ford focus (oldshape) should I?

edhornby – Member
I’ve had a V reg (one of the first foci) for about 3 or 4 years now, petrol 1.8 that’s clicked past 150thou miles and it’s been great, I’m going to run it into the ground as a sag wagon for the famille Hornby cos I don’t need a flash motor (I bike commute so don’t do a lot of miles) so for stuff like bikes in the back or building rubble it’s been fine. good space in the back with the seats down (5 door FTW) and I trust it enough with the 3 week old first born daughter in the back

the 1.6 would be fine, lets face it, who really screws an engine like some wannabe jason plato nowadays, the roads are all 30mph speed limits and cameras and traffic volume

Firstly – WTF?

Secondly – the roads are all 30mph? Do you live in, and never leave, suburbia with the afforementioned ‘famille Hornby’?

edhornby – Member

“the 1.6 would be fine, lets face it, who really screws an engine like some wannabe jason plato nowadays, the roads are all 30mph speed limits and cameras and traffic volume”

Ironically the 1.6 is worst at low speed traffic stuff and reasonably good on the open roads 😆 In town and traffic is where the torque it doesn’t have is useful.

Maybe i’m a bit unfair. I’ve driven less powerful cars that didn’t annoy me the same, I think it might be that it’s otherwise a pretty nice car- handles, pleasant to spend time in, good fittings and well nailed together, so it feels let down. Whereas if I drive a sheddy car with a weak engine like my grandad’s old Rover 100, it all felt matched.

I reckon the petrols are the better long term bet now, same emissions gear and sensors to go wrong but no turbo and expensive injectors to replace. i openly laugh at anyone who thinks ~100bhp is gutless and slow in a car of any size.

focus carry a premium over all similar cars and probably arent much better as a run around than the rest, also the paint is generally poor. it will keep more value than the DisAstra, Megane etc…. Over the next few years especially with a decent history.

You are buying correctly as there are few genuine or really decent condition cars out there these days, its worth paying a bit more too. I always buy private though as i can look over a car far more accurately than most dealers seem to, and am able to do all the work myself.
Private or otherwise few people let a good car go cheaply these days, for example that dealer wont be able to find another to replace that one on the forecourt so why let it go cheaply? You are interested and others will be.
Another thing to consider is alot of people sell cars when there is an upcoming bill or problem, the dealer has to be ready to cover the cost of this, i have lost count of the amount of people who come onto the car forums i am a reg on with a problem just after buying a car.

ivantate – Member

“i openly laugh at anyone who thinks ~100bhp is gutless and slow in a car of any size.”

Missing the point by miles. My own focus makes 90-ish bhp and isn’t gutless. My brother’s combo makes 75bhp and isn’t gutless. My dad’s 1.6 makes 100bhp but is pretty gutless- quicker than either of the other two once it has some revs though. Fixating on peak power is silly in a car like this, drivability/usability rarely has much to do with the headline numbers.

I just think people have got carried away with turbo diesel torque and have got lazy with gearshifting and driving in general. let it rev a bit instead of changing at 2.5k take it to 4k etc…, use 3rd gear more on a-roads.
Given standard road based engine characteristics with a max rpm at around 6500ish, a capacity of 1600 a hundred horses should give a reasonable peak torque figure, which at a guess will be around 4000rpm. Given the use of the car an effort would be made to give a sensible curve made easier with only euro3 emissions back then, also meaning there should be reasonable throttle response.
I rebuilt a 1600 multipla and used it for a bit and i am sure it wasnt as good as the diesel but keep its own in traffic and normal driving.

Most people also know the charateristics of petrols and diesels and if they are looking for 1 or the other (with a well balanced arguement like Hora has) they have already worked out what they basically want.
In this case he wants a lower purchase price and less chance of picking up an ex-fleet hack, also a dealer purchase for the piece of mind for the warranty. although the price may be steep, for exactly the same car as a tdci it would be far more, not sure on tddi residuals but as you know they have their attractions although short trip refinement probably isnt one of them.

I am having to educate the missus in a similar way, she has gone from a 1300 diesel Panda to a 1400 16v Idea and is only just learning how much the diesel covered her poor clutch control and occasional poor gear choice. when we got the Panda there was plenty of turbo whiplash going on as she was used to pushing the throttle and using the revs in her previous car.

What we can say is the Focus is a good car and bought correctly will give a long service. i would take one over a contemporary golf but lets not get started on those as i might use the word gutless.

Also i am not a petrol fascist, out of my 5 cars 3 are diesel.

Back on topic, another thing to think about is finding a car with rear drum brakes. For a long term low maintenence proposition they are far better.
cheaper parts, no caliper to seize and the handbrake will work.

For what it’s worth I’m not specifically recommending diesels. Just recommending a less peaky engine in general.

Our old 1.6 petrol Vectra made considerably less power than the Ford 1.6, about 75bhp I think, but had a nicer power delivery and dropped its peak torque at 2600rpm instead of 4000-odds for the Focus, with a power curve to match. It was slower when driven fast I’m sure (never did that myself) but nicer when driven slow, ie in traffic, pulling away, etc. I’d definately choose that over the Ford 1.6.

Im sold on the 1.6. I’m currently using a hirecar Pug 107 with 67 horses and I can tell you it aint slow or holding me back in anyway.

I think people who say you need x bhp don’t know how to drive smoothly/lift off earlier rather than use the accelerator and brake as a on-off button 😉

Colour is unimportant, its dealer backup and providence that I seek.

Looking at the imortant figures BHP/Tonne, it has just a tad under 80, so it seems I was a bit wrong to claim it as gutless, as it’s never going to win a race, but that figure should be perky enough.

As you were.

I’ve been running around in a pug107 for a couple of days with its overly light gearshift. The focus feels slightly stiff going from 4th to 5th. Is this a characteristic? Car has been driven for weeks but the testroute was long

Not on either of ours. TBH mine feels pretty floppy, which I’m suspicious of, though still positive, but it’s much the same in every gear. Certainly neither has any stiffness. Though whether or not that’s an issue I don’t know, it’s not a common fault that I’ve heard of.

Well it hasn’t been driven for a longtime and the gearbox is guaranteed for 12months. Technician is checking when gearbox oil was last changed as it has 7 official services so maybe the 8th is a major again….(They are servicing it)

TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsSTR – Member
Looking at the imortant figures BHP/Tonne, it has just a tad under 80, so it seems I was a bit wrong to claim it as gutless, as it’s never going to win a race, but that figure should be perky enough.

As you were.

No sorry you were right first time (stats or no stats). When you drive them, they feel gutless 🙂 HOWEVER, this means you need to drive in the correct gear and change/brake at the right time (like propa driving an that). It also means you are less inclined to drive like a prize tit and shred yer Michelins.

We put 50k on ours and Mrs Boblo will be going back to ‘that sort of car’ after a brief but ultimately silly asignation with a 2.0 TDCI Focus that’s a bit hungry for new parts.

Despit my admission above, I don’t get all this ‘drive in the right gear’ nonsense.

Of all the ‘underpowered’ cars I’ve driven the over-riding annoyance has been hills – living in the Deryshire Dales/Peak District I’ve seen a few.

A steep hill, lets say you enter in 3rd gear, hit a corner and you’re down to 2nd, sometimes even 1st, then the gear becomes too low and the engine revs too high, so you change up. Third becomes too high within seconds, so it’s back to 2nd and revving the hell out of it – back to 3rd, repeat to fade (or until engine blows up). Yes you could always crawl up at 20mph in 2nd all the way, but personally that doesn’t appeal to me.

Also…

Cruising at 68mph in the middle lane of the motorway in 5th and fancy getting out into lane 3, but the 75/80mph traffic is coming too frequently and fast. Dropping down a gear would probably see a piston flying through your bonnet and the acceleration from 68mph in 5th is frankly, erm well – just not there.

In my case it means not leaving it in 6th and chugging around 4th gear bends. My diesels are pretty low geared plus the torque… Makes for lazier driving which you can’t get away with as much in a 1.6 petrol Focus. I’m not as bad as a typical ‘5th gear only’ minicab driver, I just don’t like revving the nuts off things to get power (apart from motorbikes that is..).

Certain back roads of Huddersfield put the Peaks utterly to shame for tight/short and twisty very very steep roads. I can honestly say I’ve never felt any car wanting on these roads.

Diesels are great. Any petrol will work more than adequately on the above though. Ffs the 67bhp 107 that I have on hire did 90 in the fast lane over saddleworth and changing lanes was easy.

I also drove a aygo on German roads in winter. Loved it. I think its a driver having confidence in his/her own ability rather than delegating/expecting a car to perform.

On the twisties from hudds to uppermill once a lad in a audi a2 more than kept up with me in a talent-compensator mx5. That’s driver ability shining over lesser equipment

Early impressions, impressed. Not a squeak or creak and firm/poised with no slop for a 6yr old car.

You won’t find a better handling car with as much steering feel as an old shape Focus even an Estate (Front wheel drive.) Even parts from Ford are comparable with copy parts from Unipart etc. These are cheap to run especially the petrol ones. The 1.8TDCI is a great motor but diesel parts are expensive if they go wrong. I have the 1.8 petrol and its not bad, better on motorways, 5th is a good cruiser. If I had my time again I’d go for the 2.0l petrol 136bhp or the 170 ST.

Its also quite nippy. What do you 1.6 naysayers drive normally? 2lt-turbo petrols?!!! 😆

On the slow-claims. 1st upto 2nd maybe however it corners very nicely!

Only issue is a noise from the power steering pump whilst reversing lock to lock. Covered on warranty anyway.