Category: Small Family 
Price Range: £12,795 to £21,445
Smooth, quick changes; low carbon dioxide emissions.
Only available on Zetec and Titanium; ride deteriorates with sports suspension; pricey.
The best car in its segment finally has an equally impressive auto offering.
The Ford Powershift gearbox has two clutches: one to select odd gears, the other even. The two clutches work in tandem, pre-selecting the next gear - almost anticipating your change. If you're in third gear, the even clutch will select either second or fourth and deploy it once the gear is required. If you're in fourth the odd clutch will select either third or fifth in anticipation of the likely change. The point? Faster, smoother gearchanges.
So what's it like? In one word: brilliant. The Ford 'box is as equally competent as the Volkswagen's DSG, offering a convincing automatic mode that's both smooth, quick, refined and mighty effective when left to its own devices.
Only once or twice did we feel the gearbox hold onto a gear unnecessarily and it was usually when we were driving downhill.
In manual mode, it's equally impressive but, unlike the Volkswagen there are no paddles sprouting from the steering wheel. Ford says buyers neither want, nor use them, so that means you have to push the lever in the centre console to change gear. It's not a wonderful arrangement since the lop-sided, H-shaped 'gate' looks dated and is not that user-friendly.
One interesting feature of using the manual mode is when you start multiple shifting. If you are coming into a corner and want to change from 4th to 2nd you simply tap the lever twice and it remembers the second tap and shifts to second as soon as engine speeds allow, matching the engine speed with road speed perfectly.
No so impressive is the 'box's inability to hold a gear near the red line: this cancels out much of the manual's benefits and means you might as well leave the car in auto mode.
Overall, the Ford Focus still remains best in its segment, offering top-notch handling and a supple, cosseting ride. Sadly our test car was in Zetec trim fitted with sports suspension. This stiffened everything up and ruined the ride, so we think you should avoid this combination.
Performance wise, the Powershift car is only fractionally slower than the manual equivalent. The 134bhp 2.0-litre TDCi takes 9.6 seconds to get 62mph - which is just 0.3 seconds slower. Top speed is 124mph.
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