Why we need another era of affordable hot hatchbacks

Auto Car

08-07-2025

It's taking a while, like closing an ill-fitting lid on a plastic kitchen container. But another corner on the 'affordable hot hatch' tub is clicking shut, and, unlike sometimes previously, I don't think a corner on the other side is about to pop back open again in defiance.
Which is a slightly clumsy way of avoiding the 'nail in the coffin' cliché. Also I think it's vanishingly rare (I could be wrong) that a coffin lid's opposite corner creeps open again when someone is hammering down the opposite side.
Anyway, what I'm saying is that Ford is preparing to unalive the Focus ST. Production ends in November, and it has been removed from price lists in the UK because all the remaining ones are accounted for.
And this time I don't think anyone is about to launch a new affordable petrol hot hatchback you could choose to consider instead. Although do go ahead and prove me wrong, somebody, please.
It seems like a very long time, partly because it is, since my mate Jason, when he was a young man, bought a Citroën Saxo VTR on low- or no-interest finance and got free insurance thrown in. It even feels like a long time, although it isn't, since Hyundai offered the i20 N for under £25k.
The hot hatches that remain on sale today – and there are fewer than a handful, including the Focus ST – are basically £40k cars. So it has sort of been true for a while, but only now, with the demise of the Focus ST confirmed, does the malaise feel as terminal as it clearly has been for quite some years now. The hot hatch era is gone.
Should one be sad about it? I think so. Because not very long ago, if you were young and you wanted to get into cars, you bought an ordinary hatchback with a bigger engine and some tidy suspension, and you had a nice time driving it. Then, when you were older and had a house and some money, you bought a sports car. But the mood was established early on.
What's the option now? New hot hatchbacks are too expensive, and while some fun electric cars, like the Alpine A290, are becoming affordable, that will be little solace to you if you live in a rented flat, because buying an Alpine will be too expensive, and your rented accommodation has no charger anyway.