Revealed at the 1998 Geneva Motor Show and developed under Richard Parry-Jones, the first Focus was engineered around a class-leading independent rear suspension (Control Blade) and a tall, computer-modelled interior that made the car feel bigger inside than its footprint suggested.[1] Ford had originally planned to keep the Escort name for this generation, and only switched at the last minute; a German court briefly forced Ford to avoid the word “Focus” there entirely, after a magazine publisher claimed prior rights to it.
Three trims are recorded here: the 1.6 Zetec-S/SE petrol, the 1.8 TDCi
diesel, and the RS, the first Focus RS, front-wheel drive with a Quaife
limited-slip differential to manage its 215 PS turbocharged four. Two of
the three engine displacements in this entry (the 1.6 petrol and 1.8
diesel) are recorded as estimated: the article states only the rounded
litre figure for each, so the commonly documented exact cubic-centimetre
displacement is marked as an estimate rather than presented as a sourced
fact.
