First Drive: 2008 Ford Focus European version

Just as Ford in the U.S. facelifts the Focus, the Euro Focus gets a comprehensive redo, too. But at a time when the U.S. edition is losing the enthusiast models from its lineup, the Euro version is a full platform generation ahead of the U.S. version and packed with juicy tech and real driver appeal.

How about a version with Volvo's five-cylinder 225-horsepower engine? Or a six-speed double-clutch transmission to rival VW's DSG system? They get 'em over there.

A history lesson is in order. The late-1990s Euro-Focus was originally the same as the U.S. edition. But for 2005, it diverged, getting an all-new body and the platform developed for the Mazda3 and Volvo C30/S40/V50. Now it's just received another comprehensive visual makeover designed to give it a shared identity with the rest of Ford Europe's big sellers, including the Fusion-size Mondeo. They call the look "Kinetic Design" by the way.

And while the U.S. lineup is trimmed to four-door and two-door only, in Europe there are three-and five-door hatchbacks, a four-door sedan, a wagon, and even a folding-hardtop. Not to mention a closely related five-seat minivan called C-Max.

But a wide range isn't what makes the Euro-Focus special. It's the superb dynamics. And we mean superb. Engines are well up to standard. Handling makes even more expensive gear like an Audi A3 feel lead-footed. Europe's Honda Civic is an altogether sportier proposition than the one sold in the U.S., but the Euro-Focus has that beaten, too.

This Focus feels exceptionally well-oiled, a machine that's been finessed at the design and manufacturing stages. It's the sort of deep-rooted sense of quality that U.S. products, especially in the compact sector, so sorely lack -- like a good German car. Its controls are more weighty than a Japanese equivalent's, but that's no bad thing in a car aimed just as much at the enthusiast as at the grandmother. It's amazing how it has the effect of making an enthusiast out of the uninterested. Even out of Grandma.

The PowerShift tranny doesn't ship until February, nor does the facelifted five-cylinder ST (though the ST is unchanged dynamically from the pre-facelift version, and this is one of the greatest hot-hatches out there). So the test car was a 2.0 diesel in five-door body style with a manual. Sound like vanilla transport? It isn't.