End of the road for the Ford Focus?

It is hard to imagine a future without Focus. The mid-sized Ford family car has been a global best-seller and an everyday sight on roads in the UK and beyond since 1998.

I remember the fanfare as news of the new name broke. It replaced the Escort which itself had been a staple of the motoring world since 1968 and it made a live broadcast on the BBC’s early rolling news channel.

My colleagues and I crowded around the newsroom television to watch the new name being announced as the Escort was discarded. It was a global news event.

But time moves on. Focus, now in its fourth generation, will cease to be from 2025 when Ford will concentrate on electric vehicles. A wise move? Only time will tell if the Government’s rush to swap diesel and petrol for EV (electric vehicle) power is wise. Truth is, we have lots of hurdles to overcome in a very short space of time if we are to hit the 2030 target.

I’m guessing there will still be a lot of Focuses – and other petrol and diesel cars – still on the road then.

I’m a fan. I must confess my dad was a Fordophile, He must have had 20 of them over the years from Consuls and Anglias to Cortinas and Fiestas. I too once had an XR2, which I wish I'd kept. It would be wprth a fsmall fortune now such is the demand for nostalgia from the 1980s.

I haven’t always a Ford fan. The company had a difficult job, being the country’s biggest selling brand. While smaller outfits could dare to be different, Ford had to play the sensible role which meant many of its cars were comparatively boring.

It was also the benchmark for everything including price, so Ford models suffered from aggressive marketing with near rivals marginally undercutting them.

But Ford survived, thanks to some interesting models. It found its mojo with Kuga and Puma leading the way. And even the soon-to-be-lost Focus has found its edge.

It might no longer be the country’s best-seller because we all apparently want SUVs and crossovers. But there is a traditional market for traditional cars and Focus still has its fans.

The latest model tested here is sublime: it is attractive, well-equipped, balanced, fun to drive and competitively priced. It manages, thanks to a broad range of prices and specifications, to tackle the two-pronged threat of ever-improving budget cars and more affordable premium models.