What Car Were You Happiest To See Canceled?

Photo: Ford

As enthusiasts, we generally like cars. You probably wouldn’t be reading an enthusiast site if you didn’t like them in some capacity. And yet, the more you drive and learn about cars, you’ll inevitably start to become a hater. Not necessarily of the cars you already liked but of the cars that don’t fit your personal style or taste. Heck, sometimes, the car just doesn’t fit your body correctly.

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For example, when a previous employer needed me to drive the Ford Focus RS to Streets of Willow for a comparison test, I was so excited. After all, it was the Focus RS! It had the big engine and the trick all-wheel drive, and it was just so damn cool. Sure, I’d be spending most of my time on the highway, not carving canyons, but who cared? I was going to get to drive the Focus RS.

And then I sat in the driver’s seat. It only took a couple of minutes to realize the seats were designed in a way that made my back hurt. It wasn’t that I was too big for the seat. It actually felt like it was designed for a different species with a differently shaped spine. To my knowledge, my spine is shaped like it should be, so we weren’t dealing with any complications such as scoliosis that Ford’s seat designers couldn’t have accounted for.

For some reason, though, no one else shared my complaints. They thought the Civic Type R’s seats were more comfortable, but no one felt anywhere close to as strongly as I did about the Focus RS’s seats, and several people thought they were great. I know intellectually that Ford didn’t design those seats in a lab specifically to make my back hurt. I know it wasn’t personal. But being so ridiculously uncomfortable in a car I wanted to love caused the resentment to grow, and when it was canceled, I’ll admit I selfishly thought, “If I couldn’t enjoy it, then no one should enjoy it.”