Ford Focus 2.0 ST 170 3dr Review

Overall Rating

Superbly balanced package of handling
Brakes
Practicality
A lot of serious detailed engineering

Ford dealers sometimes not the best

This is a goodbye message to our Ford Focus 2.0 ST 170 3dr, after 48,000 miles, and we'll miss it. Let's get one thing straight first, this is not a "hot hatch". If you want a wheel-spinning, redline-revving spoiler and body-kit special, look elsewhere, like buy a Type R Civic, a Vauxhall or Ford's own rather hideous ST replacement. If, instead, you're grown up enough to want a car that inspires absolute confidence in its road manners, that's capable of very swift yet relaxed cross-country journeys but is as easy to drive as any baseline Focus for shopping and commuting, this is it.

The ST 170, a car Ford makes very rarely. It uses some very expensive brought-in parts, an engine developed and partly built by Cosworth featuring variable cams, special cylinder head casting, variable induction, special engine management, exhaust, catalyst etc. A gearbox brought in from Getrag, unique brakes and a lot of detail changes to make the thing work. In short, they didn't make much, if any, money selling just 50,000 units a year worldwide. The lucky result is that you can now pick up a major bargain in a nice used example.

If you're buying, avoid a car without the "comfort pack". This gives you the superb Zenon headlights which not only work amazingly, but hugely improve the looks, a heated front screen and a 6-CD changer. There are leather Recarro option cars around in place of the standard leather/cloth insert, but you'll also be lumbered with a big sub-woofer intruding into the boot - just chuck it away. If you want a boot-mounted sub, you don't want an ST170.

Once inside the car, it immediately feels at home, thanks to the excellent ergonomics inherited from the rest of the Focus range. On a first drive, you'll think that the gear ratios are impossibly high, but that's part of what makes the package so good. A fine, flat torque curve makes them work. On the open road, the tall 2nd, 3rd, 4th gears become really usable and the whole driving experience just falls into place. It's natural, relaxed motorway gait is just 3800rpm which is in the mid-nineties, so watch out! On A and B roads, it really comes together with a combination of class-leading handling, a beautifully developed engine, the six-speed box and some serious brakes, all made usable by good driving position and excellent visibility, especially in the 3-door version, but round town, it's docile, drivable and as practical as any other Focus.

It's easy enough to own, apart from one little vice. Around, town it's kinda thirsty at about 29 mpg and over three years we've only averaged 31 mpg with a one tank only high of 35 mpg.

Still, our's is going. And the replacement? Well, not the new ST for sure, and not any of the direct equivalents either. To find a car we actually want to own as much as the little Ford, I've had to stump up twice its price for a DSG-equipped R32 Golf. And still, with the order form on the table, my wife said "We could just keep the Focus another year". I'd say that's a recommendation.

Members' Comments onzharca's Review

• lawrie8f on 15th Sep 2009

  I found this review very helpful because it covers all the questions that a prospective owner would have, and is written by somebody who is clearly very sensible and has owned the car for several years....