I wanted many things when I was a teenager. Nike Air Jordans were pretty high on the list. As was a Series 1 Land Rover. And a hug from Pamela Anderson. What I wanted above all though, needed in fact according to my teenage brain, was a fast Ford.
Growing up in west Cork I was addicted to the local rallying scene and spent many a weekend helping out local teams with tyres and fuel, or donning the luminous tabard of authority and helping with marshalling or time-keeping.
And a fast Ford was what I needed – of sufficiently high performance and dynamic agility to inspire the respect of my peers, yet practical enough to carry four hefty lads, spare tyres and jerry-cans of fuel.
So the Ford Focus ST digs deep into the teenage remnants lurking in my brain. It is a classic hot Ford cocktail of lairy performance, noise and muscular styling mixed with the calming tonic water of practical passenger and boot accommodation.
High performance
Better yet, for this mid-life update of the hot Focus, Ford is introducing a high-performance diesel model, stretching its 2.0-litre TDCI engine to 185bhp and a hefty 400Nm of torque. It’s designed to be a rival to the likes of the Volkswagen Golf GTD and Skoda Octavia RS TDI.
Still better again, for my teenage purposes, you can have this all in an estate body. Okay, I know estates are still regarded somewhat sniffily by many of us, but I’ve always preferred their extra practically to that offered by hatches or saloons, and if I’m still using my teenage needs as a yardstick here, then I can fit more spare tyres and fuel in the back of the estate.
Besides, in the dark battleship grey paintwork and with the options anthracite 19-inch alloys of our test car, the Focus ST estate looks to my eyes by far the meaner and moodier car than the bright orange or reds of the hatchbacks. It’s slightly subtler than the hatch too, which is all to the good.
Not surprisingly, the diesel model is slower in the benchmark 0-100km/h run than the 250bhp petrol version. While the petrol ST will break that barrier in 6.5 seconds from rest, the diesel takes a more leisurely 8.3 seconds. Which just goes to show how meaningless the 0-100km/h time really is – once you’re rolling, the diesel’s torque advantage (a full 40Nm) plays a good game of catch up, and across country there’s going to be precious little between the two cars.
Ragged
Just as a fast Ford should, the Focus ST feels a touch ragged round the edges. Accelerate hard in the ST TDCI and the steering wheel wriggles with torque steer, pulling the nose distinctly to the right as it does so. Ford’s clever revo-knuckle front suspension is supposed to minimise this tugging effect, but it doesn’t appear to have quelled the ST’s long-held appetite for self-steering. A proper mechanical differential would help, but that’s reserved for the forthcoming Focus RS.
Still, it’s fun in a hooligan-like way, and the hefty steering weight, which transmits decent road feel, offers you a route to some proper driving enjoyment. It can be tiring though, wrestling the Focus ST along a twisty road – your forearms will feel the effort expended.
It is a proper quick car though, easily capable of piling on three-figure speeds between corners and makes for a consummate overtaking machine. Perhaps not the most socially acceptable thing, but by God it’s fun.
It’s not as sophisticated as the hot Golf though, which delivers a more cultured, less manic performance. Is that good or bad? Hard to say – the Focus provides a bigger initial hit; the Golf provides superior long-term performance.
Certainly the Focus is harder around the edges – the tight fitting Recaro seats clamp you in place like a leathery vice, the firm ride never lets you forget that this is a sporting car (too firm for Irish conditions? Possibly so, yes . . .) and while the cabin design and quality is certainly improved on these updated Focus models, it’s still not quite as “premium” in the cabin as the German car.
There’s a bigger problem though and it’s the price tag. The cheapest Focus ST, the petrol model in hatch form, costs €39,100. The diesel is an extra €700 and the estate, although it doesn’t appear on the official Irish price list (for reasons of simplicity, says Ford Ireland) is another €1,000 on top of that. That puts the price of our optioned-up test car (Ford’s impressive SYNC2 infotainment plus a massive central touch screen, full leather, those gorgeous 19-inch wheels and more) on the very wrong side of €40,000. Almost into Golf R territory in fact, and much more expensive than a Golf GTI. More expensive again too than an Octavia RS Combi, and the roughly €7,000 gap between the two would buy a lot of options on the Skoda.
Okay, so this is a halo model and one that Ford only expects to sell about 50 of in a good year, but given that the diesel model can be taxed for a mere €190 a year and that Ford is supposed to be the working class hero when it comes to affordable performance cars, it’s a shame that the Focus can’t take on the Golf or the Octavia on price. I never did get those Nike Air Jordans when I was a teenager. They were just too darned expensive. Just as the Focus ST is today.
The lowdown: Ford Focus ST TDCI Estate
Price: €40,800
Power: 185bhp
Torque: 400Nm
0-100km/h: 8.3 seconds
Top speed: 217km/h
Claimed economy: 4.2l/100km. (67.3mpg)
CO2 emissions: 110g/km
Motor tax: €190
