Credit where credit is due: yet again Marshall of Cambridge has done a praiseworthy job servicing the Focus. Having just nudged over 25,000 miles, it was the ST’s second service, and it revealed that we’ll be needing some new brake pads within the next few thousand miles. But after all the journeys the Focus has done and all the laps it has clocked up around various tracks, this is only to be expected.

When I collected the ST I was presented with a very reasonable bill for £167.70 and a car so clean I really could have eaten my dinner off it. The customer care didn’t just stop there either. Just as happened after the first service, I received a follow-up call the next day to make sure everything was OK. Who said customer service is dead?

Also this month I managed to convince my dad that he should let me have a go in his Ford – all in the name of science, of course. I don’t think he really fell for that excuse, though, as there’s a good 78 years between his Model A and my ST, but he knows all too well how much I’ve wanted to drive it.

With a 4-litre four-cylinder engine, a top speed of not a lot and no safety measures other than its brakes, the Model A is a far cry from the Focus and a perfect reminder of how far technology has come. I wonder what the ST will feel like in 78 years’ time?