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Matt Robinson7 Jul 2019
REVIEW

Ford Focus ST 2019 Review – International

Blue Oval returns to the hot hatch game with the fourth Ford Focus ST, but is it good enough?
Review Type
International Launch

Ford has a long and honourable history of making hot hatches. It goes back to the Sierra and Escort Cosworth models, of course, and culminates in the modern-day ST and RS lines – including the now-departed Ford Focus RS and the new Ford Fiesta ST. The latter is one of the Blue Oval’s greatest accomplishments (the latest three-cylinder turbo model has won plaudits left, right and centre), but is still yet to arrive in Australia. Now it’s time for the larger Mk4 Focus to gain the first of two likely performance treatments (ST and RS) and both the Ford Fiesta ST and Ford Focus ST will arrive Down Under in the first quarter of next year.

Hot hatch knife fight

The new Ford Focus ST enters a C-segment (small-car) hot hatch battle populated by a bunch of much tougher nuts than the Fiesta ST’s B-segment (light-car) rivals, so has Ford sent the new Focus ST wading into a knife fight with nothing more than a pointy stick?

Well, no. Not if the latest ST’s brawny engine is anything to go by. It’s a new-generation version of the 2.3-litre EcoBoost turbo-petrol motor found in the old Focus RS (and the Mustang) -- a blown four-pot that delivers 206kW.

That places it in the thick of the power action, but isn’t anything to write home about; it’s a dead match for the Renault Megane RS 280, only slightly ahead of the 200kW Peugeot 308 GTi and 202kW Hyundai i30 N, and some way shy of the mighty 228kW doled out by the Honda Civic Type R.

But Ford has fought back with torque. A bigger swept capacity than all its rivals means the Focus ST has fully 420Nm of muscle to call upon – more than anything possessed by the roster mentioned above, to the tune of 20Nm, and only 20Nm off what the four-wheel-drive, 257kW Focus RS Mk3 could deliver.

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In fact, Leo Roeks, the affable Dutchman who heads up Ford Performance Europe (the lead department responsible for the Focus ST Mk4), is only too keen to tell us that the ST has better in-gear mid-range acceleration than the old RS.

In Europe, there’s a four-strong phalanx of STs, with both hatchback and wagon body styles, a 140kW turbo-diesel and this 206kW EcoBoost engine to choose from in any combination buyers see fit.

Australians will only get the petrol hatchback, but should at least get the seven-speed automatic option when the Focus ST finally goes on sale here in March 2020.

Incidentally, that’s the same time the three-pot Fiesta ST will hit our showrooms, as the smaller fast Ford’s arrival here was delayed by a lack of autonomous emergency braking.

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What’s in the box

Today, we’re going to have to make do with the six-speed manual gearbox, which has a seven per cent shorter throw than the H-pattern shifter found in regular Focuses.

This drives the front wheels of the ST through an electronically controlled limited-slip differential (eLSD), made by Borg-Warner.

This has been selected because it responds quicker than a mechanical item and goes some way to quelling the torque-steer and wheelspin that a front-driver with 420Nm will inevitably generate.

Meantime, Torque Vectoring and a version of the electronic power assisted steering (EPAS; it also tries to pre-empt and prevent the two aforementioned corrupting dynamic forces on the front axle) do their bits to help out.

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The Ford’s chassis armoury does not stop there. Continuously Controlled Dampers (CCD) are another first for the Focus ST, these being 20 per cent and 13 per cent stiffer front and rear respectively and switchable through various drive modes within the cabin of the car, while the hot hatch rides 10mm lower to the ground than its regular Focus brethren.

The brakes are whoppers, 330x27mm items up front gripped by twin-piston callipers and 302x11mm discs at the rear, the whole lot enhanced by an Electric Brake Booster that can build stopping pressure faster than a hydraulic system.

The EPAS we’ve already talked about is 15 per cent faster than the regular Focus hatch’s and takes just two turns lock-to-lock, while anti-lag tech from the Ford GT supercar and the F-150 Raptor is employed on the 2.3 unit when it’s operating in its more focused drive modes (more on these in a moment) to make the engine super-responsive.

There’s an Engine Sound Enhancer (ESE) for the motor as well, the 19-inch alloys are wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres and the twin-spaced exhausts make all the right pops and bangs during high-performance driving.

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More fancy bits

All sounds good. And the new Ford Focus ST looks pretty good, too, especially in its signature colours (both exclusive to the ST, making sure no one mistakes your 206kW hot hatch for a mere ST-Line model) of Performance Blue or Orange Fury.

Discreet styling updates, like a hexagonal radiator grille and grey exterior detailing – plus a big rear spoiler – just about make it stand out from the ST-Line that seeks to mimic it, and the stance and proportions of it are rather pleasing.

Same goes for the interior, which has some fabulous ST-branded Recaro seats mounted at just the right height (*cough* unlike in the old Focus RS *cough*), an ST-emblazoned steering wheel, carbon-fibre-effect trim (questionable…) and a general air of being screwed together in a premium fashion.

It’s just that… once you’re sat in those lovely Recaros and are therefore unable to see them, the dashboard and cluster hardly scream ‘hot hatch’ at the driver.

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In fact, save for a 280km/h top marker and some Ford Performance screens in the tiny 4.2-inch TFT display crammed between the analogue dials, the instrument cluster looks just like that you’d find on any Focus Mk4.

As does much of the cabin architecture. Most of the Ford’s rivals do a better job of convincing you you’re in the hot hatch top dog when you’re just sitting in the cabin pre-flight, if we’re honest.

And there are some more issues with the Focus ST. The four drive modes, if you specify a Performance Pack, are Slippery, Normal, Sport and Track (this last one being specific to the PP).

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These, as ever on modern motors, adjust things like throttle response, engine noise, steering rate, diff action and so on, according to which mode you’re in. There is, however, no configurable ‘Individual’ mode, which would let you pair, for instance, Normal steering and damping with Track engine and diff.

Over to Roeks again, who says that owners use these configuration settings once and then never again, so Ford Performance felt it wasn’t necessary here. It also reckons it has provided the best-possible settings for each, which Roeks said wasn’t supposed to sound arrogant – after all, Ford Performance knows what it is doing with chassis set-ups.

There’s also a rev-matching function on downshifts and a flat-upshift feature for the gearbox, but the former part of this is non-switchable: it doesn’t engage until Sport mode, while you can’t turn it off in Sport or Track either. No heel-and-toe for you, then.

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So how’s it go?

We mention all of this because, to drive, the new Ford Focus ST presents even more drawbacks. Specifically, the steering and the damping.

On the international test of Ford’s hot hatch challenger, we were presented with some superb mountain roads, both tight and gnarly ones as well as open sweepers.

Naturally, we quickly pressed the (absolutely tiny) ‘S’ or ‘Mode’ buttons on the right-hand spoke of the steering wheel to knock the car up into Sport or Track… and we wished we hadn’t.

The steering is bizarre in these settings. There’s an almost comically aggressive amount of self-centring, something the smaller Fiesta ST also displays, but that’s overlaid with a stodgy, sticky weighting off-centre and not much in the way of communication.

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Sport and Race modes also uprate the responses of the eLSD and, while there’s not much in the way of torque-steer or wheelspin, you do find the tiller in your hands making occasional, odd little shimmies as the technology at the front axle does its best to control the 2.3 motor’s output.

Overall, we just found the steering of the Focus ST in Sport or Track modes unpleasant. And that’s a real shame.

Meanwhile, the damping in these settings needs work, too. The CCD does a good job at oozing the car around town smoothly enough in Normal, but abrupt vertical damping movements are almost immediately apparent as soon as you switch into Sport; these only become firmer and less likeable in Track.

Now, the body control these harder settings bless the Focus ST with is unimpeachable, so much so that we kinda wish Ford had put on some track-time on a circuit so we could sample just what the car was capable of.

But out on give-and-take road surfaces? Nope, the damping is just too much. Maybe not Renault Sport Cup uncomfortable, granted, but certainly not as accomplished as the Civic Type R, 308 GTi or Volkswagen’s long-serving Golf GTI.

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However, if you’re wondering why we’ve given the Ford Focus ST such a high overall mark, salvation is at hand. The engine is a stormer.

Despite a lowly 5500rpm on-paper point of peak power delivery, it likes to rev and yet it has colossal reach – lugging well from about 2500rpm upwards and capable, with the gearing, of spearing up to very high speeds in short order.

Sounds OK too, the falseness of the ESE somewhat evident beyond 4500rpm but not unbearable, while the rumbles and thuds of the exhausts are kept to a low, appealing background level.

The gearbox is precise and mechanically positive, while the brakes stand up to rigorous on-road examination time and time again; these anchors are four times more resistant to fade than the stoppers on the old Focus ST, says Ford Performance. We can quite believe that claim.

It’s a great hot hatch for daily duties, as well, because the refinement (in terms of noise suppression) and ride comfort in Normal mode put the Focus at or near the top of the class in this regard.

As something to use regularly for 95 per cent of the time, only opening it up and exploiting its full capabilities on a few occasions, it has the design brief nailed.

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On balance then

Yet you’re probably still wondering if these benefits can overcome syrupy steering with a near-antagonistic self-centring effect and intransigent dampers. Well, they can, if you follow one golden rule with the Focus ST.

And that is this: never, ever, ever, no matter what you do, take it out of Normal mode when it’s on the road.

Roeks said his team listened to criticism of the lack of differentiation between drive modes on the Fiesta ST, because it didn’t come across as appreciably changed from one setting to the next. So Ford Performance did its best to make the Focus ST’s modes more disparate.

It has succeeded at that, but in reality, the set-up the team chose for Normal makes the Focus ST an absolute delight to drive fast.

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Apart from the fact it won’t rev-match for you on downshifts in this setting (and you’ll struggle to do it yourself due to the height of the middle pedal, which won’t be a problem in automatic versions) and that the engine doesn’t employ its anti-lag feature, this is where the Focus ST Mk4 distinguishes itself as the best of its four-strong line in the handling stakes.

The steering still wants to self-centre too much, but it’s nothing like as strenuous in its exertions, while the weighting and rate of response to inputs of lock is more fluid, more graceful and just downright more damned pleasurable.

Same goes for the damping – the shell of the ST doesn’t get away from the chassis in Normal and yet the car is so much more elegant at dealing with lumps and bumps, spends more of its time with its Michelins squashed down firmly into the bitumen, that it’s patently much faster to drive like this on unfamiliar roads than it is in Sport.

There’s a gem of a chassis on the Focus ST, it’s absolutely apparent; just don’t go and mask what it’s capable of by trying to up the sportiness quotient, because Base Camp of the mode settings is completely where it’s at.

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Top of the class?

But is the Ford Focus ST the new hot hatch leader, even if you decide to tape over the mode switches on the steering wheel so no-one can ever take the 206kW hatch out of Normal? Well… no. No, it isn’t.

Technology-wise, we’re waiting for Australian specs to be confirmed but the ST should be laden with many of the connectivity, driver assist and comfort toys that are found on top-end models in the regular Focus line-up, including the Active crossover variant.

The price isn’t confirmed either, although we have the fear it will not be a sub-$40,000 bargain like the Mk3, but in fact much closer to the price of a Honda Civic Type R – yup, that means knocking on the door of $50,000, regrettably.

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And we’d much rather have the superior Honda for that cash, complete with wild styling and infuriating infotainment. Or, indeed, the Hyundai i30 N, our hot hatch group test winner in 2018 and a car that drives more sweetly than the Focus ST for less cash.

Or, extrapolating from this, we’d just go for the Fiesta ST in all-singing, all-dancing specification and save quite a lot more than $10,000. Because the baby ST is the better ST, even allowing for the Focus’ undoubted all-round brilliance in Normal mode.

It’s a good effort, this, from Ford, but it’s not a game-changer. Might we be waiting for the next Ford Focus RS for the Blue Oval to take the hot hatch crown once more? We look forward to finding out.

How much does the 2020 Ford Focus ST cost?
Price: More than $40,000 (see story)
Available: By March 2020
Engine: 2.3-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 206kW/420Nm
Transmission: Six-speed manual
Fuel: 7.9L/100km
CO2: 179g/km
Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP)

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Written byMatt Robinson
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Our team of independent expert car reviewers and journalistsMeet the team
Expert rating
83/100
Engine, Drivetrain & Chassis
17/20
Price, Packaging & Practicality
16/20
Safety & Technology
17/20
Behind The Wheel
16/20
X-Factor
17/20
Pros
  • Super-strong 2.3-litre turbo motor
  • Understated but handsome looks
  • Fluid 'Normal' damping
Cons
  • Stodgy steering
  • Damping too firm in Sport/Track
  • Interior lacks sparkle
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