My journey to work is 16 miles each way, 6 miles on the motorway, and after my diesel failed on emissions again I’m looking to swap to a petrol.

My first choice was a Golf/Leon but the 1.4tsi just doesn’t fall into my budget.

I’ve been looking at a 1.6 Ford Focus but the 1.0 has the exact same power, more torque and is a lot cheaper on road tax.

It does worry me however that it won’t hold up ton the motorway mileage or when the car is full.

Has anyone had/got one and how does it hold up for a short motorway blast each day.

My budget is around £9000

I’ve got a 1.0T Fiesta Ecoboost, the 125bhp version.

I’ve only used it a few times on the motorway and it’s fine. I’ve only had the thing for a couple of months and haven’t driven it fully loaded though. Plus I guess the Focus is heavier.

Get some test drives in.

Yeah I’ve got test drives booked for over Easter.

The focus is 125 bhp and produces the same power as the 1.6 125 petrol.

I would love the 1.2 turbo Seat Leon but again the focus is far cheaper.

It does worry me however that it won’t hold up ton the motorway mileage or when the car is full.

You are going 6 miles…

I’d spend less and buy something a bit bigger – £5k will get you a decent Focus/Astra sized car.

toyota aygo only a 3 cylinder 700 cc engine 4 adults and two big suitcases on the passengers knees drove great at 70 on the motorway to catch a plane. and then did another 250 miles with no problems at motorway speeds.

Read about this car tonight while waiting to get my hair cut, in top gear mag or what car. They were happy with it but mpg was way down from expected. Why buy a 1.0 focus, you can get better cars for £9k.

That’s 12 miles everyday of the year though.

I meant more power wise than durability.

What “better” cars can I get? Some examples would be great.

I’m talking family hatchback with good mpg and low tax.

The 1.0T ecoboost is zero tax isn’t it ? 🙂

Think on the Focus it’s £30 after being free for the first year.

Forget the low tax incentive and buy off new.

Sorry Mj72, what does “off new” mean?

Can you offer some alternatives to the Focus?

Why is low tax a stipulation ? Yor going to pay high to get that. Company stipulation ?

Whats the torque curve like on the 1l , a torque figure is meaningless – esp if the torques at 6k rpm…. the mpg isnt so hot . Ive only had one as a hire around a city in a fez, it seemed good at that but i didnt get to stretch its legs.

My workmate has one but said it’s 100bhp? I’ve been in it but not driven it. Feels like the engine is much bigger than it is, she does 15 motorway miles each way. She said she’d buy another but the spec in hers is basic (wind up windows in back) which seems to bother her more than the engine size.

There are 100 and 125 bhp versions available.

Yeah I’m Looking at the 125bhp version.

Low tax is just for my pocket really. It’s a personal purchase.

At 12 motorway miles a day I wouldn’t be worrying about motorway capability.

I do more than that in a VW Up! And the only thing I don’t like about it is driving in strong winds as it’s basically a high sided ride on lawnmower.

Great car btw, love it. But I have zero interest in cars beyond a means of transportation.

I’d go with the Fiesta or Focus, depending on what’s available at what price. They’d both be fine.

It’s a famy car so has to be focus sized.

The alternative is to buy a Juke/Quashqui

(haven’t driven it) but the power’s certainly more than enough, my old 80bhp focus estate would motorway cruise at <redacted> without any fuss.

It’s going to be more about the gearing for motorway use I reckon- my dad has a 1.6 petrol focus and it’s desperately in need of a 6 speed box, it revs fairly high at 70 and man do you know about it, it’s like it’s being towed by a massive wasp. Weird combination of revvy motor and low ratios

I see the 100bhp only gets the 5 speed box, the 123 is supposed to cruise at 70 at 2500rpm, redlines at 6500rpm which sounds just fine to me.

Wouldn’t neccesarily choose it to tow a caravan but on paper it’s ideal for you.

Yeah the 125 has the 6 speed gearbox.

I have to say it sounds an amazing little engine.

I don’t see the point going for the 1.6 other than for the automatic gear box.

I drove a 125 version from Southampton to Yorkshire and back. I didn’t know it was a 1.0 till I got to Yorkshire as it was more than powerful and torquey enough. Not to sure what it would be like fully loaded though. The only real down side was the size of the tank which is really small I got just over 400 miles to it but it is something like 45 litres of so.

Someone must have driven one fully loaded.

What is it like on hills?

1.0 100bhp Fiesta is fine on the motorway

How does it fair with the car and boot full?

There has been reports of the expansion hose to the engine fracturing and causing the coolant to escape and kill the engine on these. Ford has changed the ‘plastic’ hose to a ‘rubber’ version, as seems to break through vibration. If you do look at these 1ltr engines, make sure it has been changed, as no recall was issued yet. Friend has the 125 fiesta and seems to like it. Another who works for Ford bought one and a Focus version and says the fuel economy is pretty crap. Personally I see small engines being stressed and in the long term wont last the time of a larger engine, such as the 1.6 focus. Non turbo and less stress, although you will pay for this with higher VED rate for it.

So you’d rather have the 1.6 125 engine?

What alternatives to the focus would people recommend?

How about the 1.4 turbo Astra?

I used to have one and thought it was great. It was very refined and quiet with a nice little engine rasp when you stick your boot down. Quite rapid as well. Economy all depended on the terrain. It would do 50mpg+ in flat areas at sensible speeds but drop to mid to high 30’s when used in hill areas or when used to ‘make progress’. Tax was £30.

Don’t confuse the new turbo engines with the old non turbos. The new ones blow the others away in all areas. The 1.0t has won loads of awards for a reason, it’s ace.

I’d also be interested which much better cars you can get of the same age and mileage for the same price. I get the feeling this is where the STW Brains Trust recommend a 10 year old 150,000 mile BMW or VW T4 as the sensible alternative.

It will depend on the motorway, my old 50 mile motorway round trip would average about 30, acceleration was never an issue. Considering trucks etc. chug along just fine don’t worry too much about power and acceleration.

I love the 1.0 ecoboost engine. I wouldnt own one outside warranty though.

I’ve not driven one but I would be pretty certian it will be perfectly fine. I say this because I used to have a MK1 Focus with at 1.8l Zetec normally aspirated engine. Nowhere near 125HP, or the torque, but it handled many a 350mile mostly motorway family trip to the southwest with no problems at all at typcial real-world motorways speeds. It didn’t have blistering accellaration by any stretch (i’d expect the ecoboost to be better there), but easily handled typical motorway speeds.

Just because it’s a small engine don’t think its going to be ‘stressed’ and unreliable. I’m sure the engineers have designed the stress levels to be well within what is required for a perfectly reliable engine capable of many hundred of thousands of miles. Managing stress in mechanical parts is a basic and fundamental part of design engieering. And at the end of the day 125bhp is not alot at all in the grand scheme of things and well within the capabilities of modern materials and engine design. Look at one of the worlds most reliable enignes – the Honda Vtec in the Type R’s – twice the capacity, twice the power, another few thousand RPM red line capability (alot more challenging from an engineering viewpoint) and no engine is more reliable.

I recently had a new Focus as a hire car and it is easily as good, if not better than any of its competition (i’ve pretty much driven them all as hire cars over the last year or two) – it certainly drove better than the rest of them, certainly anything out of the VAG stable – in fact i’d say its closes rival is the Hyundai i30!!

Your reliance in designers is admirable wobbliscott.

Id be interested in real world high milage to see what its really like , having had poorly designed vag group shite before and the resultant wear killed the engine dead.the designed Bore clearances increased which lead to low oil pressure when cold , which lead to worn rings which lead to burning oil all the time, ( well documented flaw in that engine)

And of course seeing all the poorly designed emissions bodges the “engineers” put on cars because accountants say they cant fix it propper.

In the grand scheme of things car engines are very reliable now. There are hundreds of thousands of engines manufactured every year – thousands of component parts per engine (so thousands of opportunities for failure). So millions of units out there (not counting derivative engines used in other applications), and the overwhelming majority of them are very reliable, despite many being abused by their owners and drivers. Nothing is 100% reliable, but they’re very close. Due to the wonders of modern global comms and the Internet we get to hear of the small percentage that do fail, but don’t hear of the millions that lead perfectly reliable and boring lives.

We have a 2001 Smart car; the engine is 599cc, 3 cylinder, 61bhp, which makes it a reasonable precursor (in concept) to the Ecoboost. I had to rebuild the engine at 60k due to exactly what trail_rat describes; stuck rings, oil in cylinder burning hot, then burnt valves – apparently, that’s normal for the engine (designed, built and badged by Mercedes). Hopefully the Ecoboost design takes that kind of experience on board.

I’m considering buying a Focus, but will want to carry kayaks on the roof sometimes. Ecoboost sound mostly good except the Ecoboost mpg seems very sensitive to extra load.

Your reliance in designers is admirable wobbliscott

This ^.

Call me a cynic, but the basic and stupid design faults on the last few cars I have owned (bar the yaris) have been major cause of faults, breaks and costly repairs. Partly engineered to require bigger parts being replaced at more profit (abs/stability unit fault in vw/Mazda/ford anyone? ) and partly crap engineering (bulb replacement in a Megane? Boot strut mount in a Touran? Etc) and partly ever more complexity to meet emissions, economy and power.

Yes they are clever bits of kit, yes they do generally work well, but no I expect all of them to have ‘issues’ designed in by accident or purpose.

Just buy one Op.
This could go round in circles for days, & you’ll end up with an old Octavia.

These little engines do impress, and I’m sure will be ok in the short term, but long term I have doubts, they’re working very hard to produce that much power & heavily relying on the turbo, which will fail at some point.

You’re not doing many miles, I’d stick with a naturally aspirated 6 speed petrol.

Its an admirable engine and I’d loved it when I drove a Fiesta with it in. Its a Ford though and Ford being Ford there will be corners cut somewhere or something will throw up something at somepoint.

Fords = Great design/ideas, costed down by Accountants.

So budget in for a turbo at somepoint. The coolant pipe issue should have been recalled/sorted. (This killed the engine or turbo didn’t it?).

I don’t understand the reliability worries. It’s 125 bhp per litre. Nothing different to a 2 litre 250 bhp petrol turbo, which have been around for ages.

and whose engine is that Sir?

I think that’s basically reasonable tbh, it’s a smaller engine working hard to achieve the results a bigger engine could do lazier, that’s always going to be more stressful. Though I imagine Ford’s engineers have thought of that.

Flipside- It does an extra couple of miles to the pound and costs less to tax than a 1.6 zetec which seems the obvious comparison, that’ll easily pay for a turbo replacement in 60000 miles (pessimistically) even if you buy a goldplated one from Ford. (