Focus ST to start from £22k

Should you opt to purchase the new Ford Focus ST over the Vauxhall Astra GTC VXR, you would have saved yourself enough to purchase 334kg of Saint Agur Blue Veined Cheese from Tesco's.

That's because Ford has announced the pricing of its hot hatch, and that price is £21,995. The Vauxhall Astra GTC VXR - as much as we're looking forward to that car - is £5,000 more expensive at £26,995. Even a five-door Golf GTI costs £25,915. You do the maths.

Standard kit for the Ford includes keyless start, Recaro seats, DAB radio, Bluetooth and 18in alloy wheels, but opt for the ST2 pack, and you add partial leather, a Sony radio, the ‘Quickclear' windscreen and even ST floor mats. The ST3-spec car - £25,495 - gets Bi-Xenon lights, LED daytime running lights, electric folding mirrors and full leather.

Oh, and another bit of standard kit is the 2.0-litre, turbocharged petrol four-pot producing 247bhp and a 0-62mph time of somewhere in the low sixes. Economy and emissions have been tagged at 39.2mpg and 169g/km of CO2. Cake, consider yourself eaten.

Ford is also quite confident that the ST will sell by the bucketload, chiefly because a) it's really quite cheap, and b) between 2002 and 2010, 35,000 Focus STs found homes in the UK. Its debut in the film version of The Sweeney (above) will probably help, too.

Does the new ST allow your insatiable appetite for Blue Vein cheese to be indulged, or would you pay FIVE GRAND extra for the VXR?