It's hard to overstate the revolution that the original Focus represented, not just in the way it drove and attention to detail in its engineering, but for the change it marked at Ford. Fed up with years of being under the thumb of the accountants and marketers and forced to make under-performing cars like the woeful Mark V Escort, the blue oval's engineers cried: "never again".
Lead by Richard Parry-Jones a mercurial product development chief and backed by Ford CEO Jac Nasser, Focus was developed under a new hot-house approach to design and engineering. And this extraordinary hatchback bought steering precision, progressive body control and supple ride quality to a public who had previous been thought indifferent to such qualities. "Surprise and delight features," Ford called them and while Focus made lower profits initially, two decades on, it's more than paid Ford back.
So now we get the fourth version, although no one at Ford seems sure whether it's actually the fourth, fifth or maybe the sixth version. Unusually it's an all-new car with 'just a handful of bolts and screws carried over," according to Simon Palmer, chief powertrain engineer. It's about the same size (18mm longer, with a 53mm longer wheelbase) and more handsome than the outgoing car, but a bit derivative and sadly for those who will gaze upon it in their drives, bland. It's also 50kg lighter, 10 per cent more economical and cheaper. Prices run from £17,930 to £29,240, it's on sale now and the first deliveries are in September.
It comes as a five-door hatchback and an estate, with trim levels that include Vignale luxury, Active crossover and ST-Line road burner, as well as the more traditional Style, Zetec and Titanium levels. Ford says it has cut the number of derivatives by 92 per cent, but there are still bewildering numbers of models available with even more body styles and a full ST version in the pipeline.