You're right, Bobbin - it is indeed a smart move to offer the ST also as an estate. I wanted a Golf GTI estate, and fortunately although VW can't supply it, Skoda can.

The new Focus estate is one of the better efforts to combine style with practicality - i.e.to provide plenty of room for people and gubbins without looking as if you've come to mend the photocopier.

While we're at it, I'd rather look like a photocopier repair man than a management consultant. The former is at least useful...

No automatic version is the only problem.

Difficult to see how they can sell a "world car" in the US without one, so I only hope that it will be along later.

Until it arrives I won't be buying one!

Difficult to see how they can sell a "world car" in the US without one

Not really. At the performance end of the market, manuals are popular in the US. Plenty of Corvettes, BMWs, Porsches, Subaru WRXs etc. are sold with manual boxes. VW sell a lot of diesel Jettas with manuals. Manual may only represent 7% or so of US car sales, but with 200,000,000+ drivers, that's still a potential market of 14,000,000!

The seats are good! Once you're in it, you forget that it is a Focus. The cockpit is a paragon of good design-no wannabe F16 flight deck, just nice simple gauges and dials. Boost gauge looks a bit silly perched out on top of the middle of the dashboard-buit at least it has one,..

"23mph per 1,000rpm in 6 th"

That's far too low a gearing for 6th gear, with so much power & torque available driving long distances would be more comfortable and economical with longer gear ratios.
Hopefully Ford will rethink the gear ratios and offer a more sensible choice of ratios, after all, these days it should be & is possible to have both performance and fuel economy in one package.

The estate does offer superior rear view visibility verses the hatch version, coupled with a big car feel this is load carrying car for those who want (but don't need) the extra performance. (and yes I would like one except my diesel uses half as much fuel with enough performance to pass an ST whilst the ST is being refuelled).