"Ford Quietly Pulls the Plug on this model after 27 years in production."

 I have owned 3 "Focuses", a 2005:

    She got killed by bambi, I hit the deer going 85 miles an hour on the interstate at 4:30 in the morning in the way to work.  I escaped injury with the exception of some glass in the corner of my eye which I removed.

   This was Focus#2, another excellent, car, I had her for several years until a Chevrolet Tahoe pulled in front of me and the resulting accident totaled out both vehicles.

  This was Focus#3, I seemed to blog the most about this one.  All were excellent cars and I raved about all 3 of them.  Ford quit making sedans for the North American market in 2019 and I thought that was extremely shortsighted of them.  Sure the market was tight but sedans are the gateway vehicles for most new families, if they are happy with the sedan, then they are most likely to buy from that same brand when they go to get their next vehicle.  At least that is my thought pattern and experiences, but I don't have a fancy marketinig degree but to me it is logical.  GM and Chrysler still sell sedans as do the "imports".  I have seen pictures of the new Taurus that is being made in China and sold in CHina and in the middle East and it is really cool looking according to my brother who is a contractor in Saudi Arabia.

  I wish they would sell that car over here (And make it over here)

  11 photos

Photo: Ford

Ford knew this day was coming, but that didn't make it any easier when the last Focus, a white, five-door hatchback, rolled off the line at Saarlouis in mid-November. After 27 years, more than 12 million units, and a legacy of being the dependable, fun-to-drive family car for millions, production officially ended.

Employees shared the moment across social media, quietly closing a chapter that once defined Ford's European presence. The decision wasn't sudden. Ford had announced back in 2022 that the Focus would wind down as the company pushed harder toward its electric transition.

When the original Ford Focus landed in 1998, it didn't just replace the Escort. It reset the bar for what a compact car could be. In an era when small family cars were mostly basic appliances, the first-gen Focus arrived with crisp New Edge styling, sharp reflexes, and a chassis so well-sorted it instantly became the benchmark.

For younger buyers, it was a gateway into driving that actually felt fun. For older buyers, it was proof that practicality didn't have to be dull. The Focus was that rare mass-market car that satisfied almost everyone.

And Ford ran with it. The Focus became a global model, eventually replacing regional compacts with a single formula that worked just as well in Berlin as it did in Boston.

Photo: Ford

It spawned everything from budget-friendly commuter trims to the raucous ST and RS variants that earned genuine cult followings. Over four generations, the Focus became one of Ford's essential nameplates.

That long run came to a quiet but emotional close last week when a white, five-door Focus rolled off the line at Ford's Saarlouis plant in Germany. Still, seeing the final car nose its way off the line on November 15 felt like watching an era dissolve in real time.

Ford's corporate communications lead for Europe, Volker Eis, confirmed the moment in a note to Motor1, marking the car's quiet send-off without even a press photo. So the Focus goes as any of the discontinued models that we won't be seeing in 2026, alongside the Alfa Romeo Giulia or the Chevrolet Malibu.

Its end follows a string of Ford farewells in Europe. Fiesta? Gone in 2023. Mondeo? Wrapped up in 2022. The tiny Ka disappeared earlier still. The Focus ST even bowed out separately this fall, its own last unit finishing assembly weeks before the standard car. The result is a Ford lineup in Europe devoid of traditional cars, now consisting almost entirely of SUVs, crossovers, and work vans.

Photo: Ford

Why abandon the staples that once carried Ford's brand in the region? As CEO Jim Farley put it, they were no longer making money. Development costs rose, margins stayed thin, and the numbers never justified future generations.

In one of his blunter comments, Farley said Ford was "getting out of the boring-car business and into the iconic-vehicle business." But the fallout has been painful. Ford's European market share, once 7.2 percent in 2015, has slipped to just 3.3 percent through September 2025. Cutting high-volume nameplates tends to do that.

Meanwhile, European buyers haven't abandoned conventional cars at all. The VW Golf, Renault Clio, Dacia Sandero, Peugeot 208, Skoda Octavia, Toyota Yaris, these are still topping the charts, proving that mainstream hatches and sedans have plenty of life left. Other automakers have doubled down. Ford, at least for now, has stepped back.

The Focus's departure also leaves Saarlouis in limbo. The plant once buzzed with the rhythm of one of Ford's best-known models. Now it builds nothing. Ford hasn't committed to a new product for the factory, nor confirmed a buyer. For a place that's produced millions of cars since the late 1960s, the silence feels heavy.

Photo: Ford

Still, there are signs Ford isn't giving up on Europe entirely. Autocar reported that Ford is preparing a new mid-size crossover arriving in 2027, slotting alongside the Kuga rather than replacing it. It is expected to offer both hybrid and fully electric powertrains, an attempt to fill the void left by the Focus without returning to a classic hatchback formula.

The company is also rolling out two EV crossovers, the Explorer and Capri, both based on Volkswagen's MEB architecture. They are roughly Focus-sized, but not Focus-spirited; they are part of Ford's reinvention, not its heritage.

To orchestrate this comeback, Ford appointed Jim Baumbick, formerly in charge of the Focus and Kuga lines, as its first dedicated European boss in three years.

His marching orders are clear: develop vehicles that Europeans actually want, and restore Ford to the upper ranks of the sales charts. That's no small task when the automaker has fallen from Europe's No. 2 brand in 2015 to 12th just last year.

Photo: Ford

And so the Focus ends the way many great cars do, not with a flashy farewell edition, but with a single, ordinary hatchback gliding quietly into the world. A driver's car to the end, beloved for its steering feel, its balance, its everyday honesty.

It leaves behind a hole in Ford's lineup and in countless driveways, a reminder of a time when a compact hatchback could carry a company's hopes and still put a smile on a driver's face.