[OAC_Sparky]

See people, this is the problem. Everyone proclaims "Bring the Euro Fords here" but nobody actually wants to pay for one. In Europe people pay the equivalent of $32G for one. That's how their market is.

A Focus in Europe is an intermediate sized car. In the big picture, the Focus is looked at as how we look at a car the size of a Fusion.

Question: Why do you think there was so many issues with the Focus when it first came out? Answer: Because nobody would pay what people in Europe pay for them. So they had to cheapen it. Although they could've done a better job, THAT is the underlying cause for the issues. Nobody in North America is going to look at a Ford the size of a Focus and say that "I'll pay 30G for that" when at that same time a Taurus was going for $30G. We naturally migrate to the larger vehicle because (1) we perceive it as getting "more for your money" (2) we've got cheap gas (3) our city streets are big and (4) the majority of us are fat slouches and need the extra room.

Harsh truth.