Ford Focus, British institution

We really needn't say anything here - you already know the drill. When the first generation Ford Focus replaced the popular but woefully average Ford Escort it really did mark a shift in the way everyone thought about the humble hatchback. Here was a car with opinion-splitting looks, but with everything else absolutely spot on. It was spacious, clever, different and dynamically in another league to both its predecessor and pretty much everything else in the class.

Ford couldn't really repeat the revolution with the second-generation car, but it's still a marked improvement on the old one - if a little blander on the eye. The facelifted version corrects the initial car's dopey looks, but either way the Focus is a class leading family hatch - and the sales charts reward its greatness. Only the Golf has it truly beaten for quality, but in every other area the Ford is as complete as a hatch can be - until something else groundbreaking comes along. Sales of almost twice those of the Golf to date this year tell you how much we love the Focus.

Mark Nichol