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» MEDIA (4) Speakers up - FEEL THE POWER! King of the road, baby. The heart of the beast.. 2.0L of pavement-punishing power.

A couple of years back, I needed a new car to replace my Pontiac Sunfire that had begun to collapse after about 200,000 miles of abuse.

Having lived with the lackluster performance of that vehicle for several years, I yearned for something with some power. Something that screamed out: "A MAN sits behind the wheel of this vehicle!”.

In September of 2005, I laid eyes on just such a vehicle for the first time. Originally owned by a chain-smoking grandmother, this vehicle had obviously been cared for. Why someone would part with such a wonderful chariot was beyond me - my only guess is that the blue-grey coloring simply projected too much testosterone for her tastes. This was the car for me, and I rushed into the sales person’s office as quickly as I could.

On that glorious autumn evening, I took delivery of my 2003 Ford Focus SE.

The vehicle is nothing short of astonishing, commanding respect wherever we go. Nothing screams "Master of the Universe!" quite like pulling up to a parking lot in a Focus, narrow tires squealing in protest as I push the car to its 15 km/h cornering maximum. My wife can barely keep her hands off me when she gets a glance of me seated behind it's circular plastic steering wheel, arm draped casually across the top as I nonchalantly pull into the driveway.

Ah, I can hear the protests now. "Sweet rod, man - but wait a minute... that thing's got four doors!"

As the astute reader has noted, the Focus does indeed have four doors. This comes in VERY handy, however - nothing says "Let's get it on!" quite like leaning over to my wife of 7 years, and saying "Hey, baby - let's get out of the car, walk to the back and open the second set of doors."

If you're gonna lay out the cash... you want to be rollin' in the sedan. Forget that silly two-door nonsense.

Some of you may have noticed the bit of "avian downvoting" that has occurred behind the rear door on the passenger side. What can I say? The Focus breeds haters on the land AND in the air. Nobody can deal with the majesty of its beetle-like form cutting effortlessly through the wind, nor the nasally buzz of the engine as the car reaches the speed limit.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not usually one for impulse buys, and there are indeed moments when I wonder if I didn’t spend too much money on a luxury item. All of those feelings go away, however, when I thrust the gas pedal to the floor, my body surging with excitement as the 10hp engine transfers its full 7 ft-lbs of pavement-shredding torque to the tires.

Test drive a Focus today! You’ll never feel the same way about a vehicle again.

Oh - one more thing. Link of the Day goes to Dansdata.com. Dude knows absolutely everything about everything. Check out his 'letters' section.

External Link: http://www.dansdata.com