2015 Ford Focus offers more safety and better looks

Hi, everybody. It's Tim Stevens with CNET. I'm standing next to the biggest product launch here at Mobile World Congress 2014-- literally, and perhaps figuratively as well. This is the 2015 Ford Focus. In 2012, Ford sold over a million of these things, making it the best-selling car in the world. And Ford shows Mobile World Congress to be the place to unveil the next generation of that car rather than waiting for Geneva next week, which is a much bigger auto show. Why? Well, Ford wants to get ahead of the churn of news that's gonna be coming out next week, and also because there's a lot of cool technology that we're gonna talk about in just a minute. But first, let's start with the exterior. This is a slightly refreshed version of the current Ford Focus. It's available right now at your dealerships. Biggest change upfront is with the new corporate Ford grille. Looks a lot like an Aston Martin, you seeing it on the edge in a couple of other Ford products, too. New headlights, as well. And overall, a greater fuel efficiency from more aerodynamics, which is certainly going to be good. But the biggest change in fuel efficiency would come from the 1.0-liter EcoBoost engine. We've seen that in the Fiesta. It's gonna be coming to the Ford Focus, as well, only with a 6-speed manual transmission. We're told it will be only with a 6-speed manual in the U.S. as well, which may make some U.S. buyers a little bit cautious. Some bigger changes on the inside. So, let's take a look in there. Inside, we have a revised layout. This is a little bit cleaner, a little bit nicer than before. Not radically different. But it is improved. We've got a larger display here in the center for the MyFord Touch interface, as well as the new Sync interface, Sync 3.0, which has some nice improvements. The UI is a little bit cleaner. Biggest changes are in the navigation system. The interface is much prettier. We've also got the Michelin guide built in so you could see restaurant reviews there. We've also got an integrated rear view camera, which is now standard. Plus, it's got cameras pointing out the sides that will tell you if you're backing out of a tight parking spot, whether or not you maybe need to wait a few minutes for some traffic to go by. We've also got some upgraded improvements here for driver assist. They'll help you to avoid crashes, as well. Up to 50 kilometers per hour. That's much faster than before. It can also swerve around other cars automatically. Before, it would just stop. Now, it can as you drive around for you. So, if you're not paying attention, this might just save your bacon. It can also parallel park itself, and it can perpendicularly park itself, as well, which is new. And it will even back itself out of parking spots, which is also something new. Again, this is the 2015 Ford Focus. It should be hitting dealers some time toward the end of the year. Ford hasn't given us any specific pricing just yet. But since we're not talking about any radical changes, expect that they line more or less with what the current Ford Focus costs. Again, I'm Tim Stevens with CNET here at Mobile World Congress 2014.