These are very similar to the older Highway 1 and Highway One models. The main differences appear to be a narrow neck with a maple fretboard instead of rosewood, a low-mass vintage Fender bridge instead of the high-mass BadAss bridge on the Highway One, a gloss urethane finish instead of a satin nitrocellulose lacquer finish, and a price increase of about $100. There appears to be some uncertainty about whether they will have the same truss rod; that remains to be seen. Aside from that, they appear to be very similar to the Highway One -- same tuners, same pickups, same greasebucket tone circuit, same gig bag, and probably the same painted in Mexico / assembled in USA manufacturing chain that lets them advertise these as "made in USA" but sell them at a lower price point than the American Standard models.
While the recession lingers on, the economy is starting to pick up. Fender is probably trying to position its product line for an improving economy over the next couple of years, calculating that it can make more money by offering a "made in USA" product it can present as a new model at a price point higher than the Highway One but still less than the American Standard. If they're similar to the Highway One, they're probably good instruments. Fender isn't a non-profit charitable organization, though; they're in it for the money. One of the reasons they're still in business when some others have fallen by the wayside over the years...
