ST makes a cool family wagon...
I was going for a weekend away in the Peak District and as luck would have it I managed to get my hands on the Focus for the trip, which turned out to be just about perfect for the job.
Anyone with small children will know how much multi-coloured detritus is ‘essential’ for even the shortest trip away. But despite not being the biggest car on the road, the buggy, suitcases and everything else went in the boot without a struggle, leaving the interior just for passengers. In fact the ST does all the family car duties extremely well, such as cruising quietly at motorway speeds and carrying passengers in adequate space and comfort (in fact, just like any normal Focus).
It does have a bit of a dual personality though, and one which could prove harmful for both your driving licence and wallet unless you are substantially more restrained than me. As soon as you flex your right foot the ST lets out a wonderful growl and smoothly shoves you back into your seat as the turbo comes on to full boost and then again as the car gets a second wind around 4000rpm.
Never have I driven a car which has goaded me on so strongly. The Focus only truly feels special once you open the taps but when you do, even for a second, it rewards you each time. Every opportunity to pin the throttle and hear that noise has to be seized and however fast you are going it seems to want to go just a little bit faster. Out in the countryside the chassis comfortably keeps up, with plenty of grip and no obvious vices, giving you little reason to slow down to more socially acceptable speeds, no-doubt generating tuts of disapproval from certain other road users.
On the return journey I did discover a reason to slow down. Snow, and lots of it, had started falling and the powerful, wide-tyred ST was not ideal for the job. It did as good a job as could be reasonably expected, traction control keeping things in place once the car was rolling, making as much use of the available grip
Oh Bollards, I can't quite make it home
as possible and getting us up several steep hills without incident. The Focus was finally defeated by one particularly steep hill within walking distance of home which it just would not make it up, TC on or off, but to be fair to the ST, the only vehicle that made it up that hill that night was a 4x4 on off-road tyres and it had done a pretty good job until that point.
The next day I took the opportunity to go for a bit of a drive in the snow under the pretence of ‘taking a few photos’. As always in freezing weather the Quickclear windscreen proved fantastic, completely clearing the screen in the time it took me to clear the snow off the lights and side windows. In an empty snowy car park the Focus seemed to understeer a little too much for my liking but it would still go sideways with the handbrake or even just the right amount of left-foot braking.
Back at the office I was sorry to hand the keys back as in my time with the ST I had only found two criticisms. Firstly the clutch pedal had an irritating squeak (something which RacingPete says has now fixed itself), which would slowly drive me crazy in stop-start traffic. Secondly the sat-nav, although full of features and easy to use had a habit of picking utterly bizarre routes, often much slower and longer than those signposted and at one point even leading me up a dead-end. These did little to take the shine off the car though and even the fuel consumption was acceptable considering the way I had driven it, hovering in the upper 20s.
Please Sir, can I have another go?
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