Romans5.8

No Build Date or ETA yet. We shall see! We're keeping the Taurus. My wife works here in town and will drive it to work. It has 168k miles on it. I absolutely love that Taurus though. Not sporty or firm, but that's a good thing. Comfy, plush leather seats (so many cars now have these super firm sporty leather seats. I like sporty, but a big sedan should have a level of comfort). The seats themselves are wide and thick. Just floats on air. It's a fantastic, wonderful car. Quiet. Lumbers along at 2k RPM's on the interstate. Can't tell the difference between 65 and 85 in the way the car rides. The Focus, on the test drive, was not near that nice. BUT, it was way better than any subcompact I've ever driven, is cheap, and gets 40mpg! I'm not a big fan of Automatics and one of the gillions of reasons is as they age, they begin to shift rough and everything else. On this Taurus, with just regular transmission maintenance, you can't tell when it shifts. So quiet and butter smooth. Front to back it's one of my favorite cars I've ever driven. Fast? Nah. 0-60 is not measured in seconds it's measured in numbers of attempts followed by fail/succeed. But at the end of a nice long road trip, it sure is nice to be in that boat! Unfortunately, they've really price the Taurus way out of there and taken away some of it's great qualities. Namely, they've made it another sporty/firm riding sedan. Although you can't take a corner very fast, I really like the floaty feeling of my Taurus. The new Taurus is a good car though, and so is the Fusion.

Fair enough. Essentially my point was those sorts of features and feel on a small pickup would be cool. An SUV with a bed is probably an accurate description! The Ranger was an uber-basic truck. Which I don't mind, but perhaps that's among the reasons it wouldn't sell? Either way, I'd love to see a Ranger again. This supposed new 2.3L 350 horsepower Ecoboost 4 cylinder would be a beautiful match for a truck like that. Small, light, efficient, but could pull a horse trailer with that kind of power!

You know, there's a rawness in the Focus and Fiesta ST that a lot of buyers still want. There are still a few 'drivers' out there who don't want the fastest car possible, they just want something that's fast and fun to drive. That means torque steer, a manual transmission, even a little body roll. I think it's one of the reasons the Miata is so incredibly popular. It's low tech! No AWD, no dual-clutch automated manual (just a 6 speed stick or a 6 speed slushbox auto), no torque vectoring, none of that. By every account it's a slow, poorly handling car compared to the 'high tech' sports cars of today. But, not everyone on the road is trying to get the best numbers. Sometimes it's just gotta be fun to drive! You really get a feel for what you're doing, it's possible to still get into a little trouble, the car reacts like it should instead of synthetically NOT reacting to make you a better driver than you actually are... My $0.02 anyway. Sometimes it's fun to find one of those few-still-existing 'drivers car' that are more about the experience than the numbers.

New here. Ordered a 2014 Ford Focus SE Sport last month! Looking forward to it! Tuxedo Black!

I would LOVE the order process to be a little more 'fun'. As it is now, I'm getting the occasional phone call from a salesman, who can only see limited information and passes it on to me. Heck, I can remember when the brochures had all kinds of stuff in there to help you order. Now they have nothing! Okay, the webcam idea would be cool; but obviously not practical due to employees who may not like the cameras (this is assuming the plant doesn't already have cameras? But what about 'photo stations' throughout the line? In each section, paint and body, assembly, etc. If I got an email every couple hours as my car passed through various stages of assembly, that would be way cool! To see it 'come to life' And of course, being able to look the order stuff up myself, or get e-mail notifications would be a great way to move into at least the 1990's here in technology... All in all I've not been too thrilled with the order process. It's kind of tedious, and there's very little information. Weeks with nothing until suddenly something happens, with no idea when the next thing to happen is going to be... Although, in hindsight, I'm sure Ford probably wants to encourage you to purchase from dealer stock. But when you're an oddball who still likes to shift his own transmission AND thinks if he's gonna buy brand new he's going to buy EXACTLY what he wants! Well then, you've gotta special order. Or, well, at least I think the dealers would prefer that. They have to pay 'floor fees', like interest, to keep the cars in stock. So they are paying the MoCo each month for a car that sits on the lot. On the one hand, a special order car is pure profit because there are no floor fees, and it'll never even take up space of have to be shown and sold. On the other hand, that customer is ordering a car instead of taking one off the lot before another months 'fees' are due!

I realize there are some difficulties with Diesel engines in the U.S.. I also realize not everyone wants them. But, surely someone wants to be nearly the only one to make it? Volkwagen has bigger Diesel sedans at a higher price point. Chevrolet finally comes out with a Diesel Cruze but ONLY in the top trim level. What if we could get an average-equipped Focus SE with the Diesel engines available abroad (and their accompanying gas mileage)? I'm all for it! Would also like to see better manual transmissions, like a 6 speed available on non-ST focus models. There are some of us who still enjoy a stick shift! Also- remote start availability on a manual car. It can, and has been done. Other vehicles accomplish this by using sensors to ensure the vehicle is in neutral with the parking brake on before starting. There are aftermarket options that can do this as well. Would also like to see a Small V-6 pickup Think Honda Ridgeline. That thing is everything RIGHT about a small pickup. The interior is appointed like a mid-sized sedan, not like a fleet pickup truck. Meaning it's a comfortable, quiet interior. I think the small pickup market would prefer for the interior to feel like an SUV, not like a work truck like the Ranger did. It also has neat features like a bed that opens up for additional storage, and some nice styling. It's perfect for those of us who don't need a full sized pickup, but would like 4 wheel drive, and the ability to tow a boat or something. The escape is a nice 'second place', but obviously, it lacks a bed! I'd use a bed more often than I would a hatch. My wish list anyway! -John

Is this going to delay a Focus I special ordered? Wonder if that's why this is taking a while! If Dealers would stock more than one or two cookie cutter Focuses I think we'd be okay! I see a lot of guys special ordering these. Awesome bang for the buck packages like the Sport package (around $600 right now and includes rear disc brakes, improved seats, fog lamps, leather wrapped steering wheel, and other things I'm probably forgetting) are often not on the cars, and if you want a manual transmission? Good luck finding one (though I realize a lot of that is due to the market shifting away from manuals). My dealer basically either had top-end Titanium trims or bargain-basement models. Nothing in the middle like I wanted!