What's special about it?
The 2012 Ford Focus, which Ford is unveiling in five-door hatchback and four-door sedan versions at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show, isn't the first time that the company has tried to design one "world car" for all its major markets.

The "world car" has been to international automakers what low-fat donuts are to lovers of regular donuts — the impossible dream. So we've been down this road with Ford before with cars like the Contour and the old Fiesta. Hell, even the Model T was something of a world car.

But as Ford Motor Company tries to reconcile its bread-and-butter offerings under the One Ford banner, the Focus represents the purest example of the world car ethos yet. It will be the first offering to be designed from the outset with all markets in mind. (The North American Fiesta has had to be reworked from its Euro origins to work here and the Transit Connect van is just an imported oddity).

You might have noticed by now that the Focus is listed as a 2012 model. The thing goes into production at the end of 2010 and goes on sale in early 2011. This would explain Ford's reluctance to reveal all the details (such as dimensions, complete powertrain information and standard versus available features) on this new compact car. Here is what we know so far.

The new Focus will be slightly larger than the vehicle it replaces and will be much more upscale than the budget-minded Focus currently sold in the U.S. With the Fiesta taking up some of the lower end of the market, Ford sees the Focus graduating to greater levels of sophistication and comfort. "Downsizing size but not downsizing expectations," is the catch phrase Ford VP for Global Product Development Derrick Kuzak uses. The company is playing up the craftsmanship of the interior and the sophistication of the Focus' look — despite its relatively small size (shorter of wheelbase by a few inches than Chevy's upcoming Cruze sedan).

And the look of the new car is pretty compelling. Predictably the five-door variant is the sassier, sportier of the two models, with a rear that calls to mind a smaller Toyota Venza (that's a compliment). More surprising is the sedan, which is expected to be the sales leader here. Unlike the sedan versions of most small cars, the 2012 Focus actually looks like something you might want to drive. The rear end, where small sedans almost invariably fail, looks like a cross between an Audi A4 and a Euro Ford Mondeo. It's nice, and worlds better-looking than the current Focus sedan. Like the Fiesta, the Focus is a product of Ford of Europe's "kinetic design language," and is better for it. The only really curious element is the so-called Zorro flip — the vaguely Z-shaped intersection of two body creases near the front of the front doors.

The U.S.-market cars, at least initially, will be powered solely by a new direct-injected 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine using variable valve timing on intake and exhaust. It should make about 155 horsepower and 145 pound-feet of torque. That's a useful bump in both measures from the current 2.0-liter. European markets will get a diesel option and at least one turbocharged gas engine, a 1.6-liter unit.

The only transmission Ford is talking about is its dual-clutch six-speed unit, which it calls PowerShift. Essentially, it is the same unit as the one fitted to the Fiesta and takes the place of a conventional automatic. As far as Ford was willing to say, you will not be able to manually shift the dual-clutch, at least not with steering-wheel paddles. For the do-it-yourselfers, Ford is expected to offer a six-speed conventional manual transmission as well.

The company is loading the Focus with all manner of optional niceties such as keyless entry and ignition, a rearview camera, a semi-automatic parallel parking system and the new MyFord "driver connect" technology which reconfigures information and entertainment operation with five-way touchpads on the steering-wheel spokes and, with high-end versions, adds an 8-inch touchscreen display.

While the company is emphasizing the new car's reduced NVH, it claims the driving dynamics that have become something of a Focus trademark (at least early in the model's history) have been improved. Ford points to a modified control-blade rear suspension, electric-assist steering and a "torque-vectoring" front differential system known as Dynamic Cornering Control as evidence of this.

There's much to come for the so-called C-platform Ford vehicles, including a battery-electric version for the 2012 model, the Grand C-Max mini-minivan, possibly a Mercury version that could, but shouldn't, go by the name Tracer and, of course, an SVT version with a turbo motor.