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Ford will not sell the new Focus RS in the US, the firm’s new director of performance cars has confirmed.

Jost Capito, recently installed as the man in charge of Ford’s global performance division, said in an interview with Autocar that it would be too expensive to make the car suitable for sale in the US, despite Ford’s intentions to bring more European models to America.

“We’d like to, but the base car isn’t homologated for North America and that’s too costly a job to carry out...Read the full article

That is interesting! 

I have no idea of US demand for such cars, but does the US market understand performance front wheel drive cars?

Cars like Golf GTI and Mazda3 MPS are on sale there, but there are some home grown examples as well. The Chevrolet Cobalt SS Turbo (based on Astra OPC/VXR, only quicker), or the flawed 285 hp Dodge Caliber SRT4. So there should be some people looking for such cars.

Audi Tastic:

I have no idea of US demand for such cars, but does the US market understand performance front wheel drive cars?

What’s to understand, they are compromise cars, they are cheaper to build than all wheel/rear wheel cars of the same segment.  That being said I had a GTI with DSG, it was a very practical all purpose compromise car and fun to drive. I thought at one time Ford didn’t want these to compete with the Volvo sport models, but now I don’t understand why they refuse to sell the RS here. The lack of a U.S. VW Scirocco is perplexing as well.

It may be 5yrs old, but a shame the US won't get to sample the current Euro Focus, whether it be the RS version or not! After all, have you seen how hideous and mediocre the current North American Focus is!

Never understood why Ford developed 2 different and unrelated Mk 2 Focus' after the original one was sold on both sides of the Atlantic, even if we only had the RS version.