Jeez, what's wrong with focus. I think that car is very handsome looking. I remember all the hipe in europe in 1997-1998 in europe when the first gen focus was shown at a show... This car beat oh so many records in europe.... They even built a factory in RUSSIA to make focus there (the quality by the way is controlled very strictly).... So since the US focus or at least the first gen had reliability issues it doesn't mean it needs to be bashed... It WAS a very good attempt by Ford to bring a small compact to compete with the japanease and german competition. Let's keep our fingers crossed some of those problems will be taken care off.
Oh by the way trust me i know, lol. My family was a "proud" (not for too long) owner of one of the first two foci station wagons that came to the near by dealer, back in late 1999. Although that car was a big jump from the car we had before it, a 1991 subaru loyale with 150000 miles, it had some major suspention issues... The wind shield would also crack at random, many times....
Subaru was the only car we could afford when we just came from russia.....
sorry for the long post....