Nope. Manual too. I got used to soft European shifts so the hard/short travel of both the clutch and the actual stick sucks. Can't deny it feels damn great on the road, though. Stable as hell and boy can she run.

What sort of manual things have you driven before? Just curious. I guess I can see where you're coming from, I think. The Fiesta ST that I've driven a few times was great, but granted I was driving it through the hills around Napa Valley in California, and it was great for just slamming through the gears in that environment. I'm sure it wouldn't feel as good on a daily basis through town.

Not down here, they haven't. Glad we finally got it, though. :)

I'm glad Ford is starting to be more forward-thinking globally. I'm eager to see where global sales for the Mustang end up. On the other side of the coin, the United States is finally getting a Focus RS next year.

America misses out on a lot of cool cars (like the RS) because they don't sell very well here. We don't have any cool wagons, either, which is a shame. The Cadillac CTS wagon was gorgeous, but they killed it after a few years because no one bought it. Americans just don't like wagons, and I suspect that Europeans wouldn't even look at it and instead stuck with buying Mercedes or Audi wagons (although I don't actually even know if Cadillac sold the wagon across the pond). I'd much rather have a CTS wagon than any SUV on the road. And while they don't technically serve the same purpose, most Americans would be better off with a wagon than a giant SUV, 99% of which never leave the pavement, but people here just won't go for it.

Pretty much, yeah. Considering up to very recently, Fiat and VW entry-level cars had the majority of the market down here, the new affordable Ford and KIA cars are breath of fresh air.

Fiat hasn't been in the States for very long, but from what little I've seen (and driven), I wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole. My buddy was cross shopping the 500 Abarth, and it was a fun drive, but didn't hold a candle to the Fiesta ST. And it just felt like a cheap car, where the Fiesta doesn't (with respect to the price, obviously). It had less that 500 miles on the clock and rattled and squeaked like a ten year old Wrangler. It was just awful.

My sister just bought a Wrangler (an older one), but she was looking at new Jeeps like the Renegade (which is just a bloated Fiat), and it had the same problem of just feeling like a cheap piece of crap. She bought a '99 Wrangler instead (and no one has every argued that Wranglers are particularly well built; I'm pretty sure they left the factory with squeaks and rattles), but it was still better than the Renegade in feeling like a well put together vehicle.

I haven't ever driven a KIA, although I've heard they have gotten a lot better in the last five or so years, as well. I still probably wouldn't even look at KIA if I was buying a new car, though.