Lets not forget the Ford Kuga and Volvo XC50 are based on the same C1 platform as the Focus and these will have 4wd and no doubt the 2.5l 5pot engine so alot of the work has already been done.

A.F.A.I.K the current American Focus is still being built on the old C170 platform, so it's not really a good source for a comparison.

I hadn't heard of the Ford Kuga til now, then Googled it and realised that I'd seen one yesterday on the M1! I wondered what it was as i passed by. Nice looker though.

I still think that engineering the 4WD system to fit a fast hot hatch would be more expensive than engineering it for a slow 4X4 simply due to the tollerances involved and the components taking more wear and tear.

Lets not forget the Ford Kuga and Volvo XC50 are based on the same C1 platform as the Focus and these will have 4wd and no doubt the 2.5l 5pot engine so alot of the work has already been done.

A.F.A.I.K the current American Focus is still being built on the old C170 platform, so it's not really a good source for a comparison.

I hadn't heard of the Ford Kuga til now, then Googled it and realised that I'd seen one yesterday on the M1! I wondered what it was as i passed by. Nice looker though.

I still think that engineering the 4WD system to fit a fast hot hatch would be more expensive than engineering it for a slow 4X4 simply due to the tollerances involved and the components taking more wear and tear.

And Mazda don't use Volvo engines.

Oops I think theres an echo in here/