Spanish vs German LR Focus

[bigdude1011]

Hey guys and girls,

I've sort of copied this from a Whirlpool post I made, but I didn't get any bites.

I'm really digging the LR Focus at the moment (headroom, handling, build quality), and it seems to be within my price range. However, I know of the many gremlins that plague the South African-built LS-LVs.According to RedBook, the hatchbacks were built in Germany, and the sedans were built in Spain.

Are there many quality control problems/gremlins in the Spanish-built cars? Are they pretty much on par with the German-built cars (like the difference between Thai and Japanese Hondas), or is it like the LS-LV?

I will probably be buying a manual either way, with either LX or Zetec (how Ford got away with MANUAL MIRRORS in the CL I don't know), though if the auto is good, I might look for a Ghia.

Thanks guys!