It's WHAT!?
You have a funny idea of "big" when it comes to cars... My wife's Bronco (curb-weight of about 4500 lbs, 5 liter engine, etc) is "kinda big." A Chevy/GMC Suburban (the 3/4 ton model with the 454, man I miss those, they curbed at about 5500 lbs - I worked for someone who'd supercharged hers!) is big. But, a Focus (which I'd guess the curb weight as being around 2800 lbs, max)!?
Lol.
The 1.6 liter engine isn't/wasn't even an option over here. IIRC, you had the choice of a couple different 2 liters. Or 2.3 liter engines.. I don't remember for sure, the first ones might have been 2.0 with 2.3 coming later...
Kinda like outside NA, you can get a Mazda MX5 (Miata, damn it!) with the old 1.8 B-series or the new 2.0 MZR.... the 2nd gen Miatas could be had with the 1.6 or 1.8 where they only bothered with the 1.8 here... a shame, since the 1.6 was possibly the more fun, responsive engine.
Could I get a pic or two of the engine bay? I'm a mechanic, so call it professional interest. I wanna see what differences I can spot.
They're pretty reliable cars. You guys in the UK are lucky - you can get the 2nd generation Focus, we're STILL getting sold the 1st gen cars (like yours) over here - unless we wanna buy the Volvo version... that thought's enough to make me wanna puke. Not that the 1st gen are bad, but, DAMN, sell it on both sides-a the pond!