From our perspective, part of the road testing procedure is to identify a car's close rivals, as well as its competitors a potential new car buyer would consider as alternatives. With the new Ford Focus reviewed here this is not as easy as you might think.

Traditionally, the Ford brand stands for value-for-money. This is reflected in the positioning of Ford cars in 1st, 3rd and 9th place in the rankings of UK new car registrations in 2004. Indeed, the Focus itself occupied first place. If you've never been behind the wheel of the previous generation Focus you'd be forgiven for thinking that its sales are thanks mainly to keen pricing. Well, the Focus is well priced, but it was so much more than a bargain basement hatch. It is acknowledged that the Focus was one of the first mainstream family cars designed to be as good to drive as it is to own. Even the cheapest models in the range were a joy to steer.

Fast forward to Focus Mark II, and widespread fears throughout the media that Ford would reduce the car's driving appeal in deference to much more trendy safety. You've no doubt seen the quirky ads with the prima donna designer obsessed with many things, including quality. That and phrases such as "Welcome to the finer things in life" in the Focus sales brochure indicate that Ford has upmarket aspirations for the new Focus. We were keen to find out where the new car sits in the automotive food chain, so took delivery of a 3-door model in Titanium trim, fitted with the popular 2-litre turbodiesel engine.

Styling is subjective, and you are entitled to your own opinion, but we are disappointed in the shape of the new Focus. Admittedly, in the 'Aquarius Blue' paintwork of the test car, and in 3-door form, it does look quite striking. Perhaps the expectation was that the new car would move the styling on by a similar margin as the original did from the last of the Escorts. It doesn't. In isolation, various parts of the exterior design are neatly executed, such as the corporate grille and headlamps, and the integration of the upright rear lights into the rear window. The problem in my opinion is the lack of coherence, and thanks to the large wheelarch openings, even the sporty 16-inch alloys (fitted as standard to the test car) look a little lost. The forthcoming Focus ST looks a lot better, and I suspect that this is how Ford's designers originally sketched the standard Focus before the bean counters had their wicked way.

Sit into the new Focus though and you don't get the impression that Ford has cut corners. The new car's interior has taken a confident step up the quality ladder from the first generation Focus, with a wonderfully tactile and distinctively designed dashboard. The instruments are simple and clear and actually quite like Jaguar items... The switchgear is chunky and quite tactile, certainly on a par with the VW Golf if not the BMW 1-series. Our car was fitted with the Titanium Leather Styling Pack (at £1,000) that includes leather trimmed electrically adjustable seats that further enhance the upmarket image (the Titanium does feature half-leather seats as standard). Despite the sloping rear hatch, there is ample space in the rear of the 3-door Focus, with notably generous legroom and the boot is massive.

Parents with young babies don't often buy 3-door hatchbacks by choice though; it is usually a nightmare to get child seats into the back. So who does? Most family hatches have a 3-door option, and the manufacturers are now pushing this body style forward as the sporty option to capture younger, or at least childless, buyers. Though the 3-door Focus is a little sportier than the 5-door alternative, its arse is kicked in the styling stakes by Vauxhall's daring Astra Sport Hatch and Honda's new Civic, but how does the Focus fare dynamically?

Let's remove the Golf from this competition for the moment, as it is not a car designed for the keen driver; competent and safe as it is. The Astra Sport Hatch is a drivers' car though, and one of our favourites at that. After a week at the helm of the Focus I am ready to declare that it has the best steering in its class, and that includes the rear-wheel drive BMW 1-series. There is a significant amount of communication through the tactile wheel in the Focus, but it never seems to kickback as many communicative wheels do. Even on wet tarmac, information on grip or loss of is clearly shared with the driver. The steering is quite direct too, and allows accurate placing of the Focus. The brakes are nicely modulated and the six-speed manual 'box is a joy to use. Turn-in is just as sharp as in the Astra equipped with Sport suspension, and mid-corner attitude is adjustable on the throttle, with stabilising oversteer available if so required. Body pitch and roll is perfectly controlled, and despite being a chassis for enthusiastic drivers, does not sacrifice comfort. On motorway or pitted A-road we found the Focus to have very well sorted damping and it is a comfortable cruiser.

The top line diesel engine is the 2-litre 134bhp TDCi, and despite a power deficit to the 1.9-litre unit fitted to the Astra we tested, the Focus feels a little quicker. Normal peak torque is more or less identical between the cars, but the Focus has an overboost facility built in where turbo boost is momentarily increased when the driver has put the accelerator pedal all the way to the carpet, to assist with overtaking for instance. In the real world there is nothing to choose between these cars in performance. In economy terms, the Focus wins and we managed an average of 45mpg in a week with the car. We've almost stopped mentioning in our reviews the clatter from diesel engines at idle. Noise management is getting better and better, and to be honest, it is normally only really audible at start-up. With the Focus though the idle thrum is distinctly hollow and more audible than in most of its competitors. That was a little surprising given the upmarket aspirations.

As you can see we came up with a diverse range of potential rivals for the new Focus, from the BMW 1-series to more mainstream cars such as the Vauxhall Astra, and don't discount the recently-facelifted Peugeot 307 with its excellent HDi engine. VW's Golf is a desirable ownership proposition too, if not as good to drive as the Focus. If you do like the styling of the new Focus then it could well be the choice for you.