Aaahhh a Focus thread, my natural home 🙂 Mrs Boblo had a MK1 100bhp 1.6 and it was a lovely car. You needed to drive it properly by being in the right gear and using the right revs at the right time. It handled well and was as pretty as a picture. No faults at all in 5 years and 60k miles from new. We then bought a Mk2 2.0tdci and have had that 5 years and ~60k miles. See the other thread for details but it wasn’t a completely happy time and has convinced me not to buy diesel cars again until the technology becomes a bit more reliable/less costly.
I drove a friends Mk1 1.8 petrol for a 1000 or so miles to Scotland and back and it was a bit peppier than the 1.6 (which it didn’t really need) but was a lot worse on fuel. mid 30’s against low 40’s. I wouldn’t bother with that engine in that car.
We tried the current (Mk4?) 125 bhp 1.6 Petrol Focus and it felt a bit gutless and uninspiring. The weight has gone up from the Mk1 so the performance has dropped off and it doesn’t handle as well. Whereas the Mk1 was was a joy to drive, I found the Mk4 a chore.
We went for a 1.8 vtec Civic (mostly selected by STW 🙂 ) which feels quicker (acceleration), is better on juice and feels slight better than the diesel donkey to drive (less front end weight). The one we got was about the same price as a Focus as well (though has less kit than the current model).
Does that help?