CIRCLE THE WAGONS (some text hidden) --NONE--

By Jonathan Crouch

Ford's Focus is best known as a family hatch, but if you need a little added practicality, look at the estate version before you get drawn into the SUV marketing spiel. Jonathan Crouch reports on the improved version.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 70

The fourth generation Ford Focus Estate has been given a proper working over in this updated form, with greater practicality, sleeker looks, a much improved 'SYNC 4' infotainment system and extra technology. There's also impressive efficiency beneath the bonnet thanks to the hi-tech range of petrol and diesel engines. It's not the biggest or the cheapest estate in its sector, but it might just now be the most appealing all-rounder.

Backgroundword count: 139

Such is the pull of small SUVs that the estate car seems to have had its last rites read time and again, yet still they struggle on. The reason why they refuse to die? They're a good idea. What's more, if people were honest about why they really needed a vehicle, an estate car would make more practical sense. They carry just as much as many SUVs, yet they're better to drive, they're lighter and more aerodynamic which means better efficiency - and they're usually cheaper to buy too. Ford's brought us some brilliant estates down the years but as much as customers have warmed to the Focus hatch, the five-door estate has never occupied a huge slice of the overall Focus sales pie chart. Perhaps this improved version of the MK4 design can formulate a more convincing argument.

Driving Experienceword count: 402

This fourth generation Focus estate, like its predecessors, has a reputation as a family station wagon with the ability to entertain at the wheel - and if you enjoy your driving, that's something you'll appreciate pretty early on the first time you try one. Over twenty years ago, the original version of this model achieved much the same thing by standardising advanced multi-link rear suspension across its model line-up. Today, you get that too - in contrast to the hatch body shape which restricts this more advanced damping set-up to its most powerful variants. The engine range was significantly updated as recently as 2020 with Ford's latest mHEV Mild Hybrid technology and of course that's carried forward, with electrified mHEV 125 and 155PS versions of Ford's 1.0-litre three cylinder EcoBoost petrol unit. You can now though, get this 48-volt powerplant with a 7-speed Powershift auto gearbox. For entry-level customers not wanting to pay the premium required for the extra electrified tech, this three cylinder EcoBoost engine also continues to be offered in non-electrified 125PS form - which is the model you have to have if you want your 1.0-litre 125PS Focus Estate fitted with a manual gearbox. The mHEV mild hybrid version of the 125PS 1.0-litre model only comes as an auto. Order this 1.0-litre engine in the uprated 155PS form we tried and the mHEV tech becomes mandatory and there's a choice of either manual or auto transmission. Got all that? Good. Higher mileage drivers who remain unconvinced by petrol power will be pleased to see that the 1.5-litre 120PS EcoBlue diesel engine's been retained in the range - though only with 8-speed auto transmission. At the top of the line-up, the uber-rapid ST performance model continues on with the 280PS 2.3-litre EcoBoost petrol unit. As before, across the range the ride isn't overly firm, but body control through the bends is still exemplary, allowing you at the wheel to make the most of the stiff C2 platform, the feelsome power steering and the torque vectoring control system that helps you get the power down through the bends. It all combines to create a car that really can still reward at the wheel, even in its most affordable forms: there's still nothing else in this segment that feels quite the same. Yet it still does the sensible stuff well too, being decently refined, with confident braking and a lovely tactile gearshift.

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