The girlfriends car has died and I have the task of viewing a few cars for her with a budget of 1k max. I am off to look at a Focus estate 1.8Tdi later. Is there owt or nowt I should be looking for or should I just be happy that it still works.? Never had a ford so I am unsure of there quirks. The car is a 2001.

dodgy stains.

I’ve got an 04 focus 1.8 TDi and its been fine. The wheel bearings are made of cheese (think I’ve gone through 5 in 4 years), and I’ve gone through 2 sets of pads on the front, but no complaints my end.
Its also now done 188k and still pulls quite happily.
Its not a light car though, front tyre wear has been quite high. Although that might have more to do with a heavy right foot, and a B road commute.

Sills on mine rotted away, so worth a check. Boot lock and rear wiper commonly fail, wheel bearings and at that age exhaust. Apart from that was a pretty good car for the years I had it.

Fords that age rust like crazy, have a careful look all over.

I’ve just bought a 2001 Focus 1.8 for a reliable runaround. I’ve had one before and put a lot of mileage on, and it never missed a beat. All I ever replaced were the brake discs. The engines are good for 200,000 if regularly serviced, so I wouldn’t worry too much about mileage.

Look around the bottom of the boot and the back doors (fnarr fnarr) for rust. The boot catch went on mine. But another bonus is that parts are so easily available – it cost me £16 for one from a breakers, and ten minutes to fit it

rear wheel arches and any advisories on the previous MOT for rust or brake lines etc.

I had a 99 Ford Puma- great car for a year.

Why not consider a Puma too?

Father in law had a 51 plate for years and sold it to a mechanic in the dealership where he had it serviced- still going strong 18tdi , it was over 100k when he sold it in 2006 so just about run in!
Think it suffered a broken spring on the suspension and a few other bits and bobs but nothing major

Rust on sills, door locks failing/slow to unlock, heat shield coming away underneath.

Why not consider a Puma too?

I suppose that would depend on if his girlfriend’s a hairdresser or not? 😛

@binners, LOL.

Rust on sills, door locks failing/slow to unlock, heat shield coming away underneath.

You’ve just described mine 🙂

Hairdressers have moved on binners, they drive Aldi TT’s and MX5 MKIII’s now 😉

Ours is a 99 model, 1.8 TDDi, 107,000 miles. It is getting old now though. MOT is next week, and I am bracing for some bills this time around. Apart from that, it has been a very cheap and reliable runaround in the 4 or so years we have had it. Has been used for summer holidays in the Alps loaded with our camping kit.

We’re not particularly kind to it. Aircon doesn’t work anymore, touch of rust around the bootlid and doors (wouldn’t notice it if you weren’t looking) but that is about it.

Lost my 2002 Focus to an idiot in another focus driving into it last year, can’t say it was particularly rusty, ok the tailgate was showing signs. I would have happily kept it till it died or became uneconomical to repair (no signs of that), really nice car. Partners diesel focus became rough around the lower end of the range (crap pull away) due to the DMF slowly eating itself (it alters the timing).

Sills rusted badly on mine too- big water trap in there, and there’s a daft sponge which is I assume supposed to be noise reduction in the wheel arches, which doesn’t actually seem to do anything apart from encourage rust. Oh and for some reason everyone jacks them up wrong and folds the seam.

The TDDI engine is really pretty feeble, but on the plus side, very usable- lovely around town, . The TDCI version is definitely a better engine and doesn’t seem to cost any more.

Still, I really liked mine, it was crappy but kind of charming. Old-school, I suppose, clunky and basic but so effective. The boot is a thing of wonder- square, tall, wide, massive door too (which also provides more “roof” when you sit on the back than most. The cabin ergonomics are all just right, too- massive door cards, lots of foot space, proper straight driving position, all that good stuff. The mk2’s a worse car in a lot of ways.

Mine got sold with 165000 miles on it. It was starting to get through starter motors (1 every 12 months for last 3 years) think case hardening on flywheel was the problem. Apart from that and rusty tailgate bottom it was a good car. Plenty of room with seats down and 45 mpg however i drove it.

+1 to the Mk2 estate being a worse car, due to the lack of space in the rear (if nothing else), it’s the reason why I didn’t get another.

I have one of these, check the “scuttle panel” on the passenger side hasnt lifted. Mine did and the car filled with water, apparently this is quite common. I have “fixed” mine with duct tape until it goes in for its next service in October. It wont rain much til then anyway I hope

WackoAK – Member

Rust on sills, door locks failing/slow to unlock, heat shield coming away underneath.

You’ve just described mine

and mine!

Have a root around the passenger side footwell for damp, means the pollen filter silicon seal wasn’t replaced properly when the filter was changed.

Apart from the rusted sill (getting welded as we speak) car has been great.

Why not consider a Puma too?

He said focus estate, not fiesta with an impractical bodykit!

My (’06 petrol) has been fine, 13yr old diesels would scare me though, now owned by the kind of person who’s bothered about having a new car, so they’re not upgrading for those reasons, which leaves “it’s about to fall appart”.

sold our 1.8tdci a few months ago, 4years we had it and got exactly what we paid for it – £400!. i’d look for working windows and rear door locks. the rear ones on ours stopped working, we didn’t bother fixing it though as we could get along without them but really should have (just lazy). parts are easy to get hold of if you’re into diy mechanicing

wheel bearings and brake line corrosion were biggest costs on ours in its last year. it had a few patches of body work rust so wasn’t the prettiest – but check the sills as above as they can be MOT failure. cheap and reliable car, saw it being driven round the town the other day so still working 🙂

Don’t worry about the exhaust heatshield, as long as your house is equipped with a bin you have all you need to resolve that common issue. Ironically getting the bloody thing off can be awkward though as though half the fixings will have failed, the other half will be almost impervious to removal.

Brake lines, yup, mine needed fronts done, the rears I just inspected and reproofed. But to be fair that’s not a Focus thing, you’ll want to check that on any 10 year old car.

Ooh- and a general Ford one, if it only has one key and you want to get a second one, they’re not that cheap- dealer quoted me £150, Timpsons did me one for £75 with no remote. You can recode a remote easily if you buy a scrap key off Ebay. But! Any new key of the old roundy ford design might not work in the car, because the lock barrels wear to match the keys- the locksmith’s likely to make a new one to the pattern rather than an actual copy of the old one. So, I got mine done and it instantly jammed in the ignition barrel 😆 The locksmith extracted it then “aged” it.

So all in all, 2 keys is good news.

I’ve got a ’99 2 litre estate. A few niggles – central locking no longer works, the hatch doesn’t always want to stay open, general mankiness. But it’s basically bomb-proof, and I can’t find an excuse to replace it.

check the dash, water can get in and mess with the electrics

had to replace mine recently (20 quid off ebay took 30mins)

other than that very reliable

What to look for in an old Ford Focus circa 2001.?

Any sign of soul or desirability.

Sills were done on both sides on mine. There is something iffy with the window seals and the result is the door bottoms rusting.

TDDI is low tech and while it is not as speedy or refined as the TDCI the low tech means less electronics and sensors. They also don’t have those lovely dual mass flywheels. This is helpful on an older diesel and if you are buying a diesel Focus for speed you’ve missed the point!

They have great handling for a family car but the wishbones and other gubbins doing the steering/suspension does need tlc.

I only sold mine for camper van.

Aldi TT’s

Is this some kind of shopping event against the clock?