AUSTRALIA’S small hatch segment is more cut-throat than ever, but Ford went against the grain by ditching its price-leading Focus variant with the comprehensively facelifted car that launched in September last year.

Polarising aspects of its interior layout have been tamed, the handsome latest Ford family face has been applied and a cracking new 1.5-litre turbo petrol engine is standard range-wide.

Troublesome dual-clutch automatics have also been ditched in favour of a conventional torque-converter unit.

We spent a week with an up-spec Titanium variant and came away impressed. The slick operator we could always feel beneath the surface of the old Focus has now been allowed to shine through. Bravo!

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