The handling is very sharp, with rapid reactions to movement of the steering wheel. Acceleration is very sharp, especially once the turbo kicks in at about 2200RPM.

Engine noise is barely noticable, but road noise seems fairly loud.

At 70km/hr in fourth gear saw about 1700RPM on the tacho, but you needed to downshift before any real acceleration happened. I have a feeling that you’d only ever use sixth gear on the freeway. (I didn’t get a chance to put the car on a freeway, so I’m guessing here.)

I have doubts about the console (those red lights don’t grab me too much), and the instrument cluster is… interesting. Sort of like looking into 3 big plastic pipes.

Would I buy one, seeing it’s RRP is about $33,400? Quite likely at this stage – the new ’08 Impreza does not grab me at all, and the Astra doesn’t appeal too much at all.

I’d actually be interested in a Renault Scenic diesel, but that’s actually four-speed auto only!

But I am surprised at how low their weight was back then – it’s easy to assume that today’s cars have shed kilos when in fact the opposite is true

And I had forgotten that the FC only had 43 litre fuel tank, less than my Sirion GTVI…..

I still think that 6 speeds is too many gears for the Diesel, and a 4/5 speed auto would be ideal.

I would imagine the 3 would be just as, if not more impressive….. same kW and Nm as the 6, in a 3. oooh baby.

- The Ford Focus diesel weighs 1370kg
- The HZ Kingswood sedan weighs 1342kg.
- The VK Commodore Executive sedan weighs 1232kg.

VW can do one, Mercedes had them in the diesel 2.2l Vito when they were FWD.

What the hell’s wrong with Ford?

A 6 speed gearbox sounds good, but it’s actully stupid in a small car with huge torque – my early Holdens were 3 speed in a heavier car with much less torque. Not saying they were the ultimate, just pointing out that people who like torquey engines do so because they DON’T want to change gears all the time.