At one point, Ford was nearly the king of sales in Europe. In 2015, it sold an incredible 1.28 million vehicles, putting it in the top five biggest brands on the continent. Now, though, things look different. Last year, the Blue Oval sold just 426,307 vehicles in Europe—17% down from the year prior, and 66% down from that big 2015 sales number.
A lot of that decline can be attributed to Ford’s pivot away from cars and towards more profitable, higher-margin crossovers, SUVs, and pickup trucks. The Mondeo sedan, which raked in tens of thousands of sales per year, died in 2021. The Fiesta, the company’s best-selling model and once the best-selling car in Europe, was killed off in 2023. Now, it’s the Focus’s turn to face the grave.
A Ford Europe spokesperson confirmed to me via email that the last Focus, a white five-door model, was built on Friday. Rather than being sold as normal, the car is being given to the city of Saarlouis, the same town in Germany where the car is built, to be placed into a museum.
The Focus Had A Good 27-Year Run
The first Focus had big shoes to fill when it debuted in ’98. It would be taking on the hotly contested compact segment, occupying the spot in Ford’s lineup previously held by the long-running Escort. Despite its controversial looks, the car proved a resounding success, winning Europe’s Car of the Year award in 1999 and turning around years of sales declines for the brand. The first-gen Focus managed to sneak into the American market right before SUVs became mainstream, and it was a success here, too, holding a spot on Car and Driver’s Ten Best list from 2000 to 2004.
For the second generation of Focus, Ford split development between two separate cars, one for Europe and one for North America. That’s how we got the quirky, three-year-production run of the 2008-2011 Focus sedan and coupe. Europe got a totally different car, built over a longer production run, until both cars were discontinued in favor of the third-gen Focus, which was sold globally starting in 2010.
It didn’t take long for sales to grow even higher. According to data published by research firm Polk, the Focus was the best-selling car on the planet in 2012 and 2013, solidifying it in the history books as one of the most important cars of the 21st century. The car’s market share would slowly fall off thanks to the onslaught of more popular crossovers and SUVs, leading Ford to drop the car (as well as the Fiesta, Fusion, Taurus, and C-Max) for the U.S. market in 2018.
The Focus lived on in Europe, though, getting a fourth generation that same year, which lasted all the way up until Friday. In a way, the iconic hatch’s death signifies the end of an era for Ford, one marked by sales volume dominance. So where does it go from here?
How Ford Plans To Regain Market Share
Ford has been planning to kill the Focus since 2022 to make room for more profitable models. The strategy, revealed back then, seemed to mirror what the company did in the U.S. back in 2018, according to a report from Automotive News that year:
Ford is dropping its long-running volume models, the Fiesta small car and Focus compact, in Europe to concentrate on SUVs, crossovers and pickups, which generate higher margins.
While that report also claimed Ford would be going all-electric by 2030 (something that definitely isn’t happening anymore), the overall plan of shifting to crossovers seemingly hasn’t changed, according to Autocar:
Although the Focus has been discontinued, Autocar recently reported that Ford is looking to fill the gap it has left in its line-up with a new mid-sized crossover, due in 2027.
That model will not replace the Kuga – which arrived in 2008 in effect as a crossover version of the Focus – but will instead be sold alongside it, offering both petrol-hybrid and electric drivetrains.
[…]
It is currently forming a plan to return to being one of Europe’s best-selling manufacturers, having appointed former Focus and Kuga model line manager Jim Baumbick as its first dedicated Europe boss in three years.
Among Baumbick’s chief responsibilities is to “develop products relevant for European customers”, said Ford.
Whether Ford actually knows which products are relevant for European customers is another story. Crossovers are more popular than ever on the continent, sure, but the top three best-selling cars in the region last year—the Dacia Sendero, the Renault Clio, and the Volkswagen Golf—were all good old-fashioned hatchbacks. Ford probably hopes it can offset the lower sales with higher margins—something lots of automakers seem to be doing these days.
Top graphic image: Ford
Bummer to see it finally go out.
OTOH, my son found a 2016 Focus ST3 last month and snapped it up. He’s already so sold on it he plans to ride it to the grave.
I wonder if Ford has a future in Europe at all given the implosion in sales.
Europe isn’t much of a growing market, no, but to go from nearly 1.3 million sales to less than 450,000 in the span of a decade is nearly next-level collapse. How much more can they really hemorrhage and still remain a viable operation at scale?
Either Ford is intentionally sabotaging their operations because they don’t see a future there, or the leadership is so incredibly out of touch as to think that 60% fall in sales is fine because they believe a North America-centric ‘One Ford’ model works globally.
As for the Focus, the last one I had was a brand new rental – coincidentally in 2015 – was a 6-speed wagon and 1.0L Ecoboost engine in Denmark. It seemed like a perfectly cromulent car, except that 6th was basically useless as anything other than a motorway cruising gear. Had to downshift before passing, because the engine was hopeless without high revs.
I always liked the Focus. I had a rental Focus back in the late 1990s and was impressed by the handling and driving feel, even if it wasn’t very fast.
I really wanted a Focus ST but we didn’t get those in the USA until 2013. In the meantime a 2008 Mazdaspeed 3 was a platform-cousin good substitute. Then I bought a 2013 Focus ST in 2018 or so, and am still daily driving it today.
That’s a shame. I really liked the first gen Focus and worked at a Ford dealer when they debuted so I PDIed a lot of them. I eventually bought an SVT Focus which was a great fun little car until it got hit while parked and totalled.
Popular, yes. I had a 2002 and before 100k miles the transmission shat the bed. It was an automatic and not worth the cost of repair. I really, did truly love that car though. The 2.0L Zetec was peppy enough and the car was quite comfortable and handled well.
But alas, the reason why you don’t see many of these on the roads now are the bad automatic transmissions with a high replacement cost.
Same thing happened to mine, 12 years and over 100,000 miles later. I traded it in for a newer Focus, with the PowerShift, which I traded much sooner for a Mustang.
My only Focus experience was a test drive in a 1.0EB/6MT hatchback. Man, was that thing miserable. I don’t know why they put a 6th gear in the box. It couldn’t maintain 70mph in 6th on a flat freeway. It was an easy bullet to dodge.
I still think that Ford would have had some sales with an all-wheel drive Focus Active here in the US. Raising the ride height and butching up the cladding worked for repackaging the Impreza.
That was the original plan. It was to be imported from China. Then the trade war started.
First car was a 2000 ZX3 that I modified practically everything on (8.5lb aluminum flywheels are noisy as shit FYI). Then later got a 2004 Focus SVT which was my dream car, but turned out to be an absolute pile. Traded the SVT for a Fiesta ST since the newer Focus got too big for my taste. Now I plan to drive the Fiesta ST into the ground since there is no logical replacement. RIP
Once again, it just shows that a “crossover” is really just the hatch/wagon mashup the world secretly wanted. Because for 90% of people, they’re better in every way.
And most important to the manufacturer, they’re almost all more expensive than the substitute hatch or wagon, too (on top of being a little slower, thirstier, etc).
And they have looser emissions standards to adhere to. Don’t forget that too.
Not in the USA. All light duty vehicles have the same local emission requirements. (HC, NOx, PM, CO)
A Ford F-150 and Mitsubishi Mirage have to meet the same standard.
I don’t believe that. Being the higher profiting vehicle, it was pushed and marketed more efficiency to the the consumers. They wanted you to buy it.
Being more expensive? Depends on what we consider the hatchback/wagon equivalent. For example a Puma, that is the crossover replacing the Fiesta as the european entry model, I would accept as an alternative to a Focus hatchback.
My only problem would be that crossovers are taller. And that makes them less efficient at highway speeds. Not that I spend much time driving outside the city, but what if there’s a change in life, something like a new job and with that a longer commute?
Ford’s final car, the Mondeo, lives on in China as its best selling vehicle there and is also exported to MENA countries as the Taurus. It’s available with a 1.5T or 2.0T with an 8-speed auto, or 1.5T hybrid with the excellent powersplit planetary eCVT.
Interesting to hear that there will be a new EV in the Kuga’s size class by 2027, which could be the Escape replacement for the US market built on the same platform as the much-hyped budget EV pickup.
Ford Europe has another joint venture EV planned with VW. Part of their plan to share EV and Van platforms.
Ford sabotaged it on purpose because they only want to sell the F150 🙁
They KNEW the PowerShit DCT was shit, but they kept it because they wanted an excuse to stop selling small cars. See also: the 1.0T with a wet timing belt. Why the FUCK would they put a timing belt in Oil? They wouldn’t DARE put that on an F150.
Of course, once they stopped selling them here, Ford went back to a regular automatic on the Focus and Fiesta, including the ST. Yeah an automatic ST would’ve been a HUGE success over here, where automatic is more popular.
I dunno. Perhaps in today’s modern Gamba Economy, perhaps someone would be willing to make that wager.
You heard it here first, folks: How Dogisbadob lead to the downfall of the F-150!
yeah oops, I forgot about that shit 🙁
I don’t think of timing belts when I think F150 😐
Who wants to tell Dog the bad news about wet belts on F150s?
They’ve been doing that for at least 7 years now.
oops yeah, I made a mistake 🙁
not nearly as big a mistake as them using it LOL
edit times are too short on this site
Does any modern F150 have a timing belt?
It’s not the timing belt, “just” the oil pump belt. I guess in theory you could shut it off before damage occurs when you suddenly lose all oil pressure, but chances are either failure is going to need a new engine.
Wet belts are more efficient- that is why they exist.
As someone who daily drives and enjoys a third-gen hatchback with the 5-speed manual, I’m bummed out that we never got the fourth-gen model.
I would’ve liked to have the option to buy a modern Ford hatchback with hybrid tech, but it looks like the closest options to that within Ford going forward will be the electric Mach-E, or a next-generation Bronco Sport with a hybrid powertrain since the Escape is on its way out (we might get a second refresh for the Corsair, but the PHEV would be out of my price range and less suitable for my living/parking situation).
I miss my 2013 SE with the five-speed. Great commuter, decent power, great fuel economy and comfortable for me.
My family hated riding in it, though, and it got dumped after I’d put 80K on it in three years. It was no longer needed for a commute, and we swapped it for a Mazda 6 that we all love to this day, but still. I look at those examples on the road, and there are plenty out there, a bit wistfully
Yeah, I’d say the biggest weakness of the car is that it’s cramped in the back, even though I think it rides really well.
I have the SE, and I’d like to move on to something with better fuel economy and more features like keyless entry, automatic A/C, Android Auto, etc.
The USA was supposed to get the 4th gen Focus Active. It was to be made in China and imported. Import tariffs put an end to that plan.
The 2nd gen Cadillac CT6 was also planned for the USA.
Yeah, the Active model was going to be made in Mexico, then the plan changed to China, then it never made it here.
I know the CT6 PHEV was imported here, but I wasn’t aware that the second-gen model was designed with the US in mind. I know it’s based on an updated version of the Omega platform, but I figured it was only for China.
In both cases it made sense to assembly in the primary market and the import the small number that the USA would buy.
Basic global auto manufacturing 101 that some politicians don’t understand.
Ford’s bringing out a new car combining the Fiesta and the Focus that comes in a large flower pot.
It’s called the Ford Ficus
And its family tree looks like a Banyan.
COTD nomination for Brett Stutz. He earned it!
RIP to another small(ish) hatch. I’ve owned a first gen wagon, then a 3rd gen hatch, then ST, currently driving a 17 RS. The Focus wasn’t a perfect car, but hatchbacks are getting mighty thin on the ground lately.
The hatch is not anywhere close as threatened as the wagon is, but it is rough watching entire distinct car segments being run over by subdividing the crossover segment further and further.
Give it time, soon the only thing for sale will be a blobby crossover. No more convertibles, no more wagons, no more sedans, MAYBE a coupe or two left and a sports car scattered in here and there.
The thing is, nobody who buys an SUV cares about driving dynamics, or if they do, they probably get a Mazda or something. The majority consumer just does what they’re told. They’ve been told that they need AWD even if they live in places where it never snows. They want an F150 the size of a house because they might get hit by a stray comet and should be be prepared?
As stated, they’re chasing higher margins, easiest way to do that is to just get rid of lower-margin stuff and use FUD to convince everyone that they need a go anywhere, do anything crossover that would probably get stuck on wet grass if they ever tried going offroad with touring tires.
Ever since automakers started calling themselves “mobility companies” they’ve decided that they’re not going to even bother building anything interesting anymore. There’s no pride, there’s no passion, there’s just shareholder value. A few intersting things will slip through the cracks here and there, so buy them when they make it through, but just expect that your next car will be a sneaker with wheels (if it isn’t already).
Car companies sell the vehicles they push.
Ain’t that the truth. I run screaming from anything that drives more wheels than I need, myself.