OldZephyr

That's good news. I find it interesting that IIHS gave the 2 door Focus a "good" where the safety cage rating was "marginal" . . . I thought that a "Marginal" score in that regard meant the "final" rating couldn't be "good" . . . but there you are. Obviously I don't know how IIHS does its scoring. I wonder what the structural differences are between the coupe in the sedan are that made the difference here. The most important point here is that the 2008-10 coupe and the sedan are rated far better than the previous generation.

Agreed. The loss of head and trunk room, and the ovals for the sake of ovals, didn't sit well with us. And we were in the market at the time. We ended up getting a used 2nd generation Sable instead.

True enough. I talked to a friend who has been an import owner, and urged her to go to check out the Fusion or Escape or Taurus. She's not really sophisticated about cars. So she went to the place where we bought our Taurus, expressed an interest in a Ford Escape Hybrid, and the salesman basically mocked her, saying "oh, you're one of those environmental types . . . we only sell one of those a year . . . ", etc. Needless to say she was turned off and she left, and was going to write off Ford. I had to remind her there are other Ford dealerships and not to confuse the salesman at the dealership with the quality of the car. I think she was ready to buy but she was so turned off that she is keeping her old car for now. I know there are lots of good dealers and good salespeople, but this made me cringe, especially after I had urged her to take a look at Ford products.

Thanks for the review, very helpful!

I don't think there's an S Coupe, just SE and SES. Agree, really glad to see ABS/ESC standard. It's available now of course, and some dealers stock quite a few cars with it here in snow country, but again, glad it is standardfor 2010. I saw no mention of the fender vent or "applique" in the 2010 order guide -- it comes only on the SEL for 2009, and looks to be gone for 2010 (no tears shed by me). Now down to 7 colors from 8 -- ice blue metallic and amber gold are gone. I've no idea what "natural neutral metallic" looks like . . . MyKey might be of interest to some parents who want to buy an inexpensive car for their teenager. I'm sure the kids will hate it. They'll also probably figure out how to hack it pretty soon.

Thanks for posting the order guide!

Oh, please. Where do you get this idea that the majority of people think it's "beneath them" to drive a used car? Last time I checked, used cars were still being sold at the dealerships in healthy numbers. Sure, some folks buy new cars for status. But most people buy new cars because they are concerned about reliability and don't want the unknown that can come with a used car, and like the improvements that make new cars today superior to those made 10 years ago. As for safety, what's "ignorant" about an emphasis on safety? A close friend of mine was saved by air bags and a good safety cell. The crash wasn't her fault -- a truck ran a stop sign and broadsided her. She had no chance. All the skill in the world wouldn't have prevented that collision. And she's alive thanks to standard safety features. What's "yuppie" about that? Reliability? After 4-5 years, the Fusion and the Five Hundred/Taurus have a pretty good track record. What's the evidence that those cars will be less reliable than a 10 year old Taurus? Finally, if you want a new, cheap, bare bones car, they're available at prices that, when taking inflation into account, probably are about the same as cars in the past. A stripped Maverick in the 70s ran about $1995. That's comparable to around $10-11K now. You can get a base Nissan Versa or Aveo for that, and a stripped Focus (which is far better equipped than the stripped Maverick was) is pretty close to that, maybe around $12,500.

Good point. But would the Taurus qualify as a "clunker"? I thought the combined EPA had to be 18 MPG or less, and I think the old Taurus is around 21 or 22 combined.

Well, when all you have is a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail . . . . Is the Fusion, which gets 23/34, a smaller, unsafe car? Maybe check with the IIHS on that Is the Taurus (which at 18/28/ (22 combined) should qualify under the program as well) a smaller, unsafe car? Maybe check with IIHS on that. Bottom line is that most mainline cars get at least 22MPG combined these days, and most are far more safe and efficient than cars just 5 years ago. PS I'm not a fan of this program, but the above comment by Bored of Pisteon isn't supported by the facts. Almost any new midsize or full size sedan will be safer than what would be traded in under the program.

Side airbags are important, but they aren't a guarantee of an acceptable score. For example, there are some cars out there with standard side airbags and poor or marginal side crash ratings from the IIHS. Check out the New Beetle (Poor), PT Cruiser (Poor), Kia Rio (Poor), Chevy Aveo (Marginal), Kia Spectra, Dodge Caliber, Saturn Astra, and Hyundai Elantra (all Marginal). The safety cage is somewhat better too compared to the 2007 Focus (though it's now only marginal instead of poor according to IIHS).

Also, keep in mind that the actual side protection (crash dummy measurements) from the Focus would be enough to earn a "good" rating, except that the safety cage was considered "marginal", hence the "acceptable" rating for side crashes. One other point. IIHS considers the Honda Civic to be a top safety pick because it has good ratings for front, rear, and side crash tests, and has ESC "available". But I think this is a bit misleading. Unless you buy the very most expensive trim line of the standard Civic (the EX-L with a MSRP of well over $20K) or the even more expensive Hybrid, you can't get a Civic with ESC, the lower trim lines (DX, DX-VP, LX, LX-S, and EX) don't offer it. Honda only offers ESC in the most expensive Civics. In contrast, even the Focus S with its crank up windows has ESC available. That shows a commitment to safety on the part of Ford in my view.

Thanks for the information. ESC being standard -- that's 1 year before it's required, isn't it?

Is the 2010 model likely to be identical to the current model or are any changes in store re standard equipment or improvements? Any chance of 6 speed AT on the 2010 Focus (I'd think that would help fuel economy quite a bit like it did with the new Fusion). Thanks.

I rented an Avenger when they first came out. We were going to go on a 1000 mile trip and the rental agency had an Avenger so I got the keys to it and started on my way. I drove it 2 miles from the rental car office to pick up my son at school. Then I drove it 2 miles back to the rental car place and asked to switch to another rental car (they had a Galant as it turns out). I just did not want to spend 1000 miles in that car. It really is a big cut below the other offerings out there.

Well put. But what do you do when you are new with a dealer and you don't know who the mechanics are? We bought our first new Ford last year from a local dealer ('08 Taurus). We decided it would be good to buy local for service needs. Before then we'd owned used Fords (and others) and had a local independent mechanic do the work for us. He had a good job for us. A few months ago the car slid on some ice and the front driver side wheel slammed into a curb. Almost immediately we started hearing noise and feeling vibration when the speed got over 30MPH. So we thought we'd give the repair work to the dealer. In no way did we think this was a warranty issue -- the problem started right after the impact. The dealer looked and said the problem was a bent wheel. They installed a new wheel. We took the car home and noticed that the noise and vibration were still there, so we brought it in again. My wife asked whether there was an alignment issue or something else. They checked and said there was nothing wrong with the alignment and that the noise was from snow in the wheel. We took the car to a car wash to get rid of the "snow" in the wheel. The problem remained. So I called up our old mechanic on the phone and described what had happened. After 30 seconds he said he thought it might be the wheel bearing and perhaps alignment and asked us to bring in the car. We brought in the car, he replaced the bearing and had the alignment tuned up. Sure enough, problem solved. A month or so later my wife brings in the car to the dealer for a free oil change. The service manager on duty asks how things are, and my wife tells him the above story. He says " well, if you'd let us fix it, we could have had that warrantied". My wife told him that the dealer had 2 chances to fix it and didn't, and what's more, there was no warranty issue, the problem arose out of the collision with the curb, not with a defect. We'll be looking at buying a Ford again in the future, but I don't feel any great loyalty to this dealer. They aren't bad folks, but I don't have much confidence in their ability to diagnose and fix problems. So how do you find a good mechanic and good dealer?

Chicago, IL.

I agree. Thanks for posting.

I went to the link and it looks like pretty good evidence to back up his claim that manufacturing output it higher now than in the 40s. What evidence does Lou Dobbs have?

Amazing that a humble Ford Focus does better in these tests than the full-size Chevy Silverado! Glad that the F-150 is a top safety pick.

Good stuff!

Thanks very much for the useful information. I really appreciate it!

I'm aware that the PZEV 2.0 4 cyl. has a little less HP than the standard 2.0 used in the current North American Focus. Other than that, does anyone know if there is any downside to the PZEV engine as compared to the standard 2.0 (e.g reliability). Thanks.

We've gotten over 30+ MPG frequently with the '08 Taurus SEL on the highway at 60-65 MPH. Well, at least during warm weather. Winter weather here in MN causes mileage to slump -- we got just under 28 MPG on a 350 mile trip today (mainly limited access), and during a recent cold snap when it got well below zero our mileage was down to 25-26 MPG.

Bought new: 2008 Ford Taurus SEL 2005 Mazda MPV LX (does that count?) Bought used: 1986 Ford Taurus L 1992 Mercury Sable All have been good vehicles.

Good point. The 2007 safety cage was rated "Poor" by IIHS, so Ford must have done something to improve the safety cage for 08-09.