It’s taking a while, like closing an ill-fitting lid on a plastic kitchen container. But another corner on the ‘affordable hot hatch’ tub is clicking shut, and, unlike sometimes previously, I don’t think a corner on the other side is about to pop back open again in defiance.
Which is a slightly clumsy way of avoiding the ‘nail in the coffin’ cliché. Also I think it’s vanishingly rare (I could be wrong) that a coffin lid’s opposite corner creeps open again when someone is hammering down the opposite side.
Anyway, what I’m saying is that Ford is preparing to unalive the Focus ST. Production ends in November, and it has been removed from price lists in the UK because all the remaining ones are accounted for.
And this time I don’t think anyone is about to launch a new affordable petrol hot hatchback you could choose to consider instead. Although do go ahead and prove me wrong, somebody, please.
It seems like a very long time, partly because it is, since my mate Jason, when he was a young man, bought a Citroën Saxo VTR on low- or no-interest finance and got free insurance thrown in. It even feels like a long time, although it isn’t, since Hyundai offered the i20 N for under £25k.
The hot hatches that remain on sale today – and there are fewer than a handful, including the Focus ST – are basically £40k cars. So it has sort of been true for a while, but only now, with the demise of the Focus ST confirmed, does the malaise feel as terminal as it clearly has been for quite some years now. The hot hatch era is gone.
Should one be sad about it? I think so. Because not very long ago, if you were young and you wanted to get into cars, you bought an ordinary hatchback with a bigger engine and some tidy suspension, and you had a nice time driving it. Then, when you were older and had a house and some money, you bought a sports car. But the mood was established early on.
What’s the option now? New hot hatchbacks are too expensive, and while some fun electric cars, like the Alpine A290, are becoming affordable, that will be little solace to you if you live in a rented flat, because buying an Alpine will be too expensive, and your rented accommodation has no charger anyway.
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I think before you decide we need cheap Hot hatches, we need to decide what a Hot Hatch is in 2025. To start with, dont we need cheap hatches to make hot? And what do we want. Performance, handling, involvement?
I do miss the days of 106GTi, maybe even the Up! Gti, but as no one has bothered to develope a way of keeping CO2 numbers under control in a manual car, we very soon wont have any.
So we dont have cheap hatches, we dont have one of the most important ways of making a car involving, and even when it comes to handling, we either have dull and safe, or hardcore, but not the playful middle ground that cheap hatches once offered.
Frankly, if you want a cheap hot hatch, it has to be second hand (and they arent that cheap any more).
I would love it if car manufacturers would 'remake' an old car. take in the tired worn out examples and just replace stuff (even the body shell if needs be), and sell it again as 'remade'. We know they arent allowed to make 'New' cars, but so far there are no rules against rebuilding the old ones. Done on a production line it shouldnt be too expensive?
When hot hatchbacks existed previously it was desirable partly because the performance level was improved compared to the lower models in the range. You reduced the 0-60mph time from 10 to 8secs.
What were see with EVs now though is that the mainstream models are 0-60 in 8secs. So do these models just need improved suspension and some red belts perhaps?
It's nice to know that there are other motorists in the same boat with the same dilemma and annoyances as yourself. I think these days if you are not wealthy you have to divide your motoring budget and possibly drive an older more capable car and pay the higher emission charges or drive something newer, maybe not performance orientated and make savings that way. If you live outside London, count yourself lucky that the excessive VED charge is your only issue, at least you don't have another 2-3 layers or of motoring taxation to deal with.