The Ford Focus ST has been taken off sale in the UK ahead of production of the hot hatchback ending in November.
The Focus ST had been open for orders as recently as April but disappeared from dealer price lists in an update issued on 26 May, despite remaining on Ford's online configurator.
It means the Focus can now be had only with the turbocharged and mild-hybridised 1.0-litre three-cylinder Ecoboost engine, with outputs of 123bhp or 153bhp. Trim choices are limited to Active X Edition, ST-Line and ST-Line X Edition.
All are set to go in the coming months as Ford winds down Focus production. The company has courted buyers for the plant in Saarlouis, Germany that has housed assembly of every Focus but has yet to find a buyer.
Ford has committed to keeping the plant open with 1000 workers (down from a previous 4600) until 2032 if no sale can be made.
Ford UK told Autocar: “There are no new factory orders available for the Focus ST at the moment, but there are around 170 built and unsold currently available within the UK dealer network. This includes 30 of the special ST Edition variant in Azura Blue.”
Asked for clarification on whether that wording means Focus ST orders could be taken again before the end of production, Ford suggested that the situation could change but nothing was confirmed.
This leaves the door open to the order book reopening if there is a sudden influx of demand, or for a special edition sending the hot hatch into retirement.
The disappearance of the Focus ST is representative of a wider market trend, with the traditional mass-market hot hatch having all but died out in recent years.
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It is so sad to see such a large part of motoring history struggling to survive its death throes. My father had a Ford 10cwt van for work in 1947...in the 1950/60's a string of Popular, Anglia and later 105E's. I remember the launch of the Cortina and I later went on to buy Capri (the real one!), Cortina's, Fiesta, Granada and Sierra. Then I found BMW! It is hard yo understand why such a successful manufacturer can have drifted off target and lost its way. The Focus has always been a very good car and the Fiesta had brought driving to thousands just after passing their Test. The new Puma is good and we have one for local runs but the Mustang/Capri fiasco has made life so difficult and the other models are lackluster offerings. Grab an ST as they were and keep it but the future is dark...Ford has lost its way and I don't see any way to come back. How did they go so wrong???
Comments here show no sympathy for the situation which Ford has put itself in in Europe. Long term supporters of the brand feel that they have been badly let down, now leading into "good riddance". My long established local Main Dealer has now transitioned to BYD - which says it all really.
ps an additional big problem with the Focus ST is the dire fuel consumption - from it's thirsty Ford U.S. (who'd have guessed) manufactured 2.3L four cyclinder.