2012 Ford Focus Road Test Review

By Bob Plunkett

Driving through the nightlife district of Austin -- a collection of roadhouse rib joints, melodic Blues bars and raucous Texas honkytonks -- we're only inching along Sixth Street due to too much vehicular traffic and too many jaywalking pedestrians.

The snail's pace might frustrate us if time was the motivation for this twirl around the Texas capital, but we're content to focus instead on the ride quality, cabin comforts and high-tech gizmos heaped aboard Ford's pint-size Focus, which scores a total remake for 2012 models fashioned in four-door sedan and five-door hatchback formats.

That nameplate traces back the fall of 1998 when the flashy new design at the Paris International Auto Show was an eensy-weensy economy car which carried the blue oval badge of Ford.

Focus became a production reality for European markets in 1999 conformed as a three-door hatchback coupe, four-door sedan and five-door wagon, and the three variations reached North America in the summer of 1999 as model-year 2000 cars. Full review