 in Germany and in China.

Ford of Europe introduced the Focus in 1998 to the European market as a replacement for the Ford Escort. The decision to name the new car the "Ford Focus" was made in early 1998, as Ford's senior management had been planning to keep the "Escort" nameplate for its new generation of small family cars. A last-minute problem arose in July 1998 when a Cologne court, responding to a case brought by the publisher Burda, ordered Ford to avoid the name "Focus" for the cars in the German market since the name was already taken by one of its magazines (Focus). This eleventh-hour dispute was resolved, however, and the car was launched with the name Focus. The Focus MK1 was awarded the 1999 European Car of the Year award. The project manager for the Ford Focus at Dunton was Rose Mary Farenden.

Ford focus first generetion