2012 Ford Focus, at 2010 Detroit Auto Show

2012 Ford Focus, at 2010 Detroit Auto Show

The 2010 Detroit Auto Show is making news around the world and so is The Ford Motor Company. In a time where the United States automotive has struggled to regain a stand in the black, Ford has been refusing bailout money, engineering award winning cars and trucks and going Kinetic (a design that spawns from Europe). In fact, the 2011 Ford Fiesta has been capturing the attention of American for almost a year, but now there is a new sheriff in town—2012 Ford Focus.

Our partners over at TheCarConnection.com have published a nice coverage of the 2012 Ford Focus as presented at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show. Besides giving kudos to the interior design, not unlike Fiesta, they also mentioned the all-new 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine and PowerShift transmission. The exterior design is nothing to sneeze at either; the design is the newest implementation of Ford’s Global Kinetic 2.0 as announced last year. All that said, that isn’t the part of the 2012 Ford Focus that really got our attention; no, the part that really intrigued us was the Hill-Start Assist System.

2012 Ford Focus

2012 Ford Focus

Good or bad? Well, we will let you decided, but here are the details. The Hill-Start Assist is a sensor-based system that will apply the brakes and hold the vehicle on an incline for about 2.5 seconds. Of course, this is an option to prevent rollback and brings to mind a famous Bill Cosby comedy sketch. By employing a digital accelerometer to measure the slope of a roadway. Better yet, it automatically activates when the incline is greater than three percent.

Bottom line—The 2012 Ford Focus may not make people better with the clutch, but it does have promise to be the best line of c-segment cars from Ford yet.

 

Be sure to visit our partners over at TheCarConnection.com for their take on the all new Focus.