- Messages
- 490
- Likes
- 4
- City
- Houston
EVEN just saying the word estate makes you yawn.
It conjures up images in your mind of going to the rubbish dump, B&Q and Tom and Barbara in 70s sitcom The Good Life.
Car firms didn't really help the image either, producing boxy workhorses that made listening to James Blunt seem interesting.
But suddenly over the past few years the God of estate cars has decided that they can be exciting. Add more power, glitzier alloys and a few go-faster stripes and, hey presto, you can have kudos even at B&Q.
The German giants have their an array of super-quick and super-priced stars. But now there's an influx of affordable load luggers like the Skoda Octavia vRS, Seat Leon Cupra ST and VW Golf GTD Estate on the way.
Perhaps this is all down to Ford.
It was their bold move to introduce a Focus ST Estate in 2012 that raised eyebrows – and now it's back with a few tweaks here and there to add even more pizzazz.
Firstly the scientific bit. It now comes with a choice of 247bhp 2-litre EcoBoost petrol or 182bhp 2-litre TDCi diesel – the former delivering around 41mpg and just 159g/km of Co2.
It's no show pony either. It does the practical stuff with 476 litres with the rear seats up, or a whopping 1,502 litres with them down, forming a perfectly flat load space. Compare that to 316 litres and 1,101 litres respectively for the hatchback and the benefits are easy to see.
On the roads around Erskine, where I drove it last week, it's impossible to distinguish the difference between driving the estate and hatch ST.
It roars with typical rebellion throwing you back into the figure-hugging Recaro sports seats – and thanks to the rush of the turbo acceleration actually feels faster than it is.
Oh and by the way, it looks like a metal ASBO. That's cool these days, apparently.
The stats tell you that the Estate costs £1,100 more than the equivalent hatchback and takes 0.2 seconds to get to 62mph. That means prices start at £27,095 and it hits 62mph in 6.7 seconds.
It makes you wonder why you would ever buy the Focus ST hatch.
It also means, even dads with weekend chores, can still have The Good Life.
