As title really – any user opinions?

Any experiences of ford direct – assume you can still ‘negotiate’ on the price?

Drive one for work as a rapid response car. Should be quick enough as standard for normal driving. My only complaint would be the lack of torque low down, which seems to be a thing with most of the modern common rail diesels. Gearing is quite long, so engine is easy to bog down. Once moving it’s fine, economy is good considering how much stick they get

complaint would be the lack of torque low down, which seems to be a thing with most of the modern common rail diesels

I thought modern common rails were meant to be good ?
We’ve an old 150k mile 130hp TDCi Mondeo & its pretty powerful. Makes a super caravan tow-car, has a great reputation in the caravan reputation for its towing ability due to its low down torque.

Nowhere near as good low down as my octavia.

Ford Duratorq engines are rock solid and unlike P20’s VAG engine don’t use a drop of oil, as opposed to an amount somewhere proportional to the amount of fuel you use.

My Passat drank oil like it was going out of fashion, whereas in 35k my Ranger 2.5 TDCi hasn’t swallowed a drop.

Common rails in my experience tend to drive more like a petrol than traditional diesel. They rev more freely.
I prefer the power delivery of the vag pd engines.
Getting back on topic, the focus is a sound car. As for chipping, insurance companies are getting wise, I’d be careful, though some aren’t bothered.

Can’t claim to know what the engine types are, most of my research has been done via ‘whatcar’

Chipping was recommended by a mate who claims to know about cars, I don’t quite understand it though, for £200 I get better fuel economy and more power. So why isn’t it like this in the first place? Doesn’t appear to be a downside (other than insurance)

Bought an 08 focus titanium for the wife about 18 months ago, and we both really like it, engine is a bit noisy when cold, but cruises really well, big wnough for family days out with 2 kids and all the kit they take along.
After many years of hot hatches, and daft saloons, i insisted on having the 18 inch wheels and sports suspension, which maybe we could have done without, the car came from Ford Direct via a dealer, (Retail Dealer in Suffolk, who were excellent) and we just specced what we wnated and they found it, had every option bar the sat nav, might even go and give it a thrash this morning……

Had a focus with one for 4.5 years. Been reliable, economic on long runs – indicated 62mpg on run down to the Pyrenees (and the meter seems pretty accurate based on mileage/ litres calculations). I’m not really a foot down kind of driver, but it does seem to “like” having a couple of accelerate till the red light flashes every couple of journeys.

Well thanks for the input, we just ended up putting a deposit down on one, so hope it is as good as the reviews it gets!

i have the 2.0 TDCI – great car. Mega torque and reasonable power 136bhp. I looked into chipping and decided against it. theres loads of stuff on the web regarding it. Pro’s and cons.