the new 2.3l motor
 

I know this isn't exactly a 3rd gen post, more like a pre-4th gen post.

I test drove a new 6i with the 2.3 with the sport auto and was pretty impressed with the zoominess of it. Can't wait to see that motor in the lighter 3.:D

I can't wait either. I think this will make it the fastest car in its class.

Well, maybe that title will be shared with the focus, hehehe :)

I just hopes that the plagues of the current Focus, do not affect the 3. But then again, the Focus is assembled in Mexico, and the 3 is shipped from the good old Japan.

next gen Focus will have more classic not as dramatic and to some controvercial styling, new platform (same as Mazda3) pretty much the same engines, it will be a heck of a car....

Does anyone know this for sure? Will the 3's production be 100% Japanese, or will they do a mixture of the two, kinda like what Honda has done with the Accord? Also, since both cars use the same 2.3L MZR engine, where will the engines come from? (Multiple *engine* assembly lines are $expensive$, so many car companies ship engines to North America from elsewhere, such as BMW and Honda.)

It seems logical to assemble the 3 in North America, like Mazda has done in the past with the 626 and MX-6.

Don't forget that the escape and tribute though built on the same lines in the same plant, had quite different reliability issues. The Escape had numerous recalls and the tribute had maybe 1 or 2.

they're built in KC

They are both mechanically the same, and both had the same amount of recalls. If you do a search on NHTSA.gov, the Tribute had 6 recalls in the year 2000.

You sure you weren't thinking of Consumer Reports data. They usually have flawed results when the same vehicle is sold by two different companies (generally favoring the Japanese brand). Watch, the Vibe will probably get a less reliable rating than the Matrix. They usually "fix" their methodology when they obtain results like this. They had a hell of a lot of issues with the B-Series and Ranger.