The 2012 Ford Focus C-MAX will likely arrive in North America during the fall of 2011. The European Ford Grand C-MAX is shown here. See pictures of the 2010 Ford Focus.

Consumer Guide’s Impressions of the 2012 Ford Focus C-MAX

A popular European people-mover is redesigned for U.S. sale--and production. It’s one of the new fuel-savers that Ford is adding to its lineup to counter “pump shock” and boost sales.

What We Know About the 2012 Ford Focus C-MAX

Things are grim in the auto biz these days. The North American market has been particularly hard-hit. Unstable gas prices, rising unemployment, and numerous economic fears have hammered demand for cash-cow big trucks, while a consumer swing to smaller, thriftier vehicles has caught Detroit woefully unprepared. Even seemingly invincible Toyota is having tough times lately.

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Ford Motor Company and General Motors are now racing to meet the new market realities by tapping their overseas branches, which have long specialized in exactly the kind of vehicles more and more Americans now want. Ford had already started doing this in hopes of making its North American business profitable again as soon as possible. The company is moving full speed ahead with the “One Ford” global-product strategy announced by CEO Alan Mulally nearly two years ago. The aim is to reduce costly, needless duplication by developing “world” models that can be built and sold successfully anywhere, the U.S. included. Not surprisingly, the plan emphasizes new cars and crossover SUVs in the subcompact, compact, and midsize categories. All aim to steal sales from the likes of Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, and, of course, Toyota.

The first of these vital new Fords arrive as 2011 models, starting with the subcompact Fiesta sedan and 4-door hatchback that are due to go on sale in early 2010. A redesigned Ford Focus compact follows later that year in the same two body styles. Next comes the 2012 Ford Focus C-MAX, a compact “multi-purpose vehicle” that’s been popular in Europe since its 2005 introduction. The new-generation Focus platform looms large for other near-term future U.S. Fords, including an expected 2012-model replacement for the Escape compact SUV, and perhaps an even smaller companion crossover. By that point, some sources predict the Blue Oval line will count at least half-a-dozen European-designed models, most of which will be built locally to take advantage of the weak dollar. Though the Fiesta will be sourced from Mexico, the next Focus and the C-MAX are expected to come from either the Focus plant in Wayne, Michigan, and/or the Louisville truck factory that Ford is now fast retooling for smaller vehicles.

Updated by Don Sikora II 09.18.2009

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