For sale: the Focus RS to rule them all

Want a hot hatch for time travelling back to the good old days? There genuinely might be none finer...

By PH Staff / Tuesday, 4 August 2026 / Loading comments

Hard now to conceive of the excitement that greeted the second generation of the Focus RS. Not because it was particularly unprecedented at the time - quite the opposite, Ford had been doing remarkably exciting things with hatchbacks since forever - but because it feels so at odds with the Ford of 2026, which, Mustang aside, couldn’t find thrilling with a map and a thermometer. The reveal of the new Puma ST Edition last month passed by with barely a murmur. It could hardly be said to have deserved better.

Two decades ago, Ford seemed to know instinctively how to get the blood pumping. The RS concept was revealed at the British motor show in 2008 (remember those?); the Mk1 had been gone for five years at that point. It was like waiting for the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Except there was no Jar Jar Binks-style blunder here; this was Ford at its crowd-pleasing peak. Two driven wheels. Three doors. Four blistered arches. Five cylinders. Six gears. Seventh heaven.

Loud and very proud hot hatches were hardly a novelty at the time, but very few rivalled the Mk2’s physical presence. It looked fantastic on a show stand; it looked fantastic on a magazine cover. And its linebacker burliness was no facade. The 2.5-litre five-pot, with its bigger BorgWarner turbo, was an East German javelin thrower of an engine. You got 305hp at 6,500rpm, but more noticeably you got 325lb ft of lusty, hip-thrusting mid-range. And the epic burble to go with it.

Naturally, it was bigger and heavier than the Mk1, and felt it. But Ford had learned some lessons, too: there was a Quaife limited-slip diff and lower scrub radius courtesy of its RevoKnuckle front suspension. In the following decade, the all-wheel-drive Mk3 would bring even more tech to bear - but its Drift Mode shenanigans opened the door for umpteen imitators to pile through. Looking back now, the Mk2 seems the more evocative, additive-free option - partly because Ford never returned to its front-drive configuration in flagship terms.

The values these days tend to bear that out. Silly money Heritage Editions aside, it is low-mile examples of the Mk2 which tend to command the highest asking prices. Which brings us to this one in Harrogate, up at £41,995. Not the most expensive, courtesy of its four previous owners and more than 13k miles - but with all the right moves (Performance Blue, Lux Pack 1, Lux Pack 2 and the Dynamica leather upgrade) and with a mostly impeccable service history and MOT record.

Could you spend the money more rationally? Obviously. A much newer Honda Civic Type R would be sharper and more economical and better suited to everyday. A Megane 275 Trophy would be cheaper and better on the edge. A Mk3 RS would be quicker. But the Mk2 might be the clearest expression of old-school Ford thinking: take something very ordinary, and knock it from the park. The sight of this one makes its 2009 pomp seem incredibly distant. Thank goodness then, for comfortably less than the asking price of a Mustang Mach-E that no one could possibly want, some lucky beggar gets to relive the glory days...

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