It could well have been Ford's thinking, but wrongly IMO. I look at it this way. The current Focus ST does look very nice, but I don't think looks wise it can even begin to compare to the Fiesta RS - essentially in many ways its like the Focus RS's little brother, and most people would think that car looks loads better than the Focus ST. Also, the Fiesta RS would have handled better around corners and been much quicker in acceleration - bear in mind that the RS would have had between 180-200bhp compared to the Focus's 220, and with being a smaller and lighter car the RS would have left it behind. Add in of course that you've got all that AND it would have been a few thousand less, and there's no question which I would have gone for.

I think it all depends on if you ever actually seen the Fiesta RS Concept. In the flesh it was just absolutley gorgeous. People had trouble dragging me away from the stand lol. I just wanted that car there and then!!!

I tried to order it so many times lol but I had inside information from that it had been canned and gave up.

I would have had the Fiesta even if the cost the same money. 200bhp in a shell that would out handle nearly every car on the road and people would just see it and think, wow that looks amazing.

It just looked like a Road going Rally Car but so smooth and together!

Yeah I agree with Chris that the market for the two cars would have been different. I for one would have considered the Fiesta RS. The Focus ST is just not for me and too different to replace the desire for a Fiesta RS.

I don't it be that difficult for Ford to sold the Fiesta RS Why did Ford did not make a limited Edition of the RS before selling the Focus ST! or have gave more power to the Focus ST cos its very easy to boots the power of the ST! and Ford would had sold performance Ford from 150 BHP up to around 240 BHP+

I know they wouldn't have had any problems selling the RS. If it had been made then I'm sure that it would have been a limited edition, like with the Focus RS. Just one of those things where we'll never know for sure exactly why Ford decided the way they did. They showed us a future classic, and then effectively pushed it over the end of a cliff and said "ha ha, you can't have it!".

maybe they decide not to sell the RS cos they though the car was not good enough? or had problem with car or to expensive to produce even in a limit edition!

Maybe they just show it at a concept car or maybe (Finger cross) for the final goodbuy to the Fiesta MK6 there will made a limited edition with the RS a bit like they done with the Focus RS!

No, I can't see anyway at all of that happenning, I gave up all hope a long time ago. There might be that ST Plus which has been mentionned before, but that would look nothing like the RS, just the ST only more powerful.

Hopefully with the Mk7 Ford may surprise us and release a real beast.

By the way, the Focus RS was out a lot earlier than you might think. It came out 2 and a bit years before the Focus Mk2, and ended production about a year later - so the Focus Mk1 carried on for over a year after that.

At the end of the day someone at Ford must have done the maths, added up all the numbers and it just must have become clear that they would have lost a lot of money. I would guess that the FRP experience as well as the Focus RS experience (both of which caused them substantial losses) might have come into the equasion.

In the good old days, such marketing loss though direct sales would have been "acceptable" on limited production runs (i.e. Sierra RS500) as the cars were necessary for further racing purposes which brought back more sales, but nowadays since it is possible to develop a racing car without the need for a specific special limited production run of vehicles, the entire investment has to come back from the sale of the production runs only.

Consider the FRP... 1000 cars were planned initially for Ford to get even and make a little profit. They eventually had a hard time selling half of that so with only 500 cars made you can imagine the loss.

Surely someone at should have realised that the Fiesta would have been wanted by EVERYONE aslong as they made it fast and good handling!!!

It's a real shame

Nick, I understand what you're saying about Ford losing money with the FRP and Focus RS, but I think that those two directly lost money for differing specific reasons.

With the FRP the main problem was just how much more expensive it was than the standard version, and no matter how good it was (which it was) it was always going to be difficult to sell. Add in of course that all the modifications were done by hand which would be expensive to Ford.

With the Focus RS I think it was down to the amount of time that was spent on developing it - over two and a half years I think - which again would make it hard to recoup the costs involved, esepcially for a limited production run.

Now with the Fiesta RS, IF Ford had got their act together then they could have had it ready by early 2006 (which was the date that they always talked about anyways). Or to put it another way around the time that the facelift was released. Now in my opinion, this would have given a massive two way publicity boost. I.e. that having an RS out would have given more publicity to the new Fiesta, giving a halo effect and boosting sales of lower models, but also that because of it being a new Fiesta, there would also have been a little bit more publicity to the RS itself.

As I've said loads of times before, I don't think they would have had any problems at all shifting the RS, but I do agree with you that because of past experiences it maybe did cause Ford to be far too cautious and not to take a gamble that in my opinion would have paid off.

One thing that I've never understood in a way is why did they actually show the RS Concept in the first place? The only possible reason would have been to gauge interest before deciding whether to go ahead, and yet in spite of all the interest shown it was canned anyways.

I have to agree you have some very valid points there Chris and do belive me I regret the fact that is was canned as much as you mate.

I just thought of something else... Could there be an additional connection in that the Fiesta RS projct was cancelled roughly at the same time as they shifted the development budget of the JWRC Fiesta to the Focus WRC programme? Just a thought...