Dagenham or no Dagenham, the Ford Focus is Britain's bestselling car. The nation rises in large numbers to applaud its nifty lines and competitive pricing. When Ford came to freshen the car up for its relaunch, nobody would have been standing up at the planning meetings and saying, "I've got a good idea - let's make it egg-shaped and run it on one wheel". You don't mess with the market leader.
Here, though, for anyone who is still anxious, is a quick checklist of the differences between the old, outgoing Focus and the brave, thrusting, new-generation Focus.
First, the front indicators: you'll now find them sealed into the headlamp units. Best place for them. Second, the ashtray: it's now illuminated, so you won't need to hunt it down using the end of your cigarette as a torch. Third, the glove box: remember the old lid on it? It wasn't damped. It is now. And as a result it closes like a member of the royal family's jewel box.
And, er... that's about it. Except that I forgot to mention the new rubbing strips on the bumpers. They're there to ease you out of those especially tight parking spots without you scuffing the paintwork. Frankly, I can't remember whether the old Focus had those or not. I'll take Ford's word for it that it didn't.
Even if you're the kind of person who worries a lot about change, I suspect these new twists will fail to unsettle you. Indeed, I can't believe there's anything there to upset even the most fervently traditionalist Focus fan. Unless, of course, you liked the way the old glove box closed. In which case, I don't know what to suggest. Shop for a Vauxhall, I suppose. Or try undampening the lid with a vegetable knife. It's probably the work of five minutes.
The one significant boon about the new Focus - and the point of the relaunch, in fact - is that you can now get it with an impressive diesel engine. This is Ford's new TDCi, which has also been made avail able in the Mondeo, where it may yet bring into existence an entirely new category of road user: the eco-friendly rep.
What this means is there's now a Focus out there for the kind of motorist who feels ripped off and goes about under a cloud of persecution if his car averages less than 50 miles per gallon - by all accounts a growing sector of the market. The downside? Well, obviously you'll have to put up with being the owner of a car which sounds like a Post Office delivery van when you start it up. I sat there for some time with my Focus ticking over, and marvelled again at what people will take in the way of abuse of the ears in order to achieve a saving on fuel.
I marvelled also at the inadequacy of the phrase "ticking over" to describe what a diesel engine does. No clock has been built that could tick as loudly as an idling TDCi. It sounds like a plough being dragged backwards and forwards across a concrete floor, while four hundredweight of empty milk bottles vibrate on a tin shelf. "Rucking under" would be closer to it.
The miraculous thing is, the noise abates when you start driving. Or perhaps you go deaf. Either way, the effect is the same. And suddenly, instead of driving around behind a rattling skip, you find yourself at the wheel of a calmly functioning and extremely efficient car whose ashtray lights up like the night sky in Tokyo, or thereabouts.
It's pretty fast, too. The old complaint about diesel engines was that if you wanted to accelerate, you needed to apply to the engine in writing at least 14 days beforehand. And even then the engine would sometimes write back to say it was too busy. It's one of the more heartening technological developments of our time that diesel engines are shaking off this reputation - certainly up at the pricey, BMW end of things, but even down here at the Ford level, too. Being turbocharged, a diesel- fitted Focus will surge you away from trouble - or surge you into trouble, if that's what you fancy. Even in first it seems to want to leap forwards, like an eager dog tugging at the leash.
And this despite the fact that I was driving the estate version, which one would struggle to think of as a go-ahead kind of motor even if it were attached to a rocket. One appreciates the practical layout of the estate and its thoughtfully achieved cut-price convenience. But the cutest part of a Focus, surely, is the rear end of the hatchback with its angular light clusters up at roof level, and for obvious reasons the estate has to lose those, becoming blocky and bland as a result.
It was fun to drive, though. And I don't think that's just personal circumstance talking, though those of us privileged enough to be raised in Essex do experience a twinge of recognition about Fords which is similar to what Italians feel when they see a Ferrari. Or a bit like that, anyway.
The lowdown
Ford Focus 1.8 TDCi estate
Price: £ 16,845
Top speed: 120 mph
Acceleration: 0-62 in 10.8 seconds
Consumption: 51.4 mpg (combined)
At the wheel: Nasser Hussein
On the radio: Sade
En route for: Southend
