mkohlman

After recently having been in Europe on Business, I had the chance to spend some time around the C1 -based European Ford Focus and simply have to ask Ford to re-examine the short-sightedness that led to the decision to give the U.S. a warmed-over version of the current Focus Platform. While the current platform set new levels 5 years ago when it was created, Ford once again has boxed itself into a situation where it has chosen to simply refresh sheetmetal and trim while the rest of this market segment continues to advance. What is really annoying is that Ford has a kick-a^%, highly competitive version of the Focus in the C1, something that is truly capable of holding its own against the Civic, Corolla, etc..., yet continues to conceed this market in the U.S. With the shift away from larger SUVs, the timing to keep the current Focus platform for nearly a decade before a platform redesign is starting to look horribly short-sighted. How about getting us a C1 platform Focus in the U.S. with possibly a Fusion-look front-end that fits with the current family direction of Ford? BTW, yes; I do own and typically buy Fords, currently owning a Taurus and an Escape. However we are considering a small-car choice and while the U.S. Focus is nice, it is simply not anywhere near as refined as the competition. Having seen and driven the CD3-based Fusion though at least I'm starting to get the feeling that Cars at Ford are getting attention again. M Kohlman