Hot hatch of the Year 2012: Ford Focus ST Estate

When Ford decided to build a ‘World Car' we weren't expecting it to punt out a hot hatch version with quite so much fun attached to quite so low a pricetag. But that's what has happened with the ST; proper front-wheel drive thrills with a decent dose of everyday practicality. Obviously Top Gear needed a twist, so to prove that the ST covers oh-so-many-bases, the intrepid Matt Jones decided to take a freshly imported Russian ST Estate (still technically a hatch, we hasten to add) and go on a tour of Moscow's environs. If it can survive and thrive in the crashiest, most pothole-laden and anti-hot hatch nation on earth, then we can truly call it a car fit for the entire globe.

Matt refers to it as "the ultimate test of our previous conclusion that the Focus ST Estate is a car for every mood, every journey and every road". And then immediately witnesses a series of light road accidents, leaving him glad he's in a car that can avoid the worst excesses of Russian town driving.

Read more about Lenin, scrapyards, a 55bhp Ford Mustang and a little red estate car with 247bhp that became an Award winner in the current issue of TopGear Magazine, out now.