Ford Focus Estate - Practicality & boot space

The Focus Estate was developed in parallel with the hatchback, in what amounted to a 'clean sheet' approach. That gave Ford's engineers the opportunity to play with the structure to free up as much interior space as possible, and the result is a much more spacious interior than any Focus has offered.

Ford Focus interior space & storage

Ford has a sound reputation for easy-to-use interior design, and drivers will settle behind the Focus Estate's wheel with ease. There's plenty of seat and steering-wheel adjustment to allow space for drivers of even generous proportions, while the centre console has been designed to take up as little room as possible – it even has soft panels where knees are likely to make contact.

While previous models of the Focus were fairly spacious up front, the same couldn't be said of rear-seat space, and this is perhaps where the latest Focus has taken its greatest stride forwards. There's more space both laterally and front-to-back, which means even taller adults have plenty of kneeroom, while three broad-shouldered individuals can sit comfortably across the rear bench.

The centre rear seat is no longer torture to travel in, either – thanks to a flat interior floor, its occupant no longer has to sit splay-legged in order to find somewhere for their feet.

Boot space

12

When designing the underpinnings of the Focus Estate, Ford ensured the rear suspension took up as little space as possible, with a more useful load area the result. The overall space has grown by 43mm from floor to ceiling and 25mm from tailgate to seatback. You get an enormous 608-litre boot with the rear seats in use, which is almost twice the size of the 375 litres in the hatchback and more than a match for the Volkswagen Golf Estate, too.

The growth in rear-seat space also contributes to a big boot-space gain when the car is driven in two-seat mode – with the rear seats out of use, total load volume is an impressive 1,650 litres. Those seats have a handy 'easy fold' feature, too, and hands-free tailgate operation is available. What's more, the retractable boot cover has a handy storage position beneath the boot floor.