2020 Ford Fiesta vs Ford Focus

What's the difference?

Hot hatches are for a relatively small club of enthusiasts, and new small cars are gradually being eliminated from the greater Australian market.

Surely, it makes little to no business sense to bring an Australian audience a small, manual-only hot hatch all the way from Europe, to sell to a pitifully small audience of diehard enthusiasts.

But then, perhaps this is part of Ford’s enduring genius in Australia. You see, while long-time Australian arch-rival Holden stumbled over its ill-fated Commodore sequels and flip-flopped on its SUV catalog, chasing sales numbers in a post-local manufacturing world, Ford let the cars speak for themselves by offering Aussies brightly coloured pony cars and over-the-top pickup trucks which instantly etch themselves on your consciousness as they rumble past.

Because it’s not just sales numbers which make a brand in the long run. There’s an art to offering fun, aspirational models, too. Look at Suzuki’s Jimny 4x4 and Swift Sport as other examples.

So, here we are. Ford made the surprise announcement to bring in its Fiesta ST hot hatch a few years ago, and despite a few delays we can now get our hands on it.

The question remains – is it any good? And, what is it like to live with in an Australian capital city? We took one for a week-long urban test to find out.

The Ford Focus ST is a hot hatch, but just how spicy is it? Well, if it was a curry it would have two little, red chillies next to its name on the menu. Listed directly below would be the Focus RS accompanied by three chillies, but there’d be a line drawn through it with a marker pen because sadly Ford doesn’t serve that any more.

So, is the Ford Focus ST hot enough for you? And does it also offer the practicality that goes with performance which has made hot hatches popular through the decades?

The new-generation Focus ST launched in 2020, soon after its smaller sibling the Fiesta ST (one chilli). We’ve already tested the Focus ST with the manual gearbox and this review is of the same car with the automatic.