Ford Focus ST

[THE_EGG]

3 not overly different price tags once you take into account their target markets. The DS3 is about $33k, directly up against the Mini Cooper. The MiTo is about $41k, directly up against the Mini Cooper S.

The A45 will be about $70k - within one or two thousand of an automatic 135.

walbjj, saying the car will cost $85 once you put options and on-roads on is not a correct comparison with the BMW 135 as the price I was talking about both both that and the A45 is the retail price (oh and actually would put it line-ball with the 135 anyway). If you include options, then you might as well try to predict discounts. Options that people buy vary significantly (except for Lexus when they have 1 option for the car).

Sorry I should have clarified myself a bit better. I meant MiTo QV vs. Cooper S vs. DS3 DSport (~$40 000 vs. $43 000 vs. $31 000 respectively). DS3 120VTI DStyle (my car) is more of a competitor to the normal Cooper (DS3 $26 000 vs. cooper $34 000). I just meant different pricing for a small retro/anti-retro hot hatch.

Regardless though, I think Ford has priced the Focus ST just right to be competitive to the larger, more powerful hot-hatches out there (eg Golf GTI, DS4 DSport, Giulietta QV etc).

[elephino]

Ok, that makes sense.

And yes, the Focus is priced just right in spite of being more expensive than the previous XR5. I think there was too big a gap between it and the GTI, so people were ignoring it as a lower-performance model.