New Focus for Australia before U.S.

We just ran across some news from Down Under
concerning the pricing of Ford Australia's new Focus, which just happens to be the brand new Focus that everyone else in the world besides us get to enjoy. Don't get me wrong, the Focus is a nice little car, but the Mazda3, upon which the new Focus is based, is a great small car. A Focus based on the C1 global platform, which is also shared with the Volvo S40, would be fairing extremely well in the domestic marketplace right now. The small car segment is wide open at this moment thanks to the Honda Civic and Toyota Corrola being a bit long in the tooth. They won't, however, stay that way, with a new Civic slated for sale as early as this fall. Ford could have had its way in this segment by releasing a brand new Focus on the C1 platform and leaving Mazda with the Protege a little while longer, especially considering the Protege was one of the best handling small cars around. We want to hear your thoughts on how Ford's handling the Focus, so start typing.