Ford Focus RS: Mk1, Mk2 and Mk3, the RS500, and the ST170 that came first (2002–2018)

The Focus RS is the fast Ford of the twenty-first century, the car that took the RS badge from the Sierra Cosworth and the rally Escorts and put it on the hatchback Britain was already buying by the hundred thousand. There were three of them, and they were three different answers to the same question. The Mk1 of 2002 put 212 bhp through the front wheels of a small three-door and sold 4,501 cars, all in one colour. The Mk2 of 2009 put 300 bhp through the front wheels of a bigger one, with a five-cylinder engine and a body that looked like a rally car, and the 500 matte-black RS500s that followed it are the most valuable Focus there is. And the Mk3 of 2016 gave up on front drive altogether, with 345 bhp, four-wheel drive, torque vectoring and a Drift Mode that made the headlines. Before all of them came the ST170, the warm Focus, which is where this page starts.

The Ford Focus RS was engineered in Britain, at Dunton in Essex, and built in Germany, at Saarlouis, like the Carlton and the late Escorts before it; it belongs on this site because the RS badge is British Ford’s, because the Mk1 was sold mostly here, and because the first ones have crossed into classic territory with a following to match. This page covers each generation, what it is like to drive, what to check and what the sale rooms pay.

The ST170 and the ST: the warm Focuses

The first fast Focus was not an RS. The ST170 of 2002 to 2004 took the Mk1 Focus, already the best-handling hatchback of its day, and gave it a 2.0-litre Duratec tuned to 170 PS with variable valve timing, a six-speed Getrag gearbox, Recaro seats, 17-inch alloys and a subtle bodykit, in three-door, five-door and estate forms; it was sold in America as the SVT Focus and in Britain for £15,995. It was quick enough, sweet to drive and never quite fast enough to be taken seriously, and it is now the cheapest and most underrated car in this family. The Mk2 Focus ST of 2005 to 2010 was a bigger step: the 2.5-litre five-cylinder turbo from Volvo with 225 PS, in a body with the big grille and the optional Electric Orange paint, and it is the car the Mk2 RS was built from.

The Mk1: 4,501 blue cars

The Mk1 RS went on sale in October 2002 at £19,995, built at Saarlouis and engineered by Ford’s Team RS at Dunton with help from the usual British specialists. The engine was the 2.0-litre Duratec with a Garrett turbocharger, 212 bhp and 229 lb ft; the gearbox a five-speed with a Quaife automatic torque-biasing differential, the first time a mainstream fast hatchback had been given one, and the reason 212 bhp through the front wheels worked as well as it did. The tracks were wider, the body wore arches and a rear wing that 70 per cent of the car’s parts were new for, the wheels were 18-inch OZ Racing, the seats Sparco, and the only colour was Imperial Blue. Ford built 4,501, sold 2,147 in Britain and the rest across Europe, and stopped in 2003.

It was a car of its moment: torque steer and tramlining on a bad road, a turbocharger that arrived all at once, and a chassis that rewarded a driver who understood what the Quaife was doing. The press admired it and argued about it; the buyers kept it, and twenty years on the Mk1 is the collector’s Focus RS, priced on its rarity and its originality.

The Mk2: 300 bhp through the front wheels

The Mk2 RS of 2009 to 2011 was the car everyone said could not be built: 300 bhp and 325 lb ft from the ST’s five-cylinder turbo, in a front-wheel-drive hatchback. Ford made it work with the RevoKnuckle, a front suspension design that separated the steering axis from the strut to cut torque steer, another Quaife differential and a wider track under the widest arches Ford had put on a road car; 0 to 62 mph took 5.9 seconds and the top speed was 163 mph. The launch colour was Ultimate Green, with Performance Blue and Frozen White alongside, and around 11,500 were built at Saarlouis, a large share of them for Britain. It sounded like a rally car, it went like one, and the body looked the part.

The RS500: 500 cars in matte black

The RS500 of 2010 was the Mk2’s send-off: 500 cars, numbered, in a matte black foil finish over Panther Black paint, with the engine taken to 345 bhp by a bigger intercooler, a larger air filter and a revised exhaust, 0 to 62 mph in 5.6 seconds and 165 mph. It sold out on announcement, it has been the most valuable Focus ever since, and it trades today as a collector’s car on its number, its mileage and the condition of a matte finish that cannot be polished.

The Mk3: four-wheel drive and Drift Mode

The Mk3 RS of 2016 to 2018 was a different idea. The engine was the 2.3-litre EcoBoost four from the Mustang, with 345 bhp and 347 lb ft, and for the first time a Focus RS drove all four wheels, through a torque-vectoring rear unit that could send most of the power to one rear wheel; 0 to 62 mph took 4.7 seconds, the top speed was 165 mph, and the Drift Mode that let the car slide on demand made it famous before anyone had driven it. It came as a five-door only, in Nitrous Blue, Stealth Grey, Frozen White and Shadow Black, with Recaro seats and a price of £29,995 that undercut everything with its performance. The 2018 Heritage Edition, 50 cars in Deep Orange with a Mountune upgrade to 370 bhp, closed the line, and the early cars’ cylinder-head gasket fault, recalled in 2018, is the thing every Mk3 buyer asks about first.

What they are like to drive and own

Each RS drives like its decade. The Mk1 is small, raw and physical, with a turbocharger that arrives in a lump and a differential that pulls the car into a corner in a way no modern hatchback does; it is the most demanding and, to its owners, the most rewarding. The Mk2 is louder and bigger and, thanks to the RevoKnuckle, less of a fight than 300 bhp through the front wheels ought to be, with the five-cylinder sound as its signature. The Mk3 is the fastest and the easiest, four-wheel drive making the power usable in any weather and the chassis adjustable in a way the front-drive cars never were; it is also the heaviest and the least special to sit in, and the one that still feels like a new car.

Ownership is a fast-Ford matter. Service parts are cheap and Ford dealers and the RS specialists know the cars; insurance is the cost that surprises, because every Focus RS is a theft target and the insurers price it so. Fuel economy is in the mid-twenties for all three driven as intended. Tax is by carbon dioxide, high on the Mk1 and Mk2 and in the top band on the Mk3; all three meet the London ULEZ. None is near the historic vehicle class, and the Mk1 will not reach it until 2042.

Buying guide: what to look for

Originality and history before anything mechanical. A Focus RS that has been remapped, fitted with a bigger turbocharger or lowered has been driven hard by definition, and a standard car with its original wheels, seats and exhaust, a full service history and a low mileage sells for far more than a modified one however much was spent. Crash repairs are the next question: every Focus RS has been crashed by someone, the wide-arch bodywork is expensive to repair properly, and panel gaps, paint depth and the underside tell the story. Then the generation’s own faults. On a Mk1, the turbocharger and its pipework, the clutch, the Quaife’s oil and the rust that any Mk1 Focus gets at the sills and rear arches. On a Mk2, the cam belt and water pump on the five-cylinder, the RevoKnuckle bushes, the clutch and flywheel, and on an RS500 the matte finish, which cannot be polished and costs thousands to redo. On a Mk3, proof that the head-gasket recall was done, the rear drive unit’s oil changes, the clutch and the condition of the Recaros.

Then the paperwork, which matters more here than on most classics: a Mk1’s build number, an RS500’s number and certificate, a Heritage Edition’s provenance, and a history file that shows the car was serviced by people who knew what it was.

Current value and where it sits

The record on this site holds 199 Focus RS sales, and the three generations sit in a different order from the one the performance figures suggest. The Mk1 has a median of £20,800 across 47 sales, with good low-mileage cars at £25,000 to £35,000 and the best beyond £60,000, and it is rising as the cars reach collecting age. The Mk2 sits at £28,700 across 59, with Ultimate Green cars and low mileages at the top of that, and the RS500 apart at £67,300 across 15, with the best at £99,000. The Mk3 sits at £26,700 across 91, with the Heritage Edition and the lowest-mileage cars at £40,000 to £80,000 and the ordinary ones still depreciating like used cars. The ST170 is a £2,000 to £5,000 car and the Mk2 ST around £5,600.

Against the rest of the fast-Ford market the Focus RS sits above the Mondeo ST220 and the Capri 2.8 Injection, a little below a Mk2 Escort RS2000 and a three-door Sierra RS Cosworth, and above both only in RS500 form, which sells for less than the Sierra RS500 it took its name from. For the marque as a whole, see the Ford guide.