Ford Focus is Britain's most discussed car

Ford's Focus is Britain's most discussed car, according to Auto Trader, operator of one of the UK's most heavily used motoring websites. The site, which combines classified advertising for used, nearly new and new cars with editorial content on motoring subjects, was recently opened up to users in order to allow them to provide their own reviews of different models.

In fact versions of the Focus took both first and second places in Auto Trader's rankings for the most discussed models, with the second generation model, produced between 2004 and 2011 in the lead, and the original car, sold between 1998 and 2004 in second place.

Customer-generated reviews provide a healthy complement to reviews by professional testers, which often neglect the everyday practical concerns of mainstream buyers in favour of technical assessments. By opening up its site to readers' contributions, Auto Trader is also tapping in to the growing popularity of social networking; in the last two months, some 9,000 customers provided reviews of their cars. Of these, 250 were giving their opinions on the Focus.