Ford executives think Honda may have made a mistake in the redesign of the Civic for 2001, and they plan to take advantage of it to pitch their own Focus at the growing market among young men and, increasingly, women for sport-compact cars.
The loadstone of Ford's effort will be an SVT Focus, which the Detroit firm will launch early next year. This coupe will come with an engine good for more than 170 horsepower sent to the front wheels through a 6-speed manual transmission.
Honda's mistake, in the eyes of Ford and a lot of sport-compact enthusiasts, was changing Civic's rear suspension to provide more interior space. As a result, the new Civic's handling isn't as crisp as the previous model's.
So Ford will make a big effort to step up to the handling counter with Focus models that are meant to look hot and be driven hard, and by offering a bigger range of performance and appearance products through their dealerships and other aftermarket suppliers.
The prize here is considerable, since sport-compact cars are to today's 20-somethings what muscle cars are to their parents, and hotrod jalopies were to their grandparents.
Charles Blum, the president of the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA), sees the popularity of this market through the business it has provided the parts-selling members of his association – going from US$295 million in 1997 to US$756 million in 1999.