Unfortunately, yes. Our roads down here are littered with animal carcasses and cars regularly collect wallabies etc. My GTI's halogen's don't pick up the road verge (regardless how they're adjusted) but the Euro's xenons do. Makes a surprisingly large difference.

If the Focus (or maybe WRX) is at all close to the GTI in driving experience I will likely go that route because I can get manual and xenons. If the competition doesn't catch my imagination I'll probably keep my Mk5 and hope the options policy changes in the future.