• Econetic diesel best in terms of cost
• Rapid RS expensive to run
• Electric Focus cheapest of all… if you can find one

To have real appeal to money-conscious car buyers, running costs for the Ford Focus are nice and low. Of the petrol range, the best is the 1.0-litre EcoBoost in 100hp form. Economy is as high as a claimed combined figure of 65.7mpg, with CO2 emissions of 99g/km placing it in one of the lowest VED car tax bands.

The diesels perform even better, all with average fuel consumption better than 60mpg, but it’s the 105hp 1.5-litre TDCi Econetic that’s top of the pile with its 83.1mpg figure, with CO2 emissions of 88g/km.

The one to avoid if low running costs are a priority is the Focus RS. Its CO2 output of 175g/km will keep car tax bills reasonably manageable, though most can probably forget running one as a company car because benefit-in-kind tax will still be relatively high. Fuel economy is a claimed 36.7mpg, but this is likely to be far lower in the real world if you drive the RS as it was meant to be driven. We suspect 25mpg isn’t entirely unrealistic.

Cheapest of all to run is the Focus Electric, which produces no CO2 at all (although there is likely to be CO2 output generating the electricity to replenish the batteries) and typically costs around £10 for an overnight recharge. Its low 100-mile maximum range, high asking price and Ford’s lack of marketing activity means you’ll be hard-pressed to find one to buy.

Reliability

• Few recalls for this generation of Focus
• Tried and tested mechanical parts
• Few problems reported by owners

Ford Focus reliability is up there with the best of its rivals, such as the Honda Civic and Toyota Auris. This Focus has decent build quality, which bodes well for long-term reliability, so owners shouldn’t experience many problems in well cared-for examples. There are a few teething troubles, such as failing door seals, as well as some EcoBoost problems spelled out in our buying guide, but there are few horror stories to tell here.

There isn’t much to worry about with the faster ST and RS models, either. Ford has a long history of building performance cars like this, and with the Focus Mk3 being one of the UK’s top-selling cars between 2011 and 2018, any parts shared with other models had been tried and tested at length.

Focus owners have left broadly very positive reviews about this iteration of Ford’s family hatchback, citing only niggling concerns rather than a series of expensive maladies.