Autocar - First for car news and reviews

Why not seven stars out of five? It's a Ford, this is Autocar...

Not for me, thanks.

4.5 stars, I like! Funny how the "It'll be horrible to drive" threads seem to have quietly died now. 

Hopefully the data page will get completed soon so we can see how rapid it actually is.

This car is a great achievement, but like the 911, is an achievement because it does everything to counteract a huge intitial compromise that they werent prepared to change - Front wheel drive.

It would have been nice to see exactly what the engineers could have achieved with a clean sheet of paper.

I like this car, but the fact that you couldnt be seen driving one without wearing a baseball cap does put me off.

 a better hot hatch car would be the subaru imprezza sti 330. its faster for a start. or for better value the base imprezza remapped.

Still would prefer an Audi S3 or Bmw 135i by far, atleast you dont have to put a baseball cap on and play garage music to drive one of them either :)

Is 4WD a dirty word with car manufacturers?? Considering the weather we have, surely it would be more appropriate?

The "For" and "Against" on this test sound like the results for a test of a Datsun Sunny from the mid 80`s not some rip snorting fire breathing noughties hot hatch. Odd.

Sounds like a dull drive if you are not really pressing on with its "stellar grip", sure we'll hear all about it in the local paper in the magistrates section.

Focus RS club meeting

Makes you proud to be British, doesn't it?

Are the "it's really chavvy" comments a replacement for the "it'll be a horrible torque-steery mess", which all the road tests have shown not to be the case?

The fact that some people seemed determined to hate it make me even gladder I've ordered one.

(And no, I'm not remotely chavvy!)