Ford’s compact family car, on sale globally from 1998 as the replacement for the Escort in Europe and North America and the Laser in Asia and Oceania.[1] Its “New Edge” styling split opinion at launch, but its Control Blade independent rear suspension became a genuine industry benchmark: rivals, including Volkswagen’s Golf Mk5, followed with multi-link designs of their own within a few years.
This entry covers the first two generations: the original C170 of 1998, home to the first-ever Focus RS, and the C307 of 2004, whose own RS used a Volvo-derived turbocharged five-cylinder. Ford ended Focus production in 2025; every generation after the C307 is a gap in this catalogue.