2022 Ford Focus ST-Line Vignale MHEV review: hybrid hatchback is a fitting send-off

A long-standing yardstick for the once-dominant C-segment, the days of the Ford Focus are numbered. Ford has announced that in 2025 the model will follow its bigger brother and fellow late-90s upstart, the Mondeo, to join the big heritage fleet in the sky after a 27-year run, a victim of changing consumer habits and a drive toward electrification.

This mid-life refresh will be the car’s last-hurrah - a visual nip and tuck to bring the styling up to date, but also upgraded technology and revised model range. Is the final Ford Focus in for a fitting send off almost 30 years in the making, or will it, like its millennial contemporaries, slide into irrelevance alongside its Gen X and Baby Boomer forebears?

What’s new for the 2022 model?

There’s a long list of visual changes to the exterior of the Focus, but of the subtle, blink-and-you’ll-miss-em variety. Generally the little design tweaks here and there have a cumulative effect of making the car seem that wee bit more chiseled, like a Men’s Health cover model after a pre-photoshoot spray tan and two dry Weetabix.

The Ford badge now sits lower down, on the honeycomb grille as opposed to above it. There’s also a subtle change to the shape of the bonnet, the front curve slightly different to the old one, presumably to annoy the scrap merchants. New, slimmer front headlamps with incorporated foglights enable a redesigned, less messy front bumper.

To the rear, the tail lights have been changed too, and the cluster on our ST-Line Vignale test model was slightly smoked, while the alloy wheel designs have also been revised.

Vignale is no longer a stand-alone luxury trim and can now be added to the other trims - Titanium, ST-Line, Active and (entry-level) Trend - as a bolt on.

The technology suite has had the most comprehensive modernisation and that is reflected in the 13.2-inch touchscreen display dominating the dashboard. The responsive and quick loading Sync 4 system is a quantum leap forward from the Sync 3 system - which I already rated highly. As well as an intuitive design and layout and crystal-clear display, Apple Carplay and Android Auto are now supported wirelessly, with no need of a connecting USB cable.

The one black mark I would give the system is that Ford has done away with the physical dials to control the air conditioning. While always visible, rather than hidden away in a sub-menu like some operating systems, It’s still an ergonomic step backwards having to adjust temperature, fan speed, toggle A/C and choose which vents to use via the monitor. An unnecessary distraction, that I hope will go out of fashion with car designers before global warming turns the UK into the Sahara.