Autoblog

Our friends over at World Car Fans procured a series of shots showing the next generation Fiesta undergoing testing, but this time it's sporting an extra set of doors. The five-door model, like its two-door sibling, will take cues from the Verve Concept that debuted last week in Frankfurt and gets an Iosis-inspired front end, complete with drawn-back headlamps and a steeply raked windscreen. The beltline moves northward in Florida-retiree style, terminating in an upswept D-pillar, while the roof-mounted wing may portend the future of a hot hatch version.

You can check out all the shots from WCF here, and compare it to its concept counterpart by checking out gallery below.

[Source: World Car Fans]

If Martin Smith – the designer of the new Mondeo and S-Max – has his way, the next Ford Focus in Europe will be drawing heavily from the styling of its upmarket siblings.

While we're stuck with the new Focus coupe that was unveiled earlier this year, European consumers will be getting a thoroughly reworked version of Ford's compact sedan. In addition to the Iosis-inspired sheetmetal, those lucky blokes across the pond will also benefit from a freshly styled interior, complete with a cabin control system inspired by the Human Machine Interface in the Mondeo.

If AutoExpress' crystal ball is to be believed, the new Focus may debut at this year's Frankfurt Motor Show, with sales likely to begin sometime in 2008. If this particular five-door does become available, the hue and cry from those of us in the States will be heard yet again, and summarily dismissed by FoMoCo execs.

[Source: AutoExpress]

Last month at the Paris Auto Show, Ford unveiled the Iosis X crossover concept that drew significant influence from the Iosis model that debuted in Frankfurt last year. Ford is expected to release a new crossover into the European market and judging by these latest spy shots, development and testing of some form of the 'X' is well underway.

What will likely be dubbed the 'Cross Max' should hit dealers in late 2007 or early 2008, and will fill the niche between the C-Max people carrier and Ford's sedan offerings. The timing of the Cross Max's arrival will put it head-to-head with Volkswagen's Tiguan CUV, as the battle for crossovers will begin to heat up overseas.

Autocar has got the goods and expects a production variant to debut at the Frankfurt Auto Show next November.

[Source: Autocar]

Our man Eric Bryant has reported in from Paris with an exciting and unexpected new concept from Ford: the isosis X. Picking up where the gorgeous iosis four-door coupe left off from the Frankfurt show in 2005, the iosis X applies Ford of Europe's new "kinetic design language" to a five-door crossover concept. In a beautiful way, we might add.

Ford says that while the isosis X is purely a show-car and not a direct preview of a production model, the stunning concept will form the basis for a future model to hit the market in about a year and a half. The sporty-yet-rugged concept also gives an indication of the styling direction we can expect to see on new production Fords.

The interesting white color has a blue "flip" and twin silver racing stripes, giving the isosis X a futuristic tint while touching on Ford's heritage racing colors of white with blue stripes. Instead of the usual lower body cladding, the isosis X features "skid plates" that fold down on the sides for ease-of-access to the cabin.

The interior design was inspired by extreme winter sports, with four racing buckets floating over a glass floor, like that in a glass-bottom excursion boat. The center console snakes through the cabin, reaching the roof at the rear to secure the spare tire and tailgate mechanism. An overhead console is flanked by glass panels, all in all giving the cabin enhanced lighting and visibility in all directions.

More pics and (very) full press release after the jump.

Using the 'kinetic' design language introduced at Frankfurt in 2005 with the Iosis concept, Ford of Europe has just unveiled its new flagship, the Mondeo, at Paris today. The wagon is the first to be debuted, with a production launch scheduled across Europe in the second quarter of 2007. Ford of Europe considers the Mondeo a critical step forward to expanding its product portfolio, and it complements their other new vehicles, the S-MAX, Galaxy, and Focus Coupe-Cabriolet.

The new Mondeo will be built at Ford's Genk plant in Belgium along side the S-MAX and Galaxy. These vehicles all share much of the same architecture and technology, as well as assembly process, allowing the Genk plant to be more flexible in terms of vehicle production.

With GM getting serious about taking its investment in Opel and porting the European flavor into one of its brands, we wonder why we can't see more of the same from Ford. Sure, the Fusion is a nice car, but the Mondeo shown here is just phenomenal. Why not take a brand like Mercury and bring these more expensive European models over in limited numbers?

You can check out more of the photos that Eric Byrant has acquired, as well as Ford's own press release, after the jump.

[UPDATE: Swapped in some cleaner shots. Sorry 'bout the first ones, folks! - EB]