Remember that the Fiesta is a much newer design, having only been release in about 2002 or so in Europe, while the Focus design has been pretty much unchanged since 1997 or so. Note the "new edge" styling of the Focus has quite a few similarities with the AU Falcon. Look at the BA interior and look at the Fiesta interior - different, but you can tell they're from the same era. Comparing the new model Focus with Fiesta and other current era Fords should lead to a better comaprison.
Currently with runout pricing, the superseeded model Focus is very good value. I'm sure if an auto gearbox was a must have, and a choice had to be made between a 5-door 2.0 Focus CL/SR/LX and a 5-door 1.6 Fiesta LX - a lot of people would choose Focus for similar money over Fiesta.
I personally chose 18 month old manual 3-door Focus Zetec over new manual 3-door Fiesta Zetec last year and don't regret the decision. Each to their own.
MK
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