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2003 Ford Focus Compact Coupe, Sedan and Wagon

Ford's worldly small car looks dramatic and different in a rounded package but with sharply creased planes and keen shapes for headlamps. Variations include a four-door sedan, five-door station wagon, and hatchbacks in three-door and five-door formats. Focus provides surprising room from a concise cabin with twin buckets in front of a fold-down bench and back bay for gear. For performance, Focus gets two editions of a 2.0-liter four-cylinder Ford engine. The economy mode with single-cam design for sedan and wagon earns 110 hp and high fuel economy figures. The sporty mode -- Ford's Zetec engine -- has dual cams for more spark to 130 hp. It's the standard on Z-cars such as the ZTS sedan, ZX3 three-door and ZX5 five-door hatchbacks, or the five-door ZTW wagon. Contemporary new interior fabrics apply to all models and more equipment is offered optionally, like heated front seats and heated mirrors, traction control and ABS. A performance version -- SVT Focus -- returns to the Focus line for 2003 as a three-door hatch off the ZX3 and new five-door model based on ZX5. Power comes from a souped-up version of the Zetec engine zipped to 170 hp and connected to a six-speed gearbox.