Ford Focus

HELLO £ 18,305 OTR/£19,280 as tested/£239pcm WHY IT’ S HERE Is a RyanAir-spec family hatch a hidden motoring gem? DRIVER Ollie Kew MAGNIFICENT, ISN’T IT? HALOGEN HEADLIGHTS, WITH MANUAL main-beam. Sixteen-inch alloy wheels on thick-necked tyres. Unbolstered cloth seats. Clear, untinted glass. And not a reversing camera, adaptive cruise radar or even an electric folding mirror in sight. We’ve had more tricked-out Caterhams at TG than this Ford Focus. And that’s the point.

So, a very important machine joins the TG fleet. A car that hundreds thousands of people will buy in the next five or so years, and many more will cross-shop against a Golf or Ceed or Astra or Civic. And against a few crossover hybrids too. Even in 2019, a Focus feels kinda heartland.

The new MkIV Ford Focus is Britain’s second best-selling car, which is pretty impressive given it’s a mainstream badged hatchback, not a coupe-crossover-estate hybrid jumble. It’s an easy-to-understand vehicle. How refreshing. And, as a rule of thumb, if the base model is good, all of them will be good.

The bestseller will be an ST-line, probably. Something with a bodykit and some frills and fripperies, to stand out against the likes of the new Toyota Corolla and gorgeous new Mazda3. But, on this occasion, I wanted to do away with a big options spend, and experiment with no-frills motoring. What’s an absolute base-spec family car like to live with in 2019?

OK, the Focus Style only exists so Ford can say “New Focus, from £18,305.” Sticker prices are meaningless anyway – we all grab cars on contract. Here’s where the base-spec argument stumbles a bit. This Style, with its 84bhp is £239 on monthly finance. A Zetec, with 99bhp and piles more kit is £12 more a month. Which means a Style will be a rarer sight than a leopard-print Bugatti. Still, I’m too intrigued to worry about the maths. Bring on the back-to-basics life. In the slow lane, mostly.