I seem to have spent a large portion of my career insisting that cheaper and humbler cars in a given range are often better than more expensive and flashy ones. This Ford Focus, I believe, strengthens my case still further.The range is not one I'm entirely happy with. There are many Focus reviews on CARkeys, and the one's I've written myself generally refer to the lack of luggage space and room for rear-seat passengers, the very bad rear visibility and the surprisingly wide turning circle.All of those things apply to this Focus as much as any other. If, however, I had to buy a Focus of some sort, I would almost certainly choose a 1.0 EcoBoost 100PS Titanium.It has, for a car of this size, an extraordinarily tiny one-litre three-cylinder engine which I like very much indeed. It's good in 125PS form (as reviewed here) but perhaps even better with just 100PS, a metric figure which, when converted into pounds and shillings, comes out at 99bhp.This is a very small figure for a Focus, but as diesel cars have demonstrated for many years now maximum power output gives only the sketchiest idea of how an engine actually performs. The great thing about the 1.0 EcoBoost is that its turbocharger allows it to produce handsome amounts of power at very low revs, making this Focus behave almost like, but very much more quietly than, a turbo diesel.As a result, the car is easy to drive in town, and will tackle open-road corners a gear higher than a 99bhp car might reasonably be expected to. Okay, it won't go very quickly no matter how hard you thrash it, but for domestic purposes it's every bit as quick as it needs to be.On the EU test cycle the 1.0 EcoBoost achieves a combined fuel economy figure of 58.8mpg. My own average was in the mid-40s, but that was after a week of mostly town and short-journey country motoring in horrible weather, so don't read too much into that. Experience with a 125PS EcoBoost Focus suggests that maintaining better than 50mpg should be easy enough.CO2 emissions are officially 109g/km, so the annual Vehicle Excise Duty bill is just £20, though you do have to pay the London congestion charge if you enter the zone and are not exempt from it for personal reasons.The Titanium trim level includes 16" wheels, and that's another reason why this is one of my favourite cars in the range. These are the correct wheels for the car - every Focus I've driven on them rides beautifully, every one I've tried with 17s or 18s rides terribly. You could up-spec a Titanium to larger wheels if you wanted, and they would certainly make the car look better, but as far as the driving experience goes it's a terrible idea.The handling is as good as the ride quality, helped no end by the three-cylinder engine. It's marginally lighter than a four-cylinder unit and significantly under the weight of any available diesel.Several Focuses cost over £20,000, and I would avoid several of them. This one costs under £19,000 and is the one I like best. "More expensive" doesn't always mean "better". Engine 999cc, 3 cylinders Power 99bhp Transmission 5-speed manual Fuel/CO2 58.8mpg / 109g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 12.5 seconds Top speed 115mph Price £18,795 Details correct at publication date
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