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“As the car climbed higher up the mountain passes, and then swept through the high speed bends up in the plateau area of Haute Provence, the handling and ride matched anything the German premium manufacturers can offer” 

ST-PAUL-DE-VENCE, France Once an idea has become embedded in the public mind, it seems almost impossible to change it, even if it stopped making sense years ago.

Tory sleaze still seems to be on the tip of some people’s tongues in word association tests. A couple of brown envelopes stuffed with fivers and a few mild porkies from Jonathan Aitkin are still echoing in the brains of some Neanderthals. Poor Fiat and Alfa Romeo are still lumbered with the old canard about rust, even though this ceased to be a problem way back in the 20^th century. As for Ford, it used to be thought of as a manufacturer run by accountants who cared more about the bottom line, and were happy to produce cheap and cheerful vehicles which sold on price rather than by generating any excitement. The Dagenham Dustbins weren’t up to much, but at least it didn’t cost a fortune to put them back on the road when they broke. And they did.

Since Ford has been producing top quality vehicles like the S-Max, Mondeo and Focus for some years now, any residual impact from the bad old days should have disappeared.

Brand power
But the proof of the pudding is in the brand power, and in truth nothing much has changed here. Ford still lags Volkswagen in brand perception, although having just driven the latest Ford Focus, the quality of the product is just as good, if not better, than the German one. The American company is probably thought of as on a par with its compatriot Opel/Vauxhall, otherwise known as General Motors. The two Americans are probably edged out in the brand power stakes by Peugeot and Renault, although Citroen and Fiat lag behind. All of these of course are in the second division (that’s the Championship in British football terms) compared with the Premier league leaders BMW, Mercedes and Audi.

That’s not fair. I’ve just been driving the latest Ford Focus 2.0 litre diesel through the alpine roads north of Nice and St-Paul-De-Vence. As the car climbed higher up the mountain passes, and then swept through the high speed bends up in the plateau area of Haute Provence, the handling and ride matched anything the German premium manufacturers can offer.

Titanium
The six-speed gearbox was excellent, although perhaps not up to BMW standards. (Incidentally, am I the only one who would like diesel cars with 6-speed manual gearboxes to have an indicator on the dashboard telling me which gear I’m in? Engines like these are so torquey, often you can’t figure out which gear you’re in).

The interior, with its high quality soft plastics and beautifully designed dials and switches, could have been BMW. The top-of-the-range Titanium version I was driving had a very smart Sony radio/CD player which screamed “class” and set the tone for the interior. The Titanium version even had bi-xenon lights, two-zone air conditioning, sat-nav, a tyre deflation detector, LED rear lamps, and an “Easyfuel” system for capless refuelling. The latter should make sure you don’t put diesel in your petrol version, or vice-versa. There will also be a DSG double-clutch automatic gearbox option. All versions – Ambiente, Trend, Ghia and Titanium - have an Electronic Stability Programme to keep you safe.

Committee design
The Ford Focus first appeared in 1998 and was a brilliant design in terms of looks, driveability and quality. The car was redesigned in 2004 and in my opinion, took a step backwards in terms of body shape. The original design was bold and cutting edge; the replacement was plain and seemed to have been designed by a committee whose first priority was to make sure they didn’t offend any buyers of the first Focus.

The latest Focus though really does look the business. Ford has added what it calls its “kinetic design” cues, borrowed from the bigger Mondeo, which incorporates swept-back headlights and projector style light bulbs. There’s a line running down the side which gives the car presence. A hint of the muscular has been added to the front and rear. In short, it looks terrific.

Petrol engines from 1.4 litres will be available with 5 and 6-speed manual gearboxes. The range topper will be a 2.5 litre 5-cylinder engine producing 225 bhp. Diesel engines range from 1.6 to 2.0 litres; I drove the six-speed manual 2.0 litre diesel producing 136 bhp. This was very quiet at startup, and produced a very lively performance and impressing-sounding economy. Ford claims an average of 51.3 mpg 5.5 l/kms.