I hear you on the 300, it had great low end torque but thats about it. It was horribly slow. What is nice about the EB is the flat power curves that can be acheived with the technology. I'd say that flat torque curve will help make up for the 120hp and still make a decently peppy focus or fiesta. The thing that I never liked about those smaller cars even with the 4cyl is if you put 2 or 3 extra people in them and turn on the A/C they have a hard time getting out of their own way. A flat torque curve should help in that dept.