Ford Confirms 40 mpg Highway for New Focus

We thought Ford’s announcement early this morning that the upcoming 2012 Ford Focus compact sedan and hatchback would get 40 mpg highway with an automatic transmission was in direct response to Hyundai’s announcement earlier this week. On Monday, the Korean automaker said its new 2012 Elantra would get 40 mpg highway with an automatic transmission.

Well, that’s not the case. When confirming that the 40-mpg figure was indeed for all automatic-equipped models — not just a special trim like the Fiesta SFE subcompact — Ford spokesman Saaid Deep replied in an e-mail that he wasn’t aware of the Elantra numbers.

That might explain how this erroneous line was included in this morning’s Ford announcement: “The all-new Focus will set a new standard in the small car segment, offering more technology and features than more expensive European cars, while delivering an expected 40 mpg, the only gas engine-powered vehicle with an automatic transmission in its segment to do so.”