If you've been following our pre-Detroit show coverage, you'll have noticed that Ford likes to use its home turf to introduce new production cars and unveil concepts. Unfortunately, the facelifted 2008 Focus is the least impressive of the new offerings from Dearborn, particularly in contrast to exciting concepts like the Interceptor.

When the Focus was introduced in 1999, it was at the cutting edge, at least stylistically, debuting as one of the most striking small cars on the market. It got a minor facelift a few years later, more evolutionary than revolutionary. While the 2008 update looks substantially different, it's still not a complete overhaul, just another facelift.

For 2008 the Focus ditches the wagon and gains a two-door coupe in addition to the standard four-door sedan. The exterior is completely restyled, shedding over 60 pounds in weight, reducing the drag coefficient and noise inside the cabin. While it gets a new brake package, the rear brakes are still drums. Leather trim in the interior with contrasting stitching is a unique feature particularly in this segment, as is the new "ambient lighting" option that gives you the choice of seven colors to highlight the interior.

Unfortunately, Ford's missed the mark in the styling department. Part of the new design includes the corporate bar-grille (that's a styling element, not a restaurant), a higher beltline, flared wheel arches and a "character line" cutting from an air vent behind the front wheel to the rear and across the trunk lid. While there are certainly some striking design elements to the new Focus, we believe strongly in the notion that a car design is more than the sum of its parts, and that's where the 2008 Focus falls short.