Costs & verdict
Everyday costs, plus how reliable and safe it is
Costs, insurance groups, MPG and CO2
The Ford Focus is not the cheap offering it once was. Indeed, these days the Seat Leon, Skoda Octavia and Skoda Scala are three obvious rivals to look at if value for money is your priority. The Focus will cost you about the same as the Volkswagen Golf. That's as a cash buy – if you're buying on a PCP finance deal, the Focus's higher depreciation could make it costlier per month than the Golf, and potentially a lot more expensive than the Kia Ceed.
The Focus's Ecoboost three-cylinder petrol engines feature efficiency-enhancing cylinder deactivation, which shuts down one cylinder when you’re cruising gently. This helps the popular 123bhp 1.0 Ecoboost 125 to return just over 50mpg in official WLTP tests. The mild-hybrid engines are even better, with our favourite 1.0 Ecoboost Hybrid 125 averaging just over 56mpg. The mild hybrids are also very competitive for CO2 emissions compared with rivals. That said, for really low company car tax, you're still better off with a plug-in hybrid, such as the Leon e-Hybrid.
Titanium Edition trim is not a bad alternative. It mirrors the ST-Line Edition trim in many respects, but loses the 17in alloys and privacy glass and instead gains climate control, ambient lighting and a heated steering wheel. We wouldn't go for any of the higher trims, particularly the wildly expensive Vignale trim, because the law of diminishing returns whittles away at the value they add.
