I COULD tell from his voice on the phone that my 16-year-old nephew was not completely convinced by my sales spiel.

He rang me late on a Wednesday night. "Can I call in a favour? Can you get hold of a flash car to take me and a friend to the school prom?" "I can try," I replied. "When is the prom?"

"Tomorrow night," came the reply. "What are you driving this week?"

"A Ford Focus . . ." The pause that followed spoke volumes about his feelings about the prospect of rolling up behind stretch limos, vintage buses and elegant horse-drawn carriages in the 21st-century equivalent of the Model T.

I could sense he was considering catching the bus, so I tried a little harder. "It's an elegant, four-seater, coupé-cabriolet, made in Italy by Pininfarina, with glitzy 17-inch alloys and classy leather upholstery. This one's got a price tag approaching £20,000 and it's pretty rare on the road."

That won him over and 24 hours later we rolled up outside Rye Hill Golf Club at Milcombe with the top down - in the rain.

Admittedly the top was down for less than a minute, partly for the purposes of a dramatic entrance and partly for the easy extraction of my nephew's crutches from the rear seat (that's another story).

At the touch of a button, in 29 seconds to be precise, Ford of Europe's first power-operated hardtop model transforms from a sleek open-top model into an equally cool coupé. The swift, head-turning transformation pits it against other similarly smart coupé-convertibles such as the Renault Mégane, Peugeot 307, Volkswagen Eos and Astra TwinTop.

Slicing the roof off a car could potentially be a recipe for a noisy, ill-handling disaster, but the combined engineering teams met the challenge.

Together with the sporty Ford Focus ST, the well-built coupé-cabriolet sits at the top of the Focus family, delivering a calm, unruffled ride combined with surprisingly reassuring handling.

Its stylish appeal has not been achieved at the cost of practicality. It is a genuine four-seater and with the roof closed offers a whopping near-18 cubic feet of luggage capacity. Even with the retractable hardtop stowed in the boot, it still gives 8.2 cubic feet of useable space. The luggage space underlines the 2.0-litre, 145 horsepower car's role as a classic Grand Tourer rather than a sports roadster; comfortable, superbly equipped and oozing polished sophistication.

Over the days I had the car, it was in its VIP element, functioning as executive transport to both the Cornbury Music Festival and British Grand Prix.

And it also proved a cool conveyance fit for a (prom) king.

Auto facts Ford Focus CC-3

  • Price: £18,822
  • Ins group: 11
  • Fuel consumption (Combined): 37.6mpg
  • Top speed: 129mph
  • Length: 450.9cm/177.5in
  • Width: 183.2cm/72.1in
  • Luggage capacity: 8.2 cu ft
  • Fuel tank capacity: 12.1 gallons/55 litres
  • CO2 emissions: 179g/km
  • Warranty: 3 years/60,000 miles