Ford's Focus saloon - as good as it gets?

If you’re in the market for a saloon in the Focus class, you might be put off by how it looks in the photographs which were circulated to the motoring press. I know that I was. It simply didn’t look the goods after the sharp styling of the overall hatchback package.

But I changed my mind the first time I saw one in the metal. The Focus saloon is high, wide and handsome, to use an old phrase ... a phrase, though, which works all the way with the car. So much so, that I felt it might even threaten the bigger and older brother Mondeo. (Though that car is due for a major revamp next year, which should take care of that.)

So, from the front we have the same nose as we’ve become used to since the Focus first debuted, and which most of us have grown to like very much. Certainly there’s no mistaking what we’re seeing when one of the many and increasing number of copies zoom along our roads. Move to side view and it is somewhat high-waisted, which actually shows off the strong sculpting over the wheel-arches. The line of the window bottoms runs nicely upwards to a very attractive C-pillar and then meets the top of a fairly high boot which has a vestigial spoiler effect that incorporates the high brake light.

And at the back the boot lid slopes slightly forward right down to the bumper, and is flanked by tail-light clusters which are just as distinctive as the front. Overall the car looks a very handsome package indeed.

(It was a little ironic that I was lent an Escort for a day before collecting the review car and saw just how much this replacement had improved over its predecessor which is still being sold. Chalk and Cheese.)

So inside, and the now-familiar but still very different dashboard design works hard to making the owner remember that this is Ford’s style for a new millennium, albeit brought in a little early. It is radical and exciting, and ergonomically very good, particularly when it comes to the big-buttoned radio high-mounted in the curvy central section and the equally large heater controls.

Indeed, big buttons are the order of the car, totally fiddle-free. Ford made much of how they had asked women particularly where they wanted things placed, and stories of nail-breaking were large in the response. Touch rather than twist or lift was the company designers’ answer to these. The boot-release is a case in point, placed high to the right of the steering wheel. (A colleague has spent considerable time criticising this on the basis that it makes to too easy for a baddy to reach in an open window in your favourite gridlock and pop the boot ... but, hey, I really appreciated the ease with which I could do the same thing any time I was about to leave the car.)

Room in the Focus is excellent both front and rear, and it felt particularly wide and headroomy. The seats were good, if not the best of recent experience, and certainly adequate for the class. A bit more lumbar support was wished for by my regular front passenger.

Stowage is average, with at least a spot between the seats which safely held my mobile and two mug-holders up front of the handbrake (beware, cups will wallow in them!). The boot is big for the class, and very well finished inside.

The review Focus was the 2-litre Ghia-specced version, and when I realised that and looked at the extra in price over the entry Focus saloon, I was quite impressed. At £15,500 or thereabouts it was only two grand extra, and for this you get that 2-litre engine, wood effect on the dash and doors, air-conditioning, upgraded seat fabrics and electrics where possible.

On the road the engine could be made sound a little coarse under pressure, but in normal use is quite sweet. The handling of the saloon is not quite as sharp as I remember the hatchbacks to be, but we’re talking marginally here, and Focus is among the best in the business in suspension performance these days.

And as I sat writing this my phone rang and a friend asked me to help him choose between another Mondeo and a competing brand. I didn’t have to think long before suggesting that he take a drive in the Focus saloon before deciding on either.

He just might do that ... and he just might buy, because this is nearly as good as it gets.