Verdict: Drives well, sounds good, and puts character into a corporate mile-muncher.
What’s hot?
- Still best-in-class driving dynamics
- Re-tuned electric power assisted steering has better feel
- Ford’s Enhanced Transitional Stability system is an industry first, monitors speed and driver’s steering input to predict loss of traction before it happens
- Sculpted body makes the new Focus a looker
- Big injection of technology
- Upgraded cabin with a more intuitive layout
- 95 g/km diesel and 99 g/km petrol engines will be in the range
- Both five-door hatch and five-door estate versions available
- Award-winning three cylinder, one-litre petrol engine carries on in the Focus range
- 1.5 EcoBoost petrol engine, paired with six-speed manual gearbox and equipped with Auto-Start-Stop, shows seven per cent economy improvement over 1.6 EcoBoost it replaces
- Please mention tax band for the car in the plus points
What’s not?
- The sub-100 g/km petrol model is not available until after launch, so we have to wait until next spring for that one.
- The 2.0-litre diesel is not available until the end of 2014
- Visual changes modest compared with previous model, will the difference be noticeable?
- Sat-nav now an option on some versions where it was previously standard
