Ford Focus (first generation)

The Ford Focus (first generation) is a compact car that was manufactured by Ford in Europe from 1998 to 2004 and by Ford in North America from 1998 to 2007. Ford began sales of the Focus to Europe in July 1998 and in North America during 1999 for the 2000 model year. Manufacturing in Argentina continued until 2008, and it was still on sale in Brazil until 2009.

In Europe and South Africa, the Focus replaced the various Ford Escort models sold in those markets. In Asia and Australia, it replaced the Ford Laser.

Codenamed C170 during its development, the original Focus took its eventual name from a Ghia concept car which was shown at the Geneva Motor Show in 1991. Certain elements of the design had been seen even earlier in prototypes used by Ford to demonstrate forthcoming safety features, such as the eye-level rear lighting clusters. As a continuation of Ford's New Edge styling philosophy, first seen in the Ford Ka in 1996, and Ford Cougar in 1998, the Focus's styling was often described as polarising. The styling had been overseen by Jack Telnack and executed by Claude Lobo and Australian designer, John Doughty, concluding in January 1996 upon program approval.

The decision to name the new car the Ford Focus was made in early 1998, as Ford 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 publishers Burda, ordered Ford to avoid the name "Focus" for the German market cars since the name was already taken by the publisher's Focus magazine. This eleventh hour dispute was overcome, however, and the car was launched without a different "German market" name. The Focus once again represented an attempt by Ford to introduce a truly "world car" that could be sold in disparate markets with little modification. Previous attempts to achieve this had met with limited success - the concept for the original 1981 Escort had infamously mutated into two entirely different cars for Europe and North America with only superficial similarities between the two. Ford had tried again with the 1993 Mondeo and Contour/Mystique but the two variants still had too many differences to be called a true single car for both American and European consumption.

The Ford Focus was officially revealed at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1998.

Focus models had been designed under the directorship of Richard Parry-Jones and were noted at introduction for their styling, class-leading rear suspension and tall interior packaging  – as well as a stiff and light body structure, low-friction steering and suspension, and extensive safety and convenience features including driver and passenger airbags, available head-and-chest side air bags, rear ISOFIX child-safety seat attachments, safety belt system with pre-tensioners and load-limiting retractors, battery saver to automatically switch off lights after 10 minutes, interior light dimming feature, and flip-up/flat-folding rear seat cushions.

The Focus' styling, often noted as polarizing, was marketed by Ford as New Edge design. The design language had been overseen by Jack Telnack and Claude Lobo and executed by Australian designer, John Doughty. In 2000, Karl Brauer, writing for Edmunds.com described the styling: "While ergonomically sound, the Focus' interior, like its exterior, displays much of Ford's New Edge philosophy that had editors split on loving or hating it." Sherri Koucky, writing for MachineDesign.com said the styling "mixes round shapes with funky geometric ones and adds sharp angles, somehow making them all work together." James R. Healey, writing for USA Today, called the styling a "collision of curves and lines." After the international Ford Focus, which shared styling with North American models, had won the prestigious European Car of the Year (1999), William Diem of the New York Times wrote, "To some extent, the prize vindicates Ford's risky design for the Focus, especially the New Edge styling -- a combination of straight lines, curves and planes."

Engineers for the Focus, including Richard Parry-Jones, developed a class-leading, space-saving independent multi-link rear suspension, marketed as Control Blade suspension, combining the packaging of a trailing arm, with the geometry of a double wishbone suspension. The system was developed from that used in the CDW27 Ford Mondeo estate, but with various modifications to make it simpler and cheaper to build and therefore economically viable on a mass-market vehicle.