So, it makes 345hp.....

A friend is ready to put a deposit on one. He's 36. I'm on the cusp of 40. Early 30's to early 40's is a good demographic if you're selling new cars.

In reply to mazdeuce:

Yep... for a surprising number of us, the kids are close to being out of the house, and the rest of us are single SINKs or married DINKs. I mean, I'm nor particularly wealthy, but running the numbers, I could easily afford an RS with some minor reconfiguring of where I currently put my money.

OTOH, I'm also looking into leasing shop space so I could play with my current toys. Which I wouldn't have to do if I had an RS. Which wouldn't require that I lease shop space. So it becomes, have cool old toys and nothing to show for it but pride, or have a cool new toy with resale value and the indignity of buying a new car like everyone else?

Joe Gearin wrote: Now we will see if anyone buys them. Although it's a tasty offering, it's also a premium price for a Focus. It will be interesting to see if U.S. buyers step up to the plate. There's a whole lot of great machinery (that offers more cachet) available in the same price neighborhood......... V8 Mustang new (smaller ATS platformed- 300 lbs lighter) V8 Camaro BMW M235i WRX-- STI 370Z It will be interesting to see how the Focus RS does. Yes, if you are looking for a turbocharged- all-wheel drive- rally-car for the street, it narrows your choices. I'm just not sure how many of those folks are out there willing to shell out the cash. In Europe, where everyone is rally-crazy I can see it. In the U.S. though, rally is about as watched as the WNBA.

Haha the wnba part is funny and also true. But there is a demographic of late 20 early 30 year old that have been watching ken block on the internet the last few years. If they have enough disposable income for this I don't know.

Knurled wrote: In reply to mazdeuce: Yep... for a surprising number of us, the kids are close to being out of the house, and the rest of us are single SINKs or married DINKs.

For the target market for this car? I disagree for the most part. Most moderately successful people in their mid to late thirties, if they have kids, have kids under 10. Most of them don't have money for a $40k Focus. Most people over 40 have money but would rather drive a Pony car, BMW, or Audi for the money. Most under 30 have no money.

So it seems like your target market is well-off male DINKs in their 30s. Or, more likely, Thirtysomething men with no fiscal responsibility. Not a huge market, but it might give Ford a little Halo car effect.

I'm excited that a domestic manufacturer is trying something like this though.

People had enough money for the Lancer Evo X. They'll have money for a Focus RS.

An ex-coworker is younger than me, has a young kid (maybe two now?), just traded his Ralliart on a new STI.

I am still giggling over the C.diff display on the digital cluster.

I test drove a Fiesta ST last week and thought it could use 25 hp more. Now I'm wondering whether I should wait to see what comes of the Fiesta RS. If it's front-drive only, I'm not certain it needs that much power. The Focus RS could be a more expensive option, but it's just a bigger car than I'd like. I could also just get the Fiesta ST now and tune it (and probably void the warranty).

Yes, the Focus RS is based on an economy car. Aren't the STI and Evo also? I think/hope that people buy enough to convince Ford and others to keep making this type of enthusiast car.

I was thinking about this angle, too. Sonic RS + bolt-ons + tune = over 200whp. But that's all power, nothing special, and it's a warranty-voider. Albeit a cheap warranty-void as new cars go.

Ford does seem to understand enthusiasts, or at least is willing to give us what they think we want. GM's attitude is and always seems to have been "Eh, if they want performance, they can buy a Camaro or Corvette." Not realizing that some of us just simply do NOT WANT that kind of car.

I had an argument years back on rx7club (no, really?) with a guy who claimed, strictly as an example, that the only reason people bought Volvo S40s and S60s was because they couldn't afford S80s. It's probably been long since deleted, but I find that fate has a sense of irony, because I find myself actually driving an S40 now and my main gripe with it is that it is not small enough.

The Fiesta ST is a special vehicle. The Focus ST is a special vehicle. The Focus RS is a super-special vehicle. GM would never make anything like that. The aforementioned Sonic RS is just a Sonic LTZ with lowering springs and shorter gears in the trans. Nothing "special". This is the GM Way: All cars below their "halo cars" get nothing more interesting than paint and trim packages and maybe different gearing, but nothing that takes a lot of work. if they want more, they'll just have to buy the next car up in the chain, after all, people don't buy small cars except as a way to be thrifty.

And then Acura sells a bazillion luxury Civics and GM wonders why their market share gets smaller.

In reply to Knurled:

Except for that short time when they slapped a supercharger on a pop bottle and gave it brakes worthy of a 911.....those were hands down better cars than the srt neons.

In typical GM fashion however, they didn't market the cars at all.....might explain why they only sold 6k total in 4 years.

I'm a 31 year old guy pondering one of these. However realistically, the Evo probably still rules the roost once you do a few simple mods. But they were marginal as street cars when they came out in terms of refinement and tech, and nowadays just look like dinosaurs. Subaru always seemed to do a little better at making an overall street car that the average "magazine car enthusiast" could enjoy driving for a few years without being too punishing. They also tend to make random weird blunders as the models progress which then get corrected later. Especially with hatch WRX/STI no longer available, I think these RS cars will sell okay. The novelty factor of a RS in the US will move some units. I guess it really comes down to the driving experience.

I think a significant factor now is also that the market has caught up to boost buggies. Mustangs are as faster or faster than M3s which now rip, and turbos are no longer a novelty at all. Face it, real handling dynamics don't matter to most people buying cars, even special editions like this. And straight line speed doesn't differentiate cars like this anymore. In 03 or 04, an Evo or STi was the way to get into some cheap speed, but the class didn't evolve significantly while most other things did. Eh, I'm just ranting now. I hope they sell a bunch of these and make more RS cars. I might even buy one. The closest thing I've owned is an 04 Forester XT with the awful 4speed auto so I haven't really checked off the category.

Isn't Mitsubishi pulling out? So the Evo comparisons aren't going to mean much. I think the RS will sell pretty well, Ford guys are brand loyal so this will go well to them PLUS people like us who have been waiting for just such a car to come along from a company that's established and stands behind their cars cough mitsubishi.

I see people here acting like this car is going to be $40k+ (and it may end up there with dealer mark ups), but it's got a starting MSRP of $36k and change. Yes, you can get a new Mustang v8 for that kind of money but they are totally different buyers for the vast majority of interested parties. The Alpha based camaro only has the lowest trim level of V8 for that price.

It's priced really competitively (read lower priced) with the AWD/turbo performance cars like the VW Golf R, Audi RS3, Merc CLA AMG and Subaru STI. And it bests most of those cars performance figures. I have no idea if they will sell, but Ford has done the best that they can to make it appealing for it's segment. I'm glad it will exist, even if I may not necessarily be in line to buy one.

I have so much want for this car. I really think it's time to take the BRZ back to stock, sell off the other parts, and just drive it until next year so I can get a test drive in one of these.

bastomatic wrote: For the target market for this car? I disagree for the most part. Most moderately successful people in their mid to late thirties, if they have kids, have kids under 10. Most of them don't have money for a $40k Focus. Most people over 40 have money but would rather drive a Pony car, BMW, or Audi for the money. Most under 30 have no money. So it seems like your target market is well-off male DINKs in their 30s. Or, more likely, Thirtysomething men with no fiscal responsibility. Not a huge market, but it might give Ford a little Halo car effect. I'm excited that a domestic manufacturer is trying something like this though.

The number of Audi's, BMW's and M-B's I see during my daily commute argues otherwise. And 99% of those has a base MSRP far above the fully-optioned price of a Focus RS. I already see new Golf R's (saw one today). I see more FoST's daily than I can remember.

I have no doubt the RS will do OK. At least here in the $$$$ area of Central NJ where "premium compact" cars (MINI, Volvo C30, etc.) sell well.

I have huge want for this car, I've wanted a hatch WRX for some time, but the poor interior and questionable ej2.5 ring lands, as well as questionable transmission put me off from pulling the trigger.

As Bastomatic noted well, I'm in my thirties with above average income, but married, with a baby on the way. Justifying a 37k car over just driving a cheaper, used car is really tough. I could buy it, but that wouldn't be the best decision for my family. So here I sit, driving a 13 and 16 year old set of Datsuns. I hope there are plenty of other guys that either, don't think that way, or have the extra money to spend. I really want this to be a hit for Ford.......and then have them make a cheaper AWD ST, or Mazda to maze the Mazdaspeed 3 AWD and compete with the regular WRX.

27k is do-able if I sell my Z and SUV....37k?.....harder to pull off.

TGMF wrote: Justifying a 37k car over just driving some average 10-15k used c5 ZO6 is really tough.

I hear you.

In reply to TGMF:

That's the "GRM" way of thinking.

The "normal" way of thinking is, "Why would I want to count on a 15+ year old car to get me to work every day, regardless of how cheap it is?" This is why $37K hot-hatches sell.

I hope they sell lots - that way when I buy one used somebody else can eat the depreciation.

In reply to NGTD:

Sorry, you can't have mine for at least 10 years.

STIs and Evos haven't really been depreciating much.

That's a statistic that I'd been following rather closely.

(They certainly aren't European 5 year nosedive!)

In reply to Knurled:

That's what really makes me want a new one. With a car like the STI, EVO, and now RS, they will never be a logical, practical purchase. They simply wont depreciate enough to ever justify it over a more practical choice. Even beaten, old examples of a STI are 10k or more. You pretty much just have expect it to be a splurge type purchase...a want rather than a need. I suspect this will be a car that 10 years from now I look at and think, man, I should have bought one of those when I had the chance. With that mindset, and the performance you get, the 37k entry fee is actually a pretty good deal. .

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. see what I did there? talked myself right into one.... now to convince the wife.

The thing about the Focus RS is that it's exactly as practical as the run of the mill Focus hatch, and that's a damn intelligent buy. If you could justify purchasing a Focus to haul a couple of kids around in comfort and modern safety, then the RS is a no brainer, it's all of those things, just with a couple hundred extra HP and AWD.

In reply to TGMF:

I know what you mean... I've been using the same argument for buying a new GT350. Given the price difference, the RS is the economical choice.

TGMF wrote: Even beaten, old examples of a STI are 10k or more.

I haven't been able to find any decent examples of GD for under $15-16k, and I know that chassis just dissolves up here, any of those cars will have a hole in the rear inner fender where there is a "shelf" opposite the strut, and no real good way to patch it without deskinning the rear quarters first.

So I had been looking at '08-11 STIs... because the control arm rear suspension doesn't have that "shelf", and any Impreza I've seen from that generation is pretty clean so I am assuming that Subaru managed to figure out how to make a car not rust. But now we're talking $20-25k...

And oddly enough, it's easier to get financing for a new $37k car than an eight year old $25k car. And to be brutally honest, I wouldn't own an STI without expecting to go through an engine or two. Apparently the Root Cause of the bearing issues is the case halves spreading, causing mains clearance to skyrocket, which starves the rods of oil. Only way to fix that is to skim and line-bore the block, at which point you may as well just buy a brand-new shortblock...

And this is also how we talk ourselves into buying a Focus RS as the sensible choice

Well, the good news for me is my wife hates my Subaru's but she really likes Ford's.