I have strong opinions on what a hot hatchback should be. Cars like the Audi RS3 and Mercedes-AMG A45S take the fast hatch recipe and turn it up to 11 with fancy four-wheel drive systems and a trillion horsepower, and although they’re great fun, for me they’re too far removed from the honesty of a great hot hatch. My personal set of requirements for the fast, family shopping trolley are as follows: approximately 300 horsepower, front-wheel drive, a limited-slip differential, a selection of driving modes, and a manual gearbox. Independent rear suspension isn’t a must have but it’s preferred. This for me, is peak hot hatch. It’s why I adore the Honda Civic Type R and consider it the benchmark car in its class.

Ford also has a serious back catalogue of hot hatch greats and so when they agreed to send me the latest Focus ST for a week, I got all excited. Then it arrived and I was immediately disappointed when I discovered that it had an automatic gearbox. I expected to open the door and be greeted by the sweet sight of their delicious six-speed manual shifter, but what I received instead was a twirly knob with the letters P, R, N, D and M written on it. Talk about an anti-climax. Let’s be clear about something, I don’t have an issue with an auto in this type of vehicle – VW, Audi and CUPRA all use quick shifting DSGs which I quite like – I just expected something a little more traditional from Ford.

Determined to review the car objectively, I set about learning what the rest of the package has to offer. Under the bonnet is a burbly, 2.3 litre EcoBoost engine with 276bhp and a plentiful torque figure of 310lb ft. Power makes its way to the front wheels via a limited-slip differential, and there’s a glut of driving modes for varying conditions and moods.

Most of the items on my fast hatch shopping list were clearly accounted for, and that’s before I was reminded of Ford’s ability to make a great chassis. Asking whether a Ford handles well is like asking if the sky is blue, and so it was no great surprise when I found out that the ST has a liking for corners. It plays the old hot hatch party trick – trail it in on the brakes, then pick up the throttle and use it to drag the front wheels round. This is why I prefer FWD to AWD. Being able to send 100 per cent of the power to the front wheels is better than sending only some of it, and it makes for a more adjustable, keener handling hatch as a result. Grip is abundant, body roll is not – as it should be – and if you lift off the throttle the rear end will mobilise which you’ll find either entertaining or scary depending on your level of ability.

As for the performance, it’s thrilling if not outright fast. The straight-line poke is suitably brisk with a 0-62mph time of 5.7 seconds and a top speed of 155mph. The swell of mid-range torque makes it a rapid overtaking machine when required, but interestingly, it doesn’t feel as fast as a CUPRA Leon 300 which has an extra 20bhp but is down on torque to the tune of 15lb ft.

With the fast Ford’s fun credentials in little doubt, I shifted my focus to some of the other things it does well. The suspension is on the firm side, but the damping is excellent. It flows down a B-road and softens off larger bumps without giving anything away in body control. The highlight, however, is the steering which has a beautiful weight and requires one sweep of the wheel to get the car turned. It’s pin-point accurate, and even when you push a touch too hard and provoke some understeer, you always know where the front wheels are in relation to the road. A Hyundai i30N offers a purer, naughtier and more involving experience, but the ST strikes a likeable balance between dynamic ability and overall refinement.

As a driver’s car, the Focus ST ticks the boxes, but you’ll notice that I haven’t mentioned the seven-speed automatic gearbox again and that’s because I’m leaving that for a little later. In the meantime, I’d like to discuss the second most important thing a hot hatch should do, and that’s how it handles all the boring day-to-day duties of a family car. This is where the ST unravels slightly and it’s for one particular reason. Yes, the interior is built well with solid materials, there are five doors, it commands respectable rear leg and head room, satisfactory boot space, quiet road manners and plenty of tech, but Ford seems to have gone all VW on the cabin ergonomics and infotainment system. The central screen is a vast 13.2 inch touchscreen display with some rather neat graphics and snappy response times. However, the screen appears to be so massive that it’s swallowed up all the interior buttons during fitment, which means most of the functions now reside within the display and Ford Sync 4 software. Cue the inaccurate finger waving, multiple jabs at the screen and the frightening amount of time required to operate it with your eyes off the road. Volkswagen recently issued a press release quietly admitting that they’d taken the minimalist concept a bit too far and will now be bringing buttons back with future models. Ford, you’ve channelled your inner VW once before, we now kindly ask you to do it again, please.

In Ford’s defence, they haven’t gone the whole hog. The infotainment system in a Golf GTI and CUPRA 300 is as temperamental as it is infuriating, and at least in the Focus the driving mode buttons are on the steering wheel. On another positive note, the seats which are no longer made by Recaro still hug and pinch you in all the right places, and are fantastic companions for spirited driving and travelling long distances. The driving position is a touch high and your view out is obstructed a little by the glass for the heads-up display, but these are things you become accustomed to with time. Infotainment aside, the inside of the Focus ST is a comfortable place to be and brings the usability required of an all-round hot hatch. Priced from £36,855, it’s maybe not the blue collar car it once was, but competitive finance rates mean that rarely anyone pays the list price for a car anymore.

Now, we must revisit the automatic gearbox. The only thing it has going for it are the smooth shifts, but in nearly every other aspect it’s the wrong ‘box for the car. If it was as snappy as a DSG you could make a case for it, but the downshifts are delayed and the steering wheel paddles are inadequate in their size. If it serves any purpose, it’s that it reminds us why the manual gearbox is an integral part of the hot hatch recipe. Not only does it allow you to exploit the potential of the engine, but it makes you work for the rewards on offer. It puts the onus on you to drive the car properly and extract the best from the package. To row a slick, manual transmission through the gates is to drive in of itself, and that’s what a well sorted hot hatchback is all about. The Ford Focus ST is a good car, but it’s an even better one with a manual gearbox. Choose wisely.