David over at Auto-Future has a summary of his "New Compact" series on the Euro Focus

I was just telling you about David's blog and his series on the "New Compact" well he's summarized the series in a new post where he discusses the Focus Mk II (you know the one we don't get) beating the perenial favorite to become the best selling compact in Europe.
The Golf (now Rabbit again in the US) was "The Compact." The car that set the benchmark for others to follow. No more, now the benchmark is the Focus II with it's sophisticated suspension, excelent handling and ride characteristics and boring (?) styling. There's an interesting point in David's piece where he discusses that because Ford is an American brand it will never be the top seller in Germany and France ( each country's sense of automotive patriotism prevents that) and therefore must make up for that fact by outperforming the Renault and VW models throughout the rest of Europe. And how does it do it? Because it's so well designed and built that people want them!
Now I don't agree that the Focus II has boring or bland styling, but my tastes run toward the subtle. But just wait until you see the CGI of the next Focus that David has ! More of the Kinetic styling we're not getting!

I've been reading reviews from around the world and the Focus in any trim level seems to be getting rave reviews. Hell, I read over at Jalopnik about a "Special Edition" Focus ST for Japan, where the only special feature is that it's white! And they are only going to sell 10 of them, so there will be a bidding war and waiting list!

The Focus Mk II's C1 platform which sits under my Mazda Axela (3) and the Volvo C30/S40/V50 is a fantastic set up and we need to have this Ford Focus in the US pronto!!!! Hell, it's sold in Russia and China but not in the US???