Whereas the A45 feels like it has core strength and a rippling six-pack, the Golf has been skipping leg day and grown a sizeable paunch. This website is made by BBC Studios Distribution. In Exclusiv trim, it’s short on creature comforts, while the unrewarding dynamics leave it trailing for driver appeal. The all-new Ford Focus – which is set to arrive in South Africa before the end of 2018 – will offer a host of new technologies, higher levels of occupant comfort, plus enhanced performance and efficiency. Ford has a whole range of these Active cars, with the dinky Ka+ Active starting it off and Fiesta Active in the middle. I discover this as I barrel into the first of them on cold summer tyres and plough straight on. Wrong, I’m afraid. We compare design, practicality, price, features, engine, transmission, fuel consumption, driving, safety & ownership of all models and give you our expert verdict. And then, when I’m all but ready to give up, I hit the track, attack hard and the whole thing comes to life. As our convoy rolls into the Circuit des Ecuyers, 66 miles east of Paris, the sun is still hiding behind the firs and the thermometer is firmly in the negative. Can Ford’s all-new Focus regain its place at the summit of the family car class? BBC Studios is a commercial company that is owned by the BBC (and just the BBC). Our select group includes the winner and runner-up from that last outing – the VW Golf R and Honda Civic Type-R – plus two newcomers intent on making the ‘hot’ in ‘hot hatch’ look a bit undercooked. No money from the licence fee was used to create this website. If the Merc’s willingness to play the fool is the day’s biggest surprise, then the Golf R is the biggest disappointment… on the road, at least. Trail-brake into corners, and the rear swings around obediently, and from there satisfying four-wheel slides are yours for the taking. No. And so with every upshift, they pull further ahead, the A45 winning at a canter. Perfect hot-hatch territory, then, and unshackled by the rules of the public highway. And our Focus 1.6 TDCi Zetec even featured stop-start, to add a dose of economy to proceedings. Its job is to make serious performance accessible, pleasurable and affordable to the man in the street. The Ford Focus ST is a popular choice in the hot hatch segment. The low emissions of this BlueMotion model only add to the appeal. That means you get a vehicle that’s almost entirely car-like, but with a little extra groun… Frank Guittard, the track’s manager, is less concerned about the ice than a bunch of sleep-deprived, soft-centred Brits. You’re thinking Mercedes, Ford then VW, right? Well, I say “beast”, but it’s more of a large domestic cat really, given the welcoming way in which it lets you approach the limit, go straight past it and still keep your underpants fresh. The new car addresses many flaws of the old model, such as its dated cabin and engine line-up, but it doesn’t make the leap required to topple the best in the sector. The third-generation Ford Focus has hardly been challenged in the three years it’s been on sale. Our trip took in everything from congested city streets and monotonous motorways to thrilling British back roads. What happens when you go hardcore off-roading in a soft-roader? What hasn’t changed much is the interior, and that’s good. The steering is under-geared in this company, and with a 50/50 torque split from the Haldex four-wheel-drive system, it never feels rear-driven like the RS, but lifts of the throttle or dabs of the brake are your tools for getting the car turned in, then there’s masses of traction to sling you down the next straight. The previous afternoon had been spent exercising the cars on public roads around Reims, but this circuit does a better impression of a perfect B-road than a ‘proper’ racetrack: narrow and surrounded by a welly-stealing bog. From the grippy Alcantara on its wheel to its chunky paddles nicked from the AMG GT, the A45 comes from a rarefied world that’s alien to the blue-collar Focus. Historically, it has delivered fun handling to make you smile and low running costs that won't make you weep. With 30 per cent of the power still spinning the front tyres, it hauls you forward while the tail hangs out, reducing the chance of swapping ends to virtually zero. There’s a reason I’ve left the Civic Type-R until last: these are far from ideal conditions for a 306bhp, front-wheel-drive, turbocharged nutter-hatch, and I’ve just watched our road test editor being towed back onto the track following a spin that left the front tyres two feet from the tarmac. 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