The heating and ventilation controls are straightforward and the blue backlighting of the instrument panel is nicer than the old green and red illumination. As for the Ambient Lighting Package that costs $295 on the SES but is included with the Sport Package, it's basically a pretty dim illumination of the footwells and cupholders, with a choice of 7 colors--whoopidy-doo.

On the outside, the fake air vents on the front fenders don't even try to look real.

On the outside, the fake air vents on the front fenders don't even try to look real, and the rear portion looks a little unfinished, as the trunklid seems to have been taken off a different car. Also, there are only 4 exterior colours for the coupe. Yet the Focus manages to distinguish itself style-wise in the compact class. The squeezed-in bumpers and the wraparound combination of the headlights and grille are to my liking.

Hooray for Sync!
Standard on SES and SES Sport versions as well as a $495 option on the SE, the Sync system is a must-have. It includes an auxiliary input jack, but also a USB port which is much better. Plug in your USB memory key full of MP3s (a 4-GB unit costs about $30 nowadays), and if you pre-arranged the music file IDs properly, you can fetch just about what you feel like listening by voice command. Artist, genre, album, you can easily filter through hours (actually, days) of music.

The Bluetooth connectivity is the best I've encountered so far. The system easily picks up my cell phone, and the keypad is good for calling the office and having to punch in an extension number to tell my boss I'm late again; some car-integrated systems don't offer this. I can also download my whole address book instead of one entry at a time.

The Sync is, in my opinion a deciding purchase factor in favour of the Focus. An SE with Sync (Convenience Package also required) runs about $18,200, less than other Bluetooth-equipped compacts and subcompacts, and there's only about a half-dozen of them.

The Sync is, in my opinion a deciding purchase factor in favour of the Focus.