|  Ford has announced a new Focus featuring a major exterior and interior design and technical overhaul. The 2008 model also marks the addition of a two-door coupe variant. It features a completely revised exterior, with more agressive styling. It also boasts a redesigned cabin with silver metallic finishing on the dashboard and center console, available ambient interior lighting, and available leather seating with contrast stitching.
The standard 2008 Focus will feature a 2.0-liter, Duratec 20 dual-overhead-cam (DOHC), inline four-cylinder engine. If you're looking for a PZEV, get yourself the option with the Duratec 20E engine that will be offered in states that have adopted California emission standards. The 20E qualifies the Focus as a Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle (PZEV). Both the Duratec 20 and the 20E will be available with a five-speed manual transmission or a four-speed automatic.
The 2008 Focus is available in two body styles: a two-door coupe, a first-ever for Focus, and a four-door sedan. These are the two highest volume body styles in the segment. In fact, the sedan and coupe will allow Ford to cover a full 80 percent of the small car market.
In shaping the new Focus, the design team looked to the Ford Fusion, drawing on its prominent chrome-bar grille design, flared wheel arches and crisp lines to create a small car that's stylish and sporty. Several bold details bring the exterior of the new Focus to life. One is the taut character line that runs from the taillights across the doors just below the door handles and then snaps down at the front wheel well. Another example is the four separate creases incorporated into the hood.
The headlights are a design story by themselves. Horizontal bars with a matte surface run through the reflection area, visually connecting the headlights with a sweeping line running through the chrome-bar grille.
The new interior design not only adds more flexible storage space, but new surfaces and materials create a modern, contemporary cabin with a sense of openness. On SEL models, the dashboard and center console sport brilliant matte silver-metallic finishing. On SE models, the dashboard center finish panels are a contrasting dark stone non-metallic color.
A new “poke-through” center console design replaces the traditional “brick” design for the radio and climate control. The center panel houses the controls for the audio and climate control as well as a standard auxiliary audio input jack and two power points. In vehicles equipped with the available Sync option, a USB 2.0 port is located on the center stack near the power points.
Eliminating the traditional brick design gave designers freedom to draw a sharp accent line across the top of the dashboard, a design element that would not have been possible with the previous model’s square radio and climate modules. A new seamless passenger front airbag door further cleans up the interior.
The 2008 Focus offers a larger center console as well as added space in front of the console shifter for extra storage. Newly designed door trim features larger bins and cup holders in the doors plus three more in the console. New seats have improved contours and offer more lateral and lumbar support. A new cloth pattern is available for 2008 while the leather trimmed seats feature contrast stitching for an added touch of craftsmanship.
The 2008 Focus, in addition to Ford's Personal Safety System, comes standard with side air bags and side air curtains. The advanced side air curtains -- Ford's Safety Canopy(TM) -- feature "roll-fold" technology. If occupants are resting their heads against a window, the curtain is designed to slide between the glass and occupants as it inflates. In the event of a rollover, the curtains remain inflated for several seconds to enhance protection during an extended crash event.
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