Yesterday brought the sneak peek, but today we’ve got the real deal. The new Ford Focus RS is is mean and green (we mean that in the literal sense, thanks to its killer-looking paint color), and it will make its debut at this month’s London Motor Show. While the RS is still under development, the car being put on display isn’t exactly a concept, either. Some details might change here and there before it reaches showrooms in 2009, but ultimately, what you see here is what European drivers are going to get. The wide, low-slung stance, intimidating fascia, racy dual exhaust, and requisite high-mount spoiler are all part of the package. Follow the jump for more
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Yes, after a seemingly interminable series of painfully bland products, Ford has finally built something interesting. And after a brief drive of the Flex—in, of all places, New York City and its swanky ’burbs—we’re feeling cautiously optimistic about the funky four-wheeled box. And, for that matter, about Ford.

We’re not necessarily ready to say we love the thing, but we do like it. We are impressed with many aspects of it, and fortunately, we think they are aspects that count—i.e., features that help it carry a bunch of people and things in comfort and with reasonable economy. Which, after all, is precisely the point of vehicles like this.

Flex in the City

There are fairly few car launches in New York City for, we think, obvious reasons. But the Flex actually was right at home in “the City,” its love-it-or-loathe-it T-square styling not looking a bit out of place along New York’s busy boulevards, lined as they are with skyscrapers as rectilinear as the Flex itself. And if Ford had bothered painting one yellow, we’d have been mobbed at rush hour. Read more »