Ford Focus Ultimate Test Drive: bogan chic's the theme of the week

Four weeks in, the pressure’s on and so are the thinking caps in the Ford Focus Ultimate Test Drive.

As the final vote nears, let’s look back over a few highlights we haven’t yet covered...

James used a bit of reverse-think for his take on Focus’s natural style by finding the most naturally unstylish set of peeps he could find. Fashion highlights include thongs over socks (never mind them fancy thong-socks with the separated big toe – James’s ‘family’ opts for the quick, easy and cost-effective alternative of snipping the toe off a normal pair).  And, of course, ugg boots make an appearance. It takes a very special brand of antistyle to strip Pammy Anderson’s footwear of choice of its natural cachet, and this lot pull it off in... style.

It was a smart way to highlight the all-new Focus’s sleek silhouette, ‘kinetic design’ exterior lines, its ergonomically uncompromising cockpit and an its use of premium materials imparting a look and feel not known in its class until now.

Part-time DJ James’s imaginative take on the power of the Focus’s primo nine-speaker sound system, earlier in the comp, was quite something, too, incidentally.

Like James, Janet detoured into bogan territory to highlight the Focus’s natural chic. Our upwardly mobile style guru-ess reveals her humble, design-deprived background, personified to amusing effect by her mulleted brother Dazza.

Leanne has stuck to words and pics – but good ones. Where Penny kicked things off on a sex-sells note, Leanne opted for that other staple: celebrity. We’re not sure if that irresistible chick magnet Dr Phil has ever been close enough to a Ford Focus to endorse the product, but Leanne’s photo (love the t-shirt, Leanne...) proves beyond doubt he’s in a position to endorse our contestant.

She’s also discovered how to bamboozle a husband who’s not old enough to remember how cars started before someone thought up insert-and-turn-key ignition systems.

With his eyes on the prize, leaderboard leader Warren’s been busy, last week taking his Focus Titanium to the track for a family reunion with its FPR cousins, and this week serving up some very funny takes on the Focus’s long list of features. Particularly the witty, self-effacing Bluetooth phone and audio takes. Well done, Warren, in showing up just how much difference these things make in the day-to-day life of the average commuter. We reckon Bluetooth, for example, is as much a safety feature as a convenience.

Blake, meanwhile, came up with a first for the Ultimate Test Drive in his useful set of tips for getting the best out of the Focus Titanium’s super-efficient direct-injection turbodiesel engine – a state-of-the-art piece of gear in a car of its class, and that’s before you add the equally advanced PowerShift dual-clutch transmission. Getting in touch with his inner chimp, our man could see in the Focus an ideal way to get around the Great Banana Crisis of 2011, which, in the wake of Queensland’s weather problems in January, has seen his favourite fruit rise from about $3 a kilo to about $15. Destination: Coffs Harbour, home of the Ultimate Big Banana. For his trouble, Blake managed to squeeze 1026 kays out of a tank of fuel, which he calculates out to 5.2L/100km. You can buy a lot of fruit – even bananas at current prices – when you’re sipping fuel at that rate.

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