I for one am waiting to see what the 2nd gen focus/protege will be like. Evidently, mazda is going to do a bit of the design work for the engine so hopefully it'll be a bit less prone to recalls and such. Evidently a new 2.3 is in the works that will be fairly potent and much more refined then either the zetec or the mazda 2.0. Just waiting with fingers crossed on the mazda 6/ford/mercury mondeo though. Part of the sales drop may be in competition with the new dodge and chevy trucks, the f150 while still pretty nice is 6 years old and desparetly needs refreshing to compete with the "bigger" chevies and dodges.