Good news for drivers interested in the sporty Ford Focus ST, but who’d rather not shift gears themselves, as Ford has added an automatic option for the petrol Focus ST.
Orders are open for the automatic Ford Focus ST, which, at £34,710, costs £1,450 more than the standard manual. The new gearbox is also available on the estate version, which then sees its price rise to £36,110.
The slightly more fleet-friendly diesel version of the ST, which just manages to dip below the 37% BIK band thanks to its 148g/km CO2 output, remains manual-only. The diesel costs from £30,575 as a five-door, or £31,975 as an estate.
The new automatic is a seven-speed unit that is different from the eight-speed automatic in the regular Focus models. It only makes it emit 1g/km of CO2 more, but then the petrol Focus ST is in the highest, 37%, BIK band anyway. The auto also loses 0.3 of a second in the 0-60mph dash.
Automatic Focus STs get a rotary gear selector and steering wheel-mounted shifter paddles, as well as a ‘mode’ button to allow drivers to cycle through drive mode options.