THERE WERE awards aplenty at Ford, where the brand not only opened its press conference by listing the gongs its models received in the past 12 months from markets as diverse as New Zealand, Indonesia and Taiwan, but won the North American car of the year and truck of the year awards for 2010. The Fusion hybrid – not sold in Europe – was voted car of the year by journalists in the US and Canada, while the Transit Connect was the surprising winner of truck of the year.
Given the warm reception for the new Focus from US motoring hacks, they may need to leave space on the mantelpiece at the firm’s Dearborn headquarters.