Tweaked 2009 Ford Focus Coupe debuts

We do not consider ourselves experts on the buying habits of small car shoppers anymore, not after watching the redesigned 2008 Ford Focus streak to extremely strong sales despite sporting what we considered to be deal breaker bad looks. You can credit the car's success to good marketing, exclusive availability of SYNC, a big car ride with small car fuel economy, whatever... regardless, the Focus is selling better than it has since the car first debuted in 2000.

Ford has heard all the criticism thrown at the 2008 Focus for its electric shaver looks, and in a very unusual move has solicited feedback from Focus fans and tweaked only the Coupe for 2009 and not the Sedan. The newish 2009 Focus Coupe features a front end with a larger lower air intake that's supposedly inspired by the new Fiesta, and those garish faux fender vents are now completely gone (hopefully the sedan gets stripped of these, too). The flanking foglamps are also now better integrated into the body and the two-bar grille and other accents feature a dark, almost bronzed look rather than bright chrome. There are also new Dark Chrome 17-inch aluminum wheels and a roof-mounted spoiler, both standard on the top-shelf SES Coupe in addition to electronic stability control and SYNC, that make the Focus look more sporty than before. The overall effect of these changes reminds us of the last-generation SVT Focus Euro package. You can make up your own minds and let us know in the comments.

Though the Focus SVT is surely not returning, Ford did give the new coupe a new freer-breathing exhaust on models equipped with the five-speed manual to free up some horsepower, and also added a new 4.2 final drive ratio to make off-the-line acceleration a bit quicker. The 2009 Ford Focus Coupe will have a base MSRP of $15,920 when it goes on sale in late Summer, and you can check it out later tonight when Ford officially debuts it in a video on American Idol. We want to hear what supercar collector has to say about the new look Focus Coupe. Is it a Clay Aiken or a William Hung?