Overview

FORD is late to the diesel party, and it has arrived without an automatic gearbox.

But before you slam the door and call security, consider this: If you love driving, enjoy sitting at the helm of a smooth and powerful small car, and get off on low fuel consumption and CO2 figures, then the Focus TDCi is your cup of tea.

That it undercuts all similarly sized 2.0-litre-ish diesel rivals from Peugeot, Holden, Volkswagen and Dodge is the icing that goes with the cake you eat - as well as keep - with this particularly punchy yet parsimonious Ford.