For those who don’t know or have forgotten, the name for Nissan’s first mass-produced electric car is an acronym: Leading Environmentally-friendly Affordable Family car. But is the 2011 Nissan Leaf really a family-friendly car? 

When examining a car for suitability for a family there are a fair few prerequisites. As our colleagues over at FamilyCarGuide will tell you, a good family car needs to have the right mix of practicality, flexibility, safety and affordability. 

School Runs, Grocery Trips

Admittedly it only has an EPA rated range of 70 miles between charges, but the 2011 Nissan Leaf should provide an average family with enough range to tackle all but the most extreme of school runs, shopping trips and football practices. 

Rear seats can be split 60/40, meaning those family with only two children can make use of extra storage space for luggage or shopping if the Leaf’s load bay just isn’t large enough. 

Spills, Sick and Soccer Boots

To anyone with young children however, the Hobson’s choice of an off-white interior is enough to induce that reoccurring nightmare of finding ground in chocolate, mud or even sick all over the door pulls, seat base and back of the front seats. 

Luckily, scotch-guard or similar should put those fears aside. Since interior and exterior treatments are de-facto recommendations for any car, the Leaf’s interior color is hardly a deal-breaker, although you may want to carry some wet-wipes to prevent stains from forming. 

Child Seats

As the team over at Busy Mommy Media found out back in December, it is possible to fit three child seats in the back of the 2011 Nissan Leaf. 

Three Radian XTSL seats, the first NCAP tested, LATCH system full-size car seats fit in the rear of the Leaf, with each seat using purpose-built safety hitches to ensure the very best safety for young passengers. Trying to get an adult passenger between two such seats isn’t going to be a fun experience unless they happen to be svelte, but it is also possible. 

Obviously, child car seats vary as much as the cars themselves do. We’d recommend going to the dealer with your own car seats to test them in an actual Leaf before ordering one to make sure your seats fit. 

Buggies, Diaper Bags, Playpens

If you’ve a really young baby you’ll know how much baggage you end up toting around with you. It’s less of a problem if you have one child, but if you have a double buggy and associated baby paraphernalia you may find the Leaf too small for daily use. 

Admittedly, the Leaf is far more practical than other options on the market, but you may find a 2011 Plug-in-Prius is more practical if you need that larger load space. 

Affordability

Here’s the biggie. For $25,000 you can buy a whole lot of car, including some larger family  cars and even minivans like the 2.7 liter  2011 Toyota Sienna.

But, at the same time, the 2011 Toyota Sienna gets a paltry 19 mpg around town and only 24 mpg on the highway. Sure, it’ll be larger, but it won’t give you that same zero-emissions feeling. You’ll also have to fill it up at the gas station rather than just plug it in every night at home. 

Conclusion

If you’ve a large family or young pre-school kids, the 2011 Nissan Leaf may not be the best choice as a practical car. But for older kids and smaller families, the 2011 Nissan Leaf does provide realistic family transport – provided you’re not transporting the school football team around, that is. 

This story originally appeared at All Cars Electr

Let’s recap.

After 18 months, recalls totaling 9 million Toyota, Lexus, and Pontiac models, and investigations by Toyota, Congress, NASA, and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) unit … what have we learned?

(1) A few accelerator pedals did stick open, for one of two very different reasons.

First, some dealers or owners fitted unapproved floor mats that were too thick, which could prevent the accelerator from returning to its usual position.

In the case of the horrifying and highly publicized crash of a Lexus that sped along a California freeway before overturning, burning, and killing all four occupants, a trapped accelerator pedal is thought to have been compounded by the driver not knowing how to turn off the engine in a car with a push-button start.

(The answer: Hold down the “Start” button for a full 3 seconds. Hardly obvious without reading the owner’s manual, which few people do for their own car, let alone the dealership loaner that crashed.)

Solution: Toyota amputated the bottoms of low-hanging pedals in some models, leaving clearance for even the thickest floor mats to be used without interfering with reshaped, shorter pedals.

Second, some other accelerator pedal mechanisms stuck under specific temperature and humidity conditions, remaining at about 15 percent of full throttle because moisture prevented a smooth return action.

It got complicated: Only pedal assemblies made by CTS, one of two parts suppliers, suffered from the issue. So Toyota [NYSE:TM] first had to sort out which cars got parts from which supplier.

Solution: Starting in February 2010, Toyota installed a steel reinforcement bar on models using pedals supplied by CTS (a different set of cars from those on the amputation list). The bar kept the mechanism away from the position where it could stick.

(For more information, see our summary, Toyota And Lexus Recall: Everything You Need To Know, which gives details on the two separate recalls to address accelerator issues.)

(2) Investigators found no “electronic gremlins” in Toyota’s vehicle or engine control software.

This was the big fear, raised repeatedly by plaintiff lawyers and on the floor of Congress. Math is hard, software is confusing, and computerized cars are scary. The lack of technical knowledge among elected officials didn’t help either.

But investigators could not replicate a single so-called “sudden acceleration” event once floor-mat and sticky-pedal causes were eliminated.

They pored through hundreds of thousands of lines of code seeking anomalies, unaddressed use cases, or any other problem that might make a car careen suddenly forward.

They even subjected Toyotas to high levels of electromagnetic interference, to see if systems weren’t properly shielded. Nothing changed.

The full NHTSA report wasn’t released by the DoT until this Tuesday, but as early as last August, the agency sent signals it had concluded that no electronic faults existed.

(3) Drivers who swear their car accelerated out of control are often wrong.

You put your foot on the brake, but instead of slowing, your car accelerates. The harder you brake, the faster it speeds up. Must be “sudden acceleration,” right?

Well, no.

It is, says psychology professor Richard Schmidt at the University of California, Los Angeles, “noisy neuromuscular processes” that occasionally prevent a limb from doing what the brain tells it to. Translation: Drivers sometimes press the gas pedal when they mean to brake.

The driver thinks his or her foot is on the brake. But it’s not; it deviated slightly from the intended path, and landed on the loud pedal instead.

As soon as the car accelerates, the panicky driver presses even harder on the “brake,” exacerbating the crisis.

Age may play a factor too, with data showing that the bulk of Toyota “sudden acceleration” deaths involving drivers aged 60 to 80.

In two highly publicized cases of so-called sudden acceleration, including one very suspicious one, investigators found either “strong indications that the driver’s account of the event is inconsistent with the findings of the analysis” (for which, read, “he lied”) or “no application of the brakes, [with] the throttle … fully open.”

But there are no mysterious electronic gremlins. And drivers do make mistakes.

Honest.

+++++++++++

Follow GreenCarReports on Facebook and Twitter.
This story originally appeared at Green Car Repor

The rumors started last week, and they were largely true: Buick plans to offer a model of its Regal compact sports sedan with the eAssist mild-hybrid system.

What we didn’t have were the projected EPA mileage ratings (based on GM’s internal tests). The company expects the 2012 Buick Regal with eAssist to be rated at 26 mpg city, 37 mpg highway, making it the most economical Buick model for 2012.

Unlike the larger 2012 Buick LaCrosse, which will fit the eAssist system as standard on the 2.4-liter Ecotec engine, the 2012 Regal will offer a base 2.4-liter engine without the system, and a version of the same engine with the fuel-saving powertrain as well.

The eAssist system consists of a small 0.5-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack, mounted at the rear of the Regal’s trunk along with its power electronics and control circuitry. While there is a slight reduction in trunk space, the Regal fitted with eAssist maintains a pass-through from the trunk to the rear passenger compartment.

An engine-mounted electric motor replaces a standard alternator, and is connected with a special tensioned belt that allows it both to be driven by the engine and to restart it and contribute torque for short periods.

The alternator-start acts as a generator to recapture energy that would otherwise be lost as heat from the brakes, using it to recharge the battery pack. It can also act as an electric motor to start the engine, as well as contributing some torque to assist the engine and avoid the transmission shifting to a lower gear under load.

The system is tuned to provide high power rather than sustained energy delivery. It does not provide full electric running, but allows the engine to switch off as the car comes to a stop, and then switches it on again as the driver’s foot begins to lift off the brake pedal.

While GM executives would not explicitly discuss projections for how many eAssist-equipped vehicles they hope to sell, they did acknowledge that the company could produce up to 100,000 eAssist-equipped vehicles per year if market demand reached that level.

That 100,000 number had been mentioned two years ago by GM executive Tom Stephens when the system (then known as Belt-Alternator-Starter II) was first described at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show.

Production of the 2012 Buick Regal with eAssist will begin in the fourth quarter of this year. No pricing for the eAssist option has been announced.

[Buick]

This story originally appeared at Green Car Repor

Luxury hybrids are storming the marketplace, and bringing with them a new era of hybrid chic. The 2012 Infiniti M Hybrid hopes to snatch some of that market, and today’s official EPA rating of 27 mpg city and 32 mpg highway should bolster its chances.

Those figures yield a combined average fuel economy of 29 mpg. Before you say, “But 32 mpg isn’t exactly impressive!” let us compare it to the competition. Well, there isn’t really any direct competition.

Lexus‘ HS 250h scores 34 mpg highway and 35 mpg city, but it’s a size smaller than the Infiniti M Hybrid. Lincoln’s MKZ Hybrid sedan is also a bit smaller, scoring 41/36 mpg. Both the Lexus and Lincoln use four-cylinder engines instead of the V-6 in the Infiniti, and both come up far short on the luxury quotient, as well.

The larger Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid generates 65 fewer horsepower than the Infiniti’s 360-horsepower combined output, but scores just 19 mpg city and 25 mpg highway. It also costs nearly twice the expected starting price of the M Hybrid. The same goes for BMW’s ActiveHybrid 7i.

Stepping outside the hybrid realm, Mercedes’ E350 BlueTec scores 22 mpg city and 33 mpg highway for a combined score of 26 mpg–close to the Infiniti M’s results. At $50,900, it’s also priced right around the M Hybrid, and probably represents the most direct competition to the Infiniti–but comes up 140 horsepower short, though it doesn’t lack for torque.

The M Hybrid goes on sale this spring.

Visit our preview article for more details on the 2012 Infiniti M Hybrid.

This story originally appeared at Motor Authori

The first business day of every month is when automakers release sales data for the previous month. Today, we got January’s sales figures, which are an improvement over last January’s.

But the question that we keep hearing is: Which sells better, the 2011 Nissan Leaf or the 2011 Chevrolet Volt?

They’re the first two plug-in electric vehicles sold in the U.S. by major manufacturers in a decade, and now they’ve been on sale for roughly six weeks. The first Leaf was delivered in San Francisco on December 12, and the first Volt followed three days later in New Jersey.

Thus far (as of yesterday), the Volt is decisively in the lead, with a total of 647 cars delivered through the end of January. That represents 326 in December, plus 321 more last month.

In comparison, only 106 Nissan Leafs have been delivered: 19 in December, and 87 last month.

(For the record, Smart also delivered its very first Smart ForTwo Electric Drive last month as well.)

Don’t go jumping to conclusions about which car will do better in the marketplace, though. Both the Volt and the Leaf are heavily back-ordered, and only modest numbers of each will be built during 2011 as the production line and supply chain ramp up.

Nissan has said it will build 20,000 Leafs for the U.S. market–out of global production of 50,000–this year, and Chevrolet initially committed to 10,000 Volts, all of them for the U.S.

In light of robust demand for Volts, however, General Motors CEO Dan Akerson has said the company is looking at ways to raise production this year, perhaps to 20,000 or more. It also accelerated the pace of Volt rollouts nationwide, so that the range-extended electric car will be available in all 50 states by the end of this year.

It won’t be until 2013, when Nissan quintuples its global Leaf production capacity to 250,000, that true market demand for plug-in cars starts to become apparent. Until then, early adopters and green-minded organizations are likely to snap up every one that hits a showroom floor.

[Nissan; General Motors; Smart]

This story originally appeared at Green Car Repor

Sometimes you just never know where you’ll dredge up technical details on vehicles that carmakers haven’t yet launched.

Technology conferences can be a good source. Take, for instance, the Advanced Automotive Battery Conference (AABC) held last week in Pasadena, California.

A battery systems engineer from Audi laid out full details of the hybrid-electric drive system in the upcoming Audi Q5 Hybrid, a vehicle that has been described only at Audi technology seminars for invited audiences and hasn’t officially been revealed to the public.

LA no-show

The only public sign of the 2012 Audi Q5 Hybrid so far, in fact, has been a video teaser. Despite rumors, Audi’s first-ever hybrid was not unveiled at the 2010 Los Angeles Auto Show last November.

Instead, it will be launched in Europe this spring, probably at the Geneva Motor Show, and will go on sale in Europe and North America at the end of the year.

Second-generation hybrid

The Q5 Hybrid is the second generation of the Volkswagen Group’s hybrid development efforts. The first generation produced the 2011 Volkswagen Touareg Hybrid and the 2011 Porsche Cayenne S Hybrid, based on larger crossovers than the mid-sized Q5.

While those vehicles used a 3.0-liter supercharged V-6 engine and a nickel-metal-hydride battery pack, the new Q5 Hybrid uses a smaller 208-horsepower, 2.0-liter direct-injected and turbocharged four-cylinder engine, along with the group’s first-ever lithium-ion battery pack.

The 2.0-liter four is similar to the smaller of the two engines offered in U.S.-market Q5 models (the other is a 270-hp, 3.2-liter V-6). But Audi has adapted it to hybrid use by fitting electrically-driven ancillaries for such functions as power steering and air conditioning.

44-hp electric motor

Directly behind the engine is a 33-kilowatt (44-hp) motor-generator unit, followed by a 8-speed Tiptronic automatic transmission whose torque converter has been replaced with an oil pump. The engine coolant system also cools the electric motor.

The engine and transmission modifications ensure that all vehicle systems continue to function even when the engine switches off, either at rest or during periods of “gliding” when the car is propelled only on electricity under light load at speeds up to 62 miles per hour.

The maximum electric range of the Q5 Hybrid is slightly less than 2 miles, under the right combination of speed, load, and temperature conditions.

Less than 300 pounds more

With the 1.3-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack weighing in at just 77 pounds, the entire hybrid system adds less than 300 pounds to the weight of the base Q5.

The pack is air-cooled, but Audi has fitted the battery with its own air-conditioning system, which cools it far more quickly than forced-air cooling would.

Consumption on the European test cycle was 33.6 miles per gallon, though EPA ratings are likely to be lower due to differences in the tests. Audi’s performance figures say the Q5 Hybrid does 0 to 62 mph in 7.1 seconds, with a top speed of 138 miles per hour.

Audi plans to offer a battery warranty of at least seven years, according to its presentation.

[Green Car Congress]

This story originally appeared at Green Car Repor

While it’s easy to find a good, sensibly-sized and relatively fuel-efficient small car, it’s really hard to find much personality.

At the same time, you could argue, Americans haven’t seemed to want much charm behind the wheel. The first-generation Focus, for instance, came in a wide range of body styles (including three- and five-door hatchbacks), and had a standard of ride and handling arguably better than anything in its class at the time, but it became a sore reality after a few years that Americans weren’t willing to pay for small-car sophistication. A couple of refreshes cut body styles from the lineup and left the Focus feeling a little more refined, but also more conservative.

Times have definitely changed since then—and they’ve definitely changed since the last time Ford went to the drawing board for its last 2007 refresh of the Focus, when the vehicle lost all its hatchback styles, gained Sync connectivity as a central selling point, but lost its hatchback body styles, became more conservative-looking, and lost even more of the dynamic spirit of that original Focus.

While Hyundai has simplified its Elantra down to just a handful of build combinations, Ford is offering a wide range of possibilities for the 2012 Focus, to serve as everything from basic transportation (for those who still think of small cars as ‘economy cars’) to a small family’s primary vehicle—or even a surprisingly sophisticated sport sedan.

Two shapely body styles

Now, shoppers have two beautiful body styles—a four-door sedan or five-door hatchback—from which to choose. They’re both rakish and sleek, and while the profile of the Focus sedan is uncommon (and remarkably close to that of the recently introduced Chevrolet Cruze, as well as the Elantra), the distinction is in the details. Both models have Ford’s kinetic design attributes, with the rising beltline that’s become par, but accented here with some nice creases and curves—including a subtle curve that runs from the headlights all the way to the taillights, just below the beltline, and a sharper crease that starts after the front wheelwell and runs through the door handles. Taillamps are huge and form much of the rear corners on both vehicles. Thankfully, Ford’s saccharine chrome louvered grille, from several of its larger vehicles, and which we never warmed up to, hasn’t been carried over here.

Inside, the design is complex—incorporating a cockpit-like instrument panel arrangement, with a thick center stack, some nice surface sculpting, and vertically-oriented vents. Trims and finishes look classy and inviting, and there’s a nicely tailored look to the entire interior that extends to door trim and even seats. The turquoise-colored gauge pointers are a nice touch.

While turbocharged EcoBoost power is on the way, the Focus lineup includes a single engine now, an all-new 2.0-liter direct-injected four-cylinder making 160 horsepower and 146 pound-feet of torque; that’s 20 hp and 10 pound-feet than before, though when you correct for the 200-300-pound weight gain of the new Focus it’s no big bump. The new mill has Ti-VCT variable valve timing, though, and can be paired with either a five-speed manual gearbox or six-speed PowerShift dual-clutch automatic.

Engine is very smooth, but needs to be revved

The engine settles to one of the smoothest idles we’ve noted in a small-car; direct-injection engines can be rather noisy at idle—sounding almost a little diesel-like at times—but engineers have done a great job here in masking those sounds.

Although the new engine carries the Duratec name, it has a very different character than the other U.S.-market powerplants that get that moniker; in short, you have to rev this engine to tap into its perky side. It’s in a few rare instances—like coming out of a tight corner in third when we should have been in second—that the new engine’s relative (and surprising, given the valve system) lack of low-rev torque is highlighted. The engine feels nearly lifeless below 2,000 rpm, but rev it above 3,000 and it really begins to hit its stride; peak torque is at 4,450 rpm. Luckily it’s refined and entirely lacking the boominess that used to be a small-car norm. But Ford has done a good job in making the Focus feel light-footed off the line, with low first-gear ratios in either gearbox, and the dual-clutch gearbox does a great job keeping the revs high and uninterrupted. Take off, foot to the floor, and the Focus feels quick.

Overall, the calibration of the PowerShift automatic feels much more relaxed in the Focus than in the Fiesta, where we’ve criticized it for being a little lurchy and lumpy at times. Whether it’s the Focus’s additional weight, the engine’s additional torque, or the software recalibration an engineer told us it got, the gearbox feels much more at ease here—more responsive, too.

PowerShift better than in Fiesta

If you want to do the shifting yourself, you have to make do with a little +/- button on the side of the shift knob; rather than slamming the knob in one direction or another, or clicking a paddle-shifter, you might just miss your shift as you hunt for the button. Fortunately, the PowerShift transmission does come with a Sport (‘S’) mode, just below Drive, which smartly holds revs for grades and corners, holds upshifts significantly longer, and downshifts a gear with the slightest tap of the brake pedal. Just don’t leave it in Drive on hilly canyon roads, as we tried briefly, as it will hunt around indecisively. It’s also odd that no matter what your selection, Ford seems to have dialed engine braking out completely. And on the subject of brakes, there’s nothing to complain about; S and SE models come with rear-drums instead of discs (in the name of cost-cutting), but pedal feel and stopping power felt about the same at legal speeds.

The other option for shifting yourself is the five-speed manual gearbox—which is only offered on S and SE, not SEL or Titanium, by the way. The linkage is sweet, if a bit long, and while the clutch feel is soft for easygoing normal driving it felt if anything a bit too soft for strong launches. A taller fifth gear would also be helpful; with revs hanging around the 3,000-rpm click at 70 mpg—significantly higher than the PowerShift’s sixth gear—we could see how highway fuel economy could be a bit lower.

The Focus proved economical in some of the least economical driving conditions. We saw 22 mpg in about 50 miles of driving up canyon roads, with more up than down, in a PowerShift vehicle, then 28 mpg in about 70 miles of more twisties followed by creeping-and-racing LA freeway driving. Ford has backtracked a little bit—or refined its message, it might say—about the Focus’s 40-mpg mileage claim. Just as with the Fiesta, the Focus will achieve that number with an SFE package, only offered initially on the sedan.

Ride and handling? Awesome.

Whi
le the powertrain requires a little diligence, the ride-and-handling compromises are about the best it gets. The Focus handles as well as—or better than—the most deft handler in the class, the Mazda3, with a suspension that doesn’t crash and bang over rough transitions, nor punishes over heaves or potholes. Ford’s electric power steering system provides nice weighting and it performs well, providing precise control but not transmitting much feel of the road. The electric steering system is awesome in transitions, too, never binding up or feeling off its game. While the suspension allows a bit of give, it loads and unloads in the most transparent, predictable way possible, yet isolates you from harshness. On one of the tightest stretches of roads with a Titanium sedan, we felt like the Focus was on our side, filtering out what we didn’t need to know but keeping our line tight and neat. And on boulevards and freeways, the ride is on the firm side compared to other compacts like the Cruze, Elantra, and Corolla, but not enough to ever be punishing.

The Focus is extremely comfortable inside—glovelike when fitted with the Sport package, which our Titanium test vehicle included. The moderately bolstered seats proved perfect for holding us in place in the twisties, for all the grip that the excellent Michelin Pilot Sport SP3 summer performance tires could provide. Whether you choose the sedan or hatchback, you get back seat accommodations that are virtually the same, with just enough legroom and headroom to fit even those over six feet. With the leather upholstery, the back seats are trimmed like those of a high-end German luxury car, with exposed stitching and true bolstering for outboard occupants.

Cargo holds in the hatch and sedan are both ample with large openings, but seat-folding was a little disappointing. For one, you can’t release the back seats remotely, as you can in some other vehicles; the other thing is that the back seats don’t fold completely flat, and unless the front seats are slid far forward, the headrests get in the way.

Although the vehicles we sampled in Southern California weren’t yet production vehicles, the Ford Focus has a sense of solidity and build quality inside that far surpasses that of the previous model, as well as most other cars in this class. Door close with a nice, satisfying thunk, and door grabs, trim, and center console all seem solidly attached.

Touch screen or not?

Depending on which trim you get, the Focus has two quite different instrument panels. While MyFord Touch—the touch-screen system that’s offered in the 2011 Ford Explorer and Edge and 2011 Lincoln MKX—is standard on the Focus Titanium and optional on the SEL, other models get a modestly retouched version of the Fiesta’s control layout—including the oddly angled, V-shaped arrangement. Top and center on those models, instead, is a more colorful, higher-contrast screen that definitely beats the orange monochrome Fiesta screen.

Just as in those other models, MyFord touch provides control of entertainment, communication, climate functions, and more, and in these models, in place of the two smaller gauge-cluster screens that you find in the Edge, Explorer, and MKX, the Focus gets a single smaller one. Just below the touch-screen, deceptively, is a very large dial in the middle of the dash that you might would serve some function in navigating screen functions, but it’s only for sound-system volume.

There are a number of redundancies. Throughout the line, Ford has moved a host of functions to the steering wheel, and we’re going to have to wait for a longer drive to report back on whether they serve in making it easier or more confusing. And MyFord Touch includes an extended set of Sync voice commands.

Essentially, Ford is giving shoppers a choice this time around as to whether they want a basic small car or a much more sophisticated one with all the features and options of a larger one. Prices on the Focus range from $16,995, including destination, for the base Focus S, up to about $27k for a loaded Titanium. S models are quite basic, but they do include air conditioning, CD sound, and a tilt/telescopic steering wheel. SE models add cruise control, larger wheels, fog lamps, and Ford’s MyKey system, while SEL trims get SYNC, dual-zone climate control, and upgraded trims. At the top of the line, the Titanium earns you MyFord Touch, an upgraded ten-speaker Sony sound system, HD Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio, sport seats, a sport suspension, and sport wheels with summer performance tires. A number of the Titanium’s features—including the Sport package—are optional on the SEL.

Active parking, in a small car

One segment-exclusive feature that will be available in the Titanium is Active Park Assist—that’s the system Ford has offered on several more expensive models that essentially allows the car to steer itself into a spot while you modulate the brake. In a city-savvy small car like the Focus—rather than one that’s more likely to be valet-parked—it finally makes sense.

Overall the Focus feels way sportier and more charismatic than most vehicles in this class, and it stands out on a lot of levels. Interior in Focus looks better than Elantra, but doesn’t necessarily feel better. Elantra might have it in features for the dollar, and the Chevrolet Cruze is a strong entry for comfort-oriented buyers, but in features and performance, the U.S.-built Focus is on top.

Post fuel spikes and economic woes, are Americans finally ready to embrace well-equipped small cars—especially those with a little more personality? If so, the new 2012 Ford Focus provides the most compelling proposition yet.

This story originally appeared at The Car Connecti