The Ford Fiesta has proven to be a very successful small car wherever it's sold in the world. Ford has sold 12 million Fiestas over the vehicle's lifetime and the new-for-2009 model has moved half a million units already this year in Europe and Asia. It's a smash hit in spite of the fact that the Fiesta is not for sale in the U.S., a.k.a. the world's biggest car market. That all changes in the spring of 2010 as the Fiesta finally makes its way stateside.

Ford appears to be focusing its efforts in the U.S. small car market at exactly the right time, as consideration for B-Segment vehicles is at an all-time high and the trend appears to be upwardly mobile. And while Ford would love for us to believe that it was clairvoyant when deciding to bring the Fiesta to the U.S., it just isn't true. In fact, the Fiesta wasn't originally designed for the U.S. market, but the shock of $4 per gallon gas and a new-found interest in eco-friendly transportation led the Blue Oval to rethink its strategy. Ford didn't start readying the Fiesta for the U.S. market until many bits and bolts of hardware were already settled, so Team Blue had to go back to the drawing board to make its small car ready for Americans. The result is a U.S.-spec Fiesta that has only 60% of its parts in common with the Euro Fiesta. Will Americans be missing out? Follow the jump for everything you need to know about the Fiesta.

The first test the Fiesta had to pass was the all-important eye test, and as you can see from the pictures, the U.S. version is a near dead ringer for the Euro model. The biggest change between the two is only noticeable when looking at the front end of the U.S.-spec sedan. Gone is the body-color grille and in its place a "Bold Moves"-style three-bar grille. We're not exactly digging the three-bar look and we really hate the fact there's a big Michael Strahan gap below the lowest bar, but the hatchback's grille makes us feel quite a bit better. The hatch has a more euro-look body color grille, but unlike the grill on the Euro Fiesta, it's a separate insert.

Also missing are the Euro Fiesta's fog lamps and in their place is a pair of similarly positioned LED light strips. We find the chrome backdrop of the LED lights a bit off-putting and we're guessing some buyers aren't going to like the lack of fog lamps in areas with a lot of inclement weather. Ford is betting that most Americans won't miss the functionality though, and judging by the fact that few of us ever use fog lamps, they're probably right.