Ford Focus: Signs of Intelligent Life in the Automotive Universe

One World. One Focus.

(Image Credits: Autocar Magazine Online)

The FI faithful will be familiar with the fact that Ford is a favorite tackling dummy of mine. I have written a couple of times times (at least) in the past about how, inexplicably, Ford wanted to sell two different versions of the Focus; one for the American market, and one for the European market. Granted, Europeans, particularly the British, have different tastes. But if a car is such a dynamite success, why mess with the formula? It's at best patronizing, at worst insulting, to suggest that American tastes run so different to European ones that an entirely different version of the same car is necessary. It's not like "good driving dynamics" and "highly efficient powertrains" don't translate.
Well, Ford has pulled the soapbox from underneath me. SETI can stop directing its antennas at Detroit because we've found sentience. There will be one Focus in the next generation; it will return to being a "world car." Let's applaud a sensible business decision from a company that, despite the competition, has made a series of them. Not to lay too much pressure on "the little Focus that could," but this could be exactly the sort of decision that pushes Ford back to the forefront. It could bring the world closer together, make trees dance, and squirrels sing. Okay, maybe it was just a good move.