2000 Ford Focus ZTS

Bye-bye, Escort. Ford Motor Company is recalibrating the North American small-car standard. The plan is to do it with an automobile designed, engineered, and already successfully on sale in Europe.

"The point was to build cars of substance at affordable prices," explains Al Kammerer, director of the Focus vehicle line. "That's quite a departure for this particular segment."

Although a true "world" car (offered in North America, Europe, and Asia) is an old concept with a poor track record, our drive, instrumented test numbers, and early pricing indicate its time may have finally come. Due in Ford showrooms any day now, the all-new Focus will be available in three body styles: ZX3 three-door hatchback; LX, SE, and ZTS four-door sedan; and SE four-door wagon. (In Europe, it's also offered as a four-door hatch.)

Our tester, an uplevel ZTS sedan, came with a great price and a long list of standard equipment: light-alloy wheels, air conditioning, five-speed manual, peppy 130-horsepower DOHC, four, power windows, remote locking, AM/FM radio with CD player, leather-wrapped steering wheel, and anti-lock brakes. Even after adding the optional leather seats and side-impact airbags, the total price (including destination and delivery charges) was less than $17,000.

Pulling strongly and sweetly past 5000 rpm, the 2.0-liter Zetec powerplant reminded us of the throaty engines in VW GTIs. But like those revvy VWs, this new Ford four-cylinder must be spooled up to do its best work. So we highly recommend the slick-shifting five-speed manual. Or you can wimp out and get the pretty nice, electronically controlled four-speed automatic. Although not as quick as the 2000 Dodge Neon ES, this car seems to like a vigorous workout. We gave it just that.

Cabin ambience is solidly German import in design. Think new Jetta, and you're almost there. But getting comfortable behind this wheel is easier. There's lots of telescopic and tilt adjustment in the steering column. At speed, the low-friction steering allows communication with the road for slip and grip info with just the right touch of boost and a crisp turn-in. Lane changes are fun. Besides front airbags, our car was also equipped with optional front-passenger, side-impact bags.

The Focus feels spacious inside, despite being slightly narrower and a tad longer than the old Escort sedan. This impression is likely a result of the car's higher roofline and the elevated position of the wide and supportive seat cushions. Full-size adults also fit easily into the back of this sedan. But if cargo space is needed, the rear-seat cushion folds against the front seatbacks, and the backrest folds down, opening into the trunk.

At first glance, the front suspension isn't too sophisticated. But the engineers who designed it did their geometry and worked at taking "stiction" (sticking and friction) out of every sliding element. The result is an ability to glide over small irregularities that normally cause harsh thumps and bumps in small cars.

Ford calls its pressed-steel, multi-link rear-ride arrangement a "control-blade" suspension. "The independent rear provides a lot of flexibility in balancing both ride comfort and control," says Kammerer. "We don't need to compromise the driving dynamics to get the plushness."

That design philosophy appears to work. The Focus' average speed of 62.6 mph through our slalom makes it faster around the cones than a $62,000 Jaguar XJ8L and a $300,000 Bentley Continental. The impression is of having plenty of wheel travel for gobbling the larger stuff and big-car, full-frame isolation when encountering expansion joints and smaller road imperfections. Nice combination.