Used 2012 Ford Focus Electric

As the 2012 Ford Focus takes you down the road for the first time, you can feel yourself gradually picking up speed, as if the friction of daily automotive life had suddenly been overcome. You feel as if there is a gap in traffic ahead just for you, while every gas station you see is a reminder that you can sail past without a second thought.

What you sense has nothing to do with physics. Instead it is the burden of the small-car stereotype being lifted from your shoulders. You feel transformed by an automobile that is utterly modern, one that is neither large size nor small size but instead "right size."

Americans have been chasing such a car for decades, wobbling between the guilty pleasure of enormous land yachts and righteous enthusiasm for tiny fuel-sipping pods, but now the Ford Focus shows us the middle ground where most of us belong. Though it carries the same name as Ford's previous compact sedan, this new-generation Focus has been stretched a few inches into a size that's just right.

Just as important, the Ford Focus doesn't make you suffer for choosing the way of the right-size vehicle. It has an adventurous, modern look that makes nearly everything else on the road look tired and stuffy. More important, the 2012 Ford Focus is available with the same comfort and convenience features we demand in large cars, even while its pricing remains consistent with what we expect of a small car. The base model begins at $16,270, which is the same price as the 2010 model. The top-of-the-line Titanium reflects the greater feature array available in the new car, with a price that starts at $22,995.

As you compare this front-wheel-drive sedan with its four-cylinder engine to the competition, the Chevrolet Cruze, Honda Civic, Hyundai Elantra, Mazda 3 and Volkswagen Jetta come to mind as similarly sized and priced vehicles. Yet the style and equipment of the Ford Focus also tempts you to compare it to the four-cylinder variants of the Ford Fusion, Honda Accord and Mazda 6.