You'll have to explain what the "ace up their sleeve" was... I've driven several Focuses and they're nothing special, typical of most 4 cylinders of the same age. 16V DOHC and higher revs coupled with better electronics that allow more (safe) timing advance aren't specific to Ford, and as much as I hate to say it, were pioneered by the Japanese. Honda had one helluva great idea with VTEC, and the others had DOHC "base" engines long before any American manufacturer did. 4 cylinder cars of today have all the power you'll ever need for typical driving, and with a few modifications give more HP and similar torque compared to the old OHV cast iron V8s... not the
big ones, but my 2.2L Ecotec has more of both than my '86 pickup with a 5.7L engine in it. It had 145 HP stock, with only modifications to the software, I believe I could have hit 200 HP with 93 octane gas.
I'm not sure it's fair to compare houses to cars either, on a similar note, apples are much better than oranges. There are houses that are lived in every day that were made back in the 1800s. Not many existing 1800s cars on the road
I agree that houses made today are of much lower quality than those made 30 or 100 years ago, the majority of the workforce today has no work ethic, show up and get paid. My 30-40 year old house is built more solid than my parents' 10 year old house. I have no creaks in the floors, I don't get a few shingles torn off when there are high winds, I've never had any leaks, and my drywall isn't cracking from the house settling. They can't say the same. But I don't have the important things like vaulted ceilings, rounded corners on the walls, or holes built into the wall for TVs.
The price difference should be attributed to inflation (primarily). Remember back when you could get a cup of coffee and a sandwich for a nickel? Maybe not, I looked and you don't have your age in your profile, but things will always be more expensive in the future. I remember triple cheeseburgers for $.89 and coffee for $.25.