Ford Focus 2020 review: ST-Line wagon

The exterior is great for a Ford, and even a little sporty, because while it does have a bigger back end, it’s still not as large as a regular wagon, so it doesn’t scream “station wagon!”, which could be considered a plus for some people. It still retains that sophistication of the new Focus design as well, which is a good thing. 

The exterior is great for a the Fcous ST-Line.

The interior is not as swanky as the outside, which is a bit of a letdown. The seats are fabric and they feel good on the skin but they look a little budget, which I think brings the rest of the design down. The centre console is clearly set out and everything else is nice and simple, with no fancy extras to confuse you. 

There’s a shiny feature panel on the dash, which does help lift the look, and the steering wheel also brings things up a notch - it’s leather and has a flat bottom, which feels really great while driving. 

The interior is not as swanky as the outside, which is a bit of a letdown.

The Focus was a good car to drive, but I didn’t love it the way I love a Mazda 3,  for example. I found the circular gear shifter took a few seconds to change gears (which is not convenient when you're in the middle of a three-point turn) so this put me off slightly. The tyres then slipped a little on taking off from the lights in the pouring rain, so I began to wonder if I wouldn’t want an AWD SUV after all. 

But that is a very personal observation and the Focus ST Line really does have all you need for a nifty car to handle the everyday suburban run.

There’s a 1.5-litre turbo engine on board, so it’s super zippy and gets up hills quickly, and is great to coast along on highways, too.

The turbo three-cylinder engine makes 134kW/240Nm.

It’s easy to park, with a very clear reversing camera and the turning circle is small enough to do U-turns on the street out the front of my kids' school - always a bonus while looking for a park on the school run.

Getting in and out is great because of the low profile, the kids were fine to jump in and pop seatbelts on. If you’re at the stage where you’re constantly bending down to do seatbelts up, though, that can be a disadvantage. 

There are two cupholders in the front, a nice large storage spot for keys and a flat pad for your phone, which also charges your device, wirelessly, if it’s compatible, a good centre storage bin and bottle holders in each door.

Rear passengers don’t get cupholders or their own air vents, which is somehow passable in the Focus hatch, but in the wagon it feels as though you’ll miss them more, because it's a bigger car.

The boot lid is easy to pull down and the boot lip is a good height off the ground to load things into. 

Safety is comprehensive and the Focus wagon gets all the advanced safety features you’d want, with auto emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, rear cross traffic alert and lane-departure warning included. 

It scored a maximum five ANCAP stars when it was assessed in August, 2019. 

There are airbags for driver and front passenger and side curtain airbags that extend to the back row. You’ll get two ISOFIX points and three top-tether points for car seats. 

The Ford Focus ST Line wagon costs $30,990. Fuel consumption is a claimed 6.4 litres per 100km and it’s covered by Ford’s five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty. 

Servicing is required every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever comes first, with years one to four costing a very reasonable $299, jumping to $350 at year five.

Ford's service price calculator will give you cost estimates for service running out to 34 years/510,000km!