Jonathan Takiff: The new Ford Focus? It's complicated

THE GIZMO: Dressed with Euro-glam styling and first-in-class gadgetry, the new 2012 Ford Focus is a bit like that stunning creature you spot across the crowded dance floor.

Despite the negative rumblings you've heard about her character (from Consumer Reports and J.D. Powers) you yearn to take her out for a spin, fantasize about the life you might share together.

Ah, but then after you actually do spend a long weekend together, you start to realize the naysayers may be right. Could this torrid love affair possibly last?!

THE LADY IN RED: Sugarcoated in Red Candy paint, with shiny, upscale 17-inch alloy wheels, my five-door hatchback 2012 Ford Focus SEL demo model pulled many admiring glances and curious inquiries over the long July Fourth holiday weekend, as wife and I cruised from Philly to the Western 'burbs, then down to the Jersey Shore.

Largely designed in Germany as a "world car," this is not your Aunt Em's 2004 Focus econobox. This is the sort of upscale compact you'll see fashionable Europeans tooling around in, a vehicle that packs five passengers plus a couple of big suitcases and still squeezes into itty bitty parking spots.

My Ford delivery person spent a good half-hour with me, first linking my mobile phone to the in-car electronics, then demonstrating how I could do all kinds of neat stuff just by tugging a toggle switch on the steering wheel and voicing a command - say to make or take a call, change a radio station or adjust the two-zone air-conditioning. This is the gee-whiz stuff of the "Sync by Microsoft" operating system that's been helping sell Fords to the younger, tech-savvy set since 2009.

Ah, but now - for better (and worse) - you can also get a lot of the same (and more) chores accomplished by touching tabs, letters and numbers on the 8-inch color screen that's central to the new "MyFord Touch" system. The navigation system sometimes proved more cooperative in touch mode than it did with voice recognition.

There's also a smaller LCD info screen placed right in front of your face between the tachometer and speedometer.

Better keep your reading specs handy!