Mourn The Ford Focus ST With A Rare ST170 Estate For £2000

So, time is up for the Ford Focus ST. Sniffle. The final example rolled off the production line last week, bringing an end to 23 years and four generations of hot hatch excellence. Hot hatches are all well and good, though, but you know what else we like? Hot estates.

Thankfully, the Focus ST has had us covered there, too. Both the third and fourth generations came in longroof guise, and in fact, the final ever example was an estate. What’s a little less well-remembered is that the original Focus ST170 also came as a wagon, and nowadays, it looks like a bit of a bargain all-rounder – if you can track one down.

Truthfully, Ford’s first crack at a Focus ST, launched in 2002, was never a game-changing hot hatch. Sure, the Mk1 Focus, lauded to this day as one of the best handling ‘normal’ cars of all time, was an excellent starting point, but it was the ‘hot’ part of the hot hatch equation where the ST170 let itself down a little. 170bhp from a 2.0-litre naturally aspirated four-pot looked a bit feeble when the 197bhp EP3 Honda Civic Type R had launched the year before. It wouldn’t be until the arrival of the RS later in 2002 that the original Focus really showed its performance teeth.

In fact, the ST170 recipe arguably made a little more when it gained the estate version in 2003, where all-round talent takes precedence over seat-of-the-pants thrills. The performance figures – 0-60mph in 8.7 seconds and a 133mph top speed – back this up: not exactly earth-shattering, even by 2003 standards, but still enough to provide some real-world entertainment, especially when combined with the Mk1 Focus’ chassis.

And you could now carry around 520 litres of stuff with the rear seats up, or a massive 1580 litres with them folded down. By all rights, the ST170 Estate should have been a bigger success than it was, but it remained a hugely niche model. We can’t say for certain how many were built, but a couple of online sources put the number as low as 150. If true, that makes this unassuming Ford estate rarer than plenty of million-pound hypercars.

That makes it all the more surprising that, at the time of writing, there are two on Auto Trader, but we like the look of this silver 2004 example. At 109,000 miles, it’s the leggier of the two, but it looks remarkably clean at surface level (although the latest MOT test reports some non-serious subframe corrosion, and the interior’s showing its age). 

Mainly, we’re drawn to the fact that the seller appears to have been using it for Actual Estate Things™ as evidenced by the presence of a set of roof bars. That, and the fact that just £1995 is being asked for it. If you’re able to set aside a little extra for the usual tribulations of running a 22-year-old car, this looks like a serious bargain all-rounder – and if that doesn’t honour the best qualities of the Focus ST, we don’t know what does.