Don’t have one of those, but, do have a 2002 TDDI, and my dad’s got an 04 1.6 so between the 2 that’s more or less what you’re looking at
Zetec is a nice spec level, my own is just LX and it’s decent but basic, worth the step up I think- dad’s is a nicer place to be in general. The 1.6 petrol engine is pretty gutless- it makes good power but it’s very revvy, so not slow, and fun to drive quick… But not so good at low speeds, and sluggish when heavily loaded. Pretty inefficient too, because of the combination of revviness and 5 speed box.
Mine is 110000 miles old, dampers are pretty much shagged but otherwise it seems to work fine. Just a very slight hint of clutch slip when letting the clutch up with some revs on, though, that’s probably the start of something expensive. Seats have held up, paint is decent.
They drive really well… Mine as I say is pretty baggy but still turns nicely and holds a line well, lots of feedback too… I’ve driven far fresher cars that handle worse.
Some maintenance is randomly difficult due to bad access, which is a pet hate- for instance, a common fault at around 100K is for the little plastic linkage in the clutch master cylinder to break. It’s a 10p part which goes brittle with age and once it’s gone, no clutch. Repair means replacing the whole m/c assembly, which is a £90 part from Ford IIRC but £25 for the pattern one, phew. But where it stops being fun is that to replace the m/c you need to remove the steering column, because Ford didn’t give it enough clearance to come out- obviously it gets fitted before the steering does at the factory. So what could have been a 1 hour job becomes a 1 day job. I’m sure plenty of other cars do this too but this really cheesed me off.
Boot is incomprehensibly vast in all models, mine is an estate and is so big you could drive another focus into it 😉 Dad’s is the little hatch but the boot’s still bigger than some much bigger cars.
I like ’em but I’d say try and go up a size on the engine or swap over to the turbodiesel. Though that brings with it everyone’s favourite dual mass flywheel.