Ford Focus ST vs. VW Golf R and…Subaru BRZ in MT's Head2Head

What are the criteria for comparing one car against another? Well, basically, they should belong to the same category; have similar performance stats and, perhaps more importantly, be close in price.

The new 2013 Ford Focus ST and the soon-to-be replaced VW Golf R that are featured in latest episode of "Head 2 Head" from Motor Trend are a match in two out of these three criteria: they're both compact hatchbacks and each gets a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine producing 256hp in the VW and 252hp in the Ford.

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Chris Harris Puts Ford’s Focus ST Against Opel Astra OPC and Renault Megane RS

Hot hatches are the Swiss Army knives of the automotive world in that they can do almost everything. Their humble underpinnings mean that they are as practical as any hatchback in everyday use, their tuned chassis and powerful engines can scare a sports car or two on twisty roads and they are, comparatively affordable.

There was a time, not so long ago, that putting anything more than 200-horses on the road through the front wheels was considered a recipe for terminal power understeer. Things have certainly changed and, as Chris Harris points out in the video that follows, front-wheel drive hot hatches have really become very competent.

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Ford Margins Shrink as Buyers in North America Turn to Smaller, Less Profitable Cars

In the first nine months of the year, Ford’s earnings in North America were US$6.47 billion before taxes, more than it had made in the region in all of 2011. Its operating margin in that period was 11.2 percent, more than double the 5 percent that’s the norm in the industry.

Now, however, the Blue Oval says that its profit margins are shrinking and the reason is that new car buyers in North America are downsizing, turning their backs on trucks and opting for smaller passenger cars such as the Fiesta and the Focus.

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Ford Triples Number of Dealers that Can Sell EVs and Plug-In Hybrids

In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a hybrid, plug-in and all-electric vehicle war raging in the U.S. new car market right now and Ford is one of the parties engaged in it.

Attacking Toyota and its Prius range claiming that its own hybrids are superior isn’t the only way the Blue Oval plans to boost the sales of its “green” fleet that by early 2013, will include the hybrid and plug-in (“Energi” in Ford-talk) versions of the C-MAX and the Fusion, and the pure-electric Focus EV.

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Reckless Taiwanese Tour Bus Operator Causes Two Car Accident on Highway

From the first day we get to sit behind the wheel of an automobile, we are all told to check our mirrors and look over our shoulder before attempting to change lanes. As simple as this may sound, some drivers continue to have a problem grasping the concept…

From what we can tell by looking at this video, the person operating the tour bus in Taiwan's Hsinchu City didn't even turn on his blinkers when he abruptly entered the middle lane forcing the driver of the silver Toyota Corolla to lose and spin out of control.

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Pfff…Ford Redoes 2013 Focus ST vs. VW Golf GTI Video, Takes Gittin Jr.'s Mustang Out of the Picture…

It has been almost two months since Ford published the third episode of its "Focus ST Sessions" web on August 29, only to remove the video a few hours later, without ever explaining why it did so.

Now we see that the Blue Oval has re-launched the clip under the new title "(Abandoned) Block Party", again featuring the Focus ST versus the VW Golf GTI Mk6 with professional drivers Ken Block and Vaughn Gittin Jr. taking the wheel. Obviously, you will be wondering if Ford changed anything in the latest clip.

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New Ford Focus ST Hits it Off with a VW Scirocco R on a Hill Climb

The conversation in this video may sound Greek to you, but that’s only because…it is Greek. Apart from an exorbitant debt, which may or may not kick started the Eurozone crisis that's knocking even on Germany's door, the Mediterranean country has quite a lot of mountains, too.

Its new car market may have sunk near the bottom of the Marianas Trench and fast cars are naturally not a priority for a large part of the population, but this doesn’t mean that car nuts or motoring journalists have vanished from the country.

Local publication Drive has taken advantage of one of those mountain passes to stage a hill climb fight between a pair of front-wheel drive hot hatches powered by 2.0-liter turbocharged engines separated by just 15HP.

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Ford Prepares Focus ST Wagon Interceptor for UK Police Force

Having prepared UK cops through the big screen and the use of a new Focus ST hatchback as the unmarked car of Flying Squad detectives Regan and Carter in the crime thriller "The Sweeney", Ford is now catering to the needs of real-life police with the unveiling of a patrol package for the Focus ST Wagon. Read more »

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