The 2009 Focus Coupe: Ready for its Close-Up! The 2009 Ford Focus Coupe is set to have its coming out party in front of millions of screaming fans as the nation gets its first peek at the newly redesigned car on the hugely popular "American Idol" television show this Wednesday night at 9 p.m. EST on Fox.
The redesign comes hot on the heels of the all-new body style that broke cover last year but was met with an avalanche of criticism from the automotive media and online pundits. Ironically, however, the new car has been selling well with April's retail sales up 88 percent over a year ago.
The freshly designed front and rear fascias are a direct result of customer feedback and are meant to prove that Ford is, indeed, listening to customers. The redesign provides a more aggressive, larger lower front area that takes cues from the Verve concept car (and newly launched European Ford Fiesta). Standard fog lamps are now more integrated into the fascia.
In addition to the reworked nose and tail, the SES Coupe now sports a new roof-line spoiler and gets premium-painted dark chrome 17-inch aluminum wheels as standard. To further drive home its sporting nature, the car's twin-bar grille and headlight surrounds have darkened.
In the performance department, five-speed manual SES Coupes get a 3HP bump to 143HP and deeper growl courtesy of a new sport-tuned exhaust. SES Coupes with automatic transmissions benefit from a new 4.2 final drive ratio providing quicker 0-60 mph times. This added performance doesn't sacrifice the Focus' 35-miles-per-gallon economy rating.
The 2009 model year brings the availability of a new electronic stability control (ESC) option as well.
Another feature sure to set the Focus apart from the competition will be the inclusion of the cool SYNC voice-activated communications and entertainment system as standard on the SES model. It will still be an option on the SE trim level.
The 2009 Focus Coupe will be available later this summer and will have an MSRP that starts at $15,920.
Focaljet Exclusive: Official Public Reveal at FocusSport After its American Idol debut, Focaljet members were the first to see the new '09 Focus Coupe "in the metal" at a special reveal presentation by Ford at the FocusSport HQ. Representatives from Ford, including Focus Brand Manager, Sam De La Garza, were on hand to answer questions for the many Focaljet members in attendance. Give-aways and door prizes, donated by Ford and FocusSport, capped off a great day in sunny, SoCal.
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