It's been barely a month since the first batch of Fiesta's rolled out of Ford's Cologne plant in Germany and already the newly redesigned compact is cited as a top contender for Europe's 2009 car of the year.

En-route to the U.S, the fun-to-drive Fiesta is a smash, dazzling European auto journalists with its thrifty engine and peppy road manners. Rarely have production vehicles been so true to the concepts that inspired them, The Detroit News raves, referring to the vehicle's semblance to its conceptual forerunner Ford Verve.

This of course is music to Ford execs' ears since, having lost $8.7 billion in the second quarter of 2008 alone, the automaker is in dire need of a game changing global model. With that Jim Farley, Ford's chief marketing officer, declared that the new Fiesta "represents the core DNA of the company," assuring the world that "this vehicle is a catalyst for change."