For The Ford Focus is the sweetest-handling car in its class. It's well equipped, competitively priced and as practical as most rivals.
Against The low-speed ride may prove a little firm for some tastes and the interior quality is not in the same league as a Volkswagen Golf's.
A superbly rounded family hatchback, the Ford Focus is well specified, competitively priced and great to drive.
There isn't a bad engine among the ones in the Ford Focus range that we've tried, but we reckon the best is the 123bhp 1.0 Ecoboost. This turbocharged 1.0-litre, three-cylinder engine is smooth, quiet and gives you enough pace with which to exploit the car's brilliant handling. Also, running costs are impressively low.
The 1.6 turbodiesel will be popular, too, because it's incredibly efficient.
Similarly, all the trims are pretty generously specified, so there's no bad choice there, either. All versions come with air-conditioning, electric windows, DAB radio and Bluetooth. We prefer Titanium trim, though, thanks to the posher-looking stereo that gives the cabin a real lift.
Blind-spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control and lane-departure warning with built-in lane-keeping are all available as options. As is Forward Alert, which warns of an impending crash, buzzing up a visual and audible alert. It can even apply the brakes to help minimise an impact.
I wrote a review for this car when I first took delivery in July 2011, and overall I'd still say its an ok car. However, in terms of the owning…
We used to own this model, but are delighted to have sold it on. After only a few miles, the after depressing the clutch, the pedal refused to rise…
The 1.6T EcoBoost engine in my car has had much praise in the motoring press and quire rightly so ! it is a very good engine, economical considering…
This is a brilliant car - very pleased with it. I ticked all the options boxes. The most useful so far has been adaptive cruise control as I do a lot…