First View: New Ford Focus

Focus has set benchmarks in its segment for driving dynamics since the first one came along, writes Brian Byrne. Now we have generation three, and I feel at first view that they once again have a seriously good car to sell.

If some of my colleagues are complaining that the third generation Focus is not as sharp as was the first game-changing one when it came out in 1998, maybe they're looking for old glories to be repeated.

What has really happened is that the new Focus is an overall much more mature car, and better suited all round for the vast bulk of the people who will buy it.

A key part of that is its greater comfort, more amenable ride, and a seriously better package in accommodation, powertrains, and just general good feeling.

Focus is seriously important for Ford right across Europe, in the key compact family car segment. And no less so in Ireland, where the segment is 34 percent of all sales and the biggest. Over the last two generations of the model, one in every 20 cars sold in Ireland has been a Focus, and for most of those years it has had the epithet of the best selling nameplate in Ireland.

Indeed, before the new one gets to Ireland in early, the 100,000th Focus will be sold here.

Even coming along at a time when 50 percent of all car sales for the year will have been completed, Ford Ireland expects to sell 3,000 copies of the new version this year and 5,000 units next year.

When it gets here, there will be a pair of 1.6 diesels with 95/115hp outputs respectively, and a 115hp 2.0 diesel with the Powershift automated transmission. There will also be a return of petrol options, both 1.6 and in 105/125hp outputs. The company expects that the Style specification with the 1.6 TDCI 95hp will be the biggest seller, and though prices haven't been confirmed yet, expect something around €22,000, slightly more expensive than the current equivalent.

The return of petrol engines is interesting, because the new ones are Band B. While there's so little difference in Road Tax at the moment between A and B ratings, the slightly more refined experience of the petrol cars might change the sales profile a little from recent years.

There will be 5-door hatches and 4-door saloons when the car gets to Irish roads, along with a nice estate. Ireland's Ford boss Eddie Murphy expects that a fifth of all cars sold will be saloons, reflecting a continuing strong Irish buyer interest in boots.

There's a lot of technology, both comfort and safety related, coming with this car, as options in Ireland. More detail on that later, but in the meantime, after several hundred kilometres of really enjoyable driving in the swooping roads of the hilly hinterland of Jerez, my first impressions are very positive.