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What is the most significant Ford of all time?
The Model T from 1908 is the undeniable answer, since its unheard-of affordability put the world on wheels, changing everything forever.
A candidate for second spot is far-harder to find.
Included are the first F-Series truck from 1948, the 1949 Ford with its influential monocoque design, the 1960 Falcon economy family car, the 1964 Mustang muscle-car sensation and the 1986 Taurus for modernising US buyers’ tastes.
But, Falcon aside, none really mattered outside of North America, while the same applies to the first Cortina (1962), Mk1 Escort (1968) and original Fiesta (1976) outside of Europe.
The 1998 Focus, however, was created in Germany and the UK to sell globally. Which it did with brilliant success.
But more than that, as the replacement for the unloved Escort (and eventually the Mazda 323-based Laser in Australia), its sheer boldness reshaped the small car and set incredibly high standards that many of today’s models still fail to match, some 27 years on.
Earlier this month, Ford announced that the final Focus will roll off the line in Germany this November, following the series’ cancellation in Australia in 2022, closing the global chapter on a true modern classic.
Here are six reasons why the original Focus might just be the most respected Ford in decades – and maybe even history’s second-most significant ever – and one reason why it’s time to say goodbye.
Think about how much lower hatchbacks used to be in the 1990s.
For the Escort-replacing C170 project, Ford’s designers in Germany took the Escort platform, lengthened the wheelbase by 90mm and raised the floor and ceiling higher than other Euro hatch of the era, creating a small car with easier access, loftier seating, better vision and a new sense of space. Just like a small crossover today.
Every competitor pretty much followed suit. Notice how much larger a 2004 Volkswagen Mk5 Golf is to its 1997 predecessor. Or a 2001 Peugeot 307 is compared to the svelte 306. Focus kicked off this trend.
The skilful creation of Australian John Doughty, the first Focus still looks like no other car before or since. The progressive packaging allowed for a clean-sheet approach to the design.
But the crisp “New Edge” styling was a massive gamble. At its March, 1998 global unveiling, people thought the Focus looked space age. Ford was so worried how consumers would react it reportedly leaked photos of prototypes as “scoops” to the press three years before production. Luckily buyers were ready for the change and sales soared.
Today, the Mk1 hatch remains an aesthetic masterpiece. Not so much the sedan and wagon versions.
Fun fact: Ford in Melbourne designed the (far prettier) Mk2 Focus sedan (unveiled in 2004) while a young Australian also styled the outgoing Mk4 shape released in 2018.
Aided by a 100 per cent stiffer body compared to Escort, the C170 project’s Chief Technical Officer, Richard Parry-Jones, somehow managed to persuade Ford’s beancounters to stump up for a multi-link independent rear suspension set-up when cheap torsion beams were the rule.
Transforming the Focus’ dynamics, the result sent VW scrambling back to the drawing board for the Mk5 Golf, along with many other rivals. Today, a cared-for Mk1 Focus steers and handles better than most sports cars, with tactility and agility to put a smile on your face. It was so much fun, in fact, that Ford dialled down the sensitivity for 2004’s (still fine) Mk2. Hydraulic steering at its very best.
The Focus was the global bestseller in its first full year (1999), and remained a world top-three place getter for most years until 2014, making it a solid sales success for Ford.
The regular Mk1 Focus’ amazing chassis cried out for sportier iterations, but Ford took its sweet time answering such calls.
When one did finally arrive in 2002, the ST 170 steered sharply but felt slow. That was rectified with the Mk2 Focus ST (XR5 in Australia), powered by a five-cylinder turbo courtesy of Volvo. The Mk3 and Mk4 STs switched to in-house high-output four-pot turbos.
The ultimate Focus was the RS. The wild Mk1 from 2002 never came to Australia, but is renowned for its sensational handling and front-end grip, courtesy of a special differential and high-performance brakes. Around 4500 were built.
There was also a Mk2 RS that did enter volume production in 2009 with a hotter Volvo turbo, while the Mk3 RS switched to a Mustang-based four-cylinder turbo and all-wheel drive – a first for a fast Focus. There was no Mk4 RS.
Inevitably, the Focus also succeeded in motorsport, with the RS WRC winning 44 World Rally Championship rallies between 1999 and 2010 and two manufacturers' world titles in 2006 and 2007.
Sadly, Ford failed to sustain the early Focus’ incredible momentum.
The Mk2 version from 2004 grew in refinement and size as it also underpinned (also successful) Mazda3 and Volvo S40/V50 versions, but lost some of the original’s verve and spark.
Unfortunately, despite strong early sales due to impressive refinement and leading safety courtesy of Volvo, the even-larger, heavier and US-influenced 2011 Mk3’s initial adoption of a troublesome dual-clutch transmission lead to expensive breakdowns and scores of brand-destroying lawsuits, completely undermining all the original model's goodwill.
Even the wholly re-engineered Mk4 from 2018 could not save the series, as buyers switched to SUVs in droves anyway. In the end, the Escape SUV-based Maverick dual-cab ute has successfully usurped the Focus in America, leading to speculation as to whether the same will happen elsewhere too. The world is a very different place to 1998.
Still, if the original inspiration, devotion and panache that created the iconic first Focus back then could again be harnessed into an affordable new Ford today, the automotive world would be a better place.
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