About 20 minutes after the Detroit Auto Show opened, Ford stole the show. At Consumer Reports we are not in the business of evaluating styling, but from just about every angle the new Fusion looks gorgeous. It looks much more like a luxury car from Aston Martin, than a midsized sedan from the people who build the Taurus.

But beauty isn’t just skin deep on the new Fusion. Ford promises that the gas and hybrid models will deliver the best fuel economy in their class without sacrificing performance. Ford plans to achieve this with small displacement turbo engines (1.6L and 2.0L) and a new hybrid powertrain with a 2.0L four and a lithium ion battery. There will also be a plug-in hybrid offered. We’ve sampled the larger 2.0L turbo and can attest it is powerful and smooth enough that you won’t miss the V6 that is no longer offered.

The Fusion follows other entries such as the Ford Focus that adhere to Ford’s strategy of providing the same high-quality vehicle all over the world. Essentially the same vehicle will be marketed in the rest of the world as the Ford Mondeo. In our testing, we liked the global Ford Focus, but its score was hurt by a cramped rear seat and a high-tech automatic transmission that occasionally shifted roughly. Fortunately, the new Fusion has a very roomy rear seat and offers a conventional automatic.

We look forward to putting it though its paces at our track.

For more on the Ford Fusion and other models unveiled at the Detroit auto show, see our special section.