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Ford Focus Estate - 1.0 Ecoboost vs 1.6 TDCI - Ten_shunts
I need an estate car. Budget is £3000. Need to keep running costs to an absolute minimum. Ford Focus estate seems to meet my requirements with a decent reliabilty record and less expensive repairs than rivals. They're more common and cheaper to buy too.

For my budget I can get early ecoboost models, a variety of diesels and normally aspirated petrols.

The normal petrols will cost me about £360-400 per year more to run based on tax and mileage than an ecoboost or diesel. I intend to keep the car for at least 3 years, so the lower running costs would save me over a grand by year 3.

However, the ecoboost and diesels introduce complications that are more likely to affect cars at the age and mileage I'm looking at. Turbo/injector/dpf problems could easily cost more in repairs than the savings made on tax and fuel.

It's a risk vs reward I'm still weighing up and it applies to most other makes and models when it comes to the choice between petrol or diesel.

My question specifically related to the Fords though are ecoboost vs TDCI. The ecoboost won't have DPF problems, and hopefully less soot/carbon issues than a diesel. Both could suffer turbo issues though. I've read plenty of owner experiences of the ecoboost turbo being a problem, but I can't tell if it's any more likely/expensive than typical diesel turbo problems.

My wife has owned two ecoboost fords but both were new PCP deals so never went wrong in the time we had them. Both were punchy and enjoyable to drive for 1.0 petrols so I'm tempted.

Big difference between her brand new cars and the 100k plus 12 year old cars in my budget though.

Which would be the safer bet for reliabilty and potential repair costs, the ecoboost or the TDCI? The TDCI would save me slightly more in fuel, but obviously introduced a DPF which is a big potential drawback over the ecoboost.

Thanks for any help, all opinions welcome and appreciated.



Ford Focus Estate - 1.0 Ecoboost vs 1.6 TDCI - Xileno

Of the two the TDCI would probably be a bit safer but it's a bit like the devil or the deep blue sea.

You might find a Focus with the 1.6 Yamaha engine in this budget. I think it was fitted to the estate.

Ford Focus Estate - 1.0 Ecoboost vs 1.6 TDCI - Adampr

What usage pattern and how many miles a year? Unless you're on long motorway trips, I would go for one of the normally aspirated petrols. I had a MK2.5 1.6 estate; it was great but quite thirsty, especially at high speeds (it was an auto, so that didn't help).

Ford Focus Estate - 1.0 Ecoboost vs 1.6 TDCI - Ten_shunts
Short school run 5 days a week, no work commute. Fortnightly 100 mile round-trip motorway runs and a bit of varied urban/motorway driving at other times. I live quite rural so a lot of national speed limit A roads and slower/bendy B roads.

What are the normally aspirated petrols like for overtaking? Just replied to another comment asking the same, I've read they're a bit sluggish and I worry it'll make my regular tractor/lorry passing a bit more stressful.

Ford Focus Estate - 1.0 Ecoboost vs 1.6 TDCI - Ten_shunts
Thanks and I know, I've been racking my brain over it for a while and can't make a decision.

I've looked at Kia Ceed's and Skoda Octavia's too. All 3 cars offer similar savings vs potential problems.

I'm edging towards the simplicity of a normally aspirated petrol, higher running costs are a little easier to manage than a sudden high repair bill.

My concern is reviews for all 3 suggest the 1.6 petrols are sluggish and lack acceleration. I drive a lot of rural/single carriage way roads so need to overtake slow vehicles often. I appreciate the confidence a bit of poke gives me when I need it.

Have you driven the 1.6 Yamaha and is it nippy or lacking in that department?
Ford Focus Estate - 1.0 Ecoboost vs 1.6 TDCI - corax
Have you driven the 1.6 Yamaha and is it nippy or lacking in that department?

I've got one, the 1.6 Ti VCT 105. 0-60 12.8 seconds. It's a quiet, smooth running engine that revs sweetly. However, you have to have your wits about you if wanting to overtake. The valve timing is quite abrupt. The car is quite lethargic when moving off from a standstill, then the valve timing kicks in and it livens up. It's almost like an old school turbo. My previous Avensis 1.8 petrol had a much more subtle system that you couldn't really feel, and felt gutsier at low revs with no sudden transition.

If I was using it to meet fast traffic on motorways/dual carriageways all the time then it wouldn't be my first choice, it's lacking in that situation. However I use it mainly for driving on B roads so it's not really an issue.

On the plus side it's a tough, reliable engine with none of the complication of your two other engine choices. But you would have to test drive one and see what you think. Once it's running at above 2k revs it's lively enough. Cruising at high speed is no problem, and the MK3 Focus is refined and quiet. It's just getting there!

Ford Focus Estate - 1.0 Ecoboost vs 1.6 TDCI - elekie&a/c doctor
With a 3k budget you need to keep it simple. No diesels , no powershift autos or robotic manuals and no wet belt engines.
Ford Focus Estate - 1.0 Ecoboost vs 1.6 TDCI - badbusdriver

There are two separate "power" measurements in a car, bhp and torque. A turbo, whether petrol or diesel, means more torque at lower revs. That in turn means if you put your foot down at, say 2-3k rpm, you will get a much better response than if you did the same with a n/a petrol. Once the rpm gets higher, the benefit of the turbo (vs n/a) diminishes. So, if you have a n/a petrol with the same power, using a lower gear and not changing up till the point where maximum bhp arrives* will give broadly similar results. You just have to get used to driving it different to how you would a turbo.

I'm not saying that a 1.6 Focus estate is particularly nippy, more that the difference in performance between it and a turbo equivalent of similar bhp (and weight), isn't going to be as big as you think if you drive it in the manner needed to extract the most of what it has.

We used to have a Honda Jazz and it had very little torque (and what it did have peaked at 5k rpm!), but if you go to where the power is (4.5-6k rpm), actually surprisingly nippy.

For what its worth, I live in Nort East Scotland and am rarely on anything other than single carriageway roads. Never found too much difficulty overtaking in various cars over the years, most of which would generally be considered slow/underpowered (hopelessly so in some cases!) by the majority of drivers.

*That would be 6000rpm in the case of a late (n/a) Focus 1.6 (125bhp)

Ford Focus Estate - 1.0 Ecoboost vs 1.6 TDCI - John F
. My concern is reviews for all 3 suggest the 1.6 petrols are sluggish and lack acceleration. I drive a lot of rural/single carriage way roads so need to overtake slow vehicles often. I appreciate the confidence a bit of poke gives me when I need it. Have you driven the 1.6 Yamaha and is it nippy or lacking in that department?

Yes, our Mk1 Focus estate 1.6 Zetec was nippy enough. It had the reliable maintenance free 4F27E Mazda/Ford 4 speed autobox which provided skill-free gear changes at max revs ensuring maximum use of available power for overtaking. I don't know when this excellent TC g/box was discontinued and replaced by the troublesome 'powershift'. Anyway, there were no powertrain problems till it was sc***ped at over 160,000 miles -original cambelt and third set of spark plugs. Overall mpg 36-37.

Ford Focus Estate - 1.0 Ecoboost vs 1.6 TDCI - SLO76
Wouldn’t touch either at this money. The Ecoboost in particular is a fragile thing with an awful reputation for failures, it will almost certainly cost you much more than an equivalent Focus with the robust Yamaha designed 1.6 petrol. The diesels suffer from a number of costly problems as they age, most of which you’ll almost be guaranteed to suffer from at this age and money. Above all keep it simple, forget turbos, diesels, complex automated manual gearboxes or prestige brands and cast your net as wide as possible, don’t stick with just one make and model.
Ford Focus Estate - 1.0 Ecoboost vs 1.6 TDCI - Big John

1.0 Ecoboost of that age will be a ticking timebomb re cooling system or cambelt in oil. Even if the later survives at 10 years old the routine replacement cost is very expensive as originally it wasn't designed to be replaced as a service item. It's a strip down job. Usually though it's even worse in that ahead of time the cam belt fails either causing major engine damage due to valve/piston contact or major engine damaged by oil starvation due to cam belt debris blocking oil pump pickup strainer.

1.6 TDCI at that age can have expensive DPF issues and/or oil starvation due to blocked oilways/gauze usually taking out the turbo first.

As mentioned further up the thread the 1.6 Yamaha petrol is known to be sturdy, albeit slightly thirstier.

A particular favorite of mine hat fit's the OP's budget these days is the 2011 1.6mpi petrol Skoda Octavia run out model that was available as an estate. Simple bullet proof technology.

How about looking at other manufacturers such as Toyota, Mazda, Kia, Hyundai. Nowadays sadly £3k is getting close to banger territory.

As SLO said re cars at this age/budget keep it simple and probably not diesel!

Edited by Big John on 28/02/2024 at 23:57

Ford Focus Estate - 1.0 Ecoboost vs 1.6 TDCI - Ten_shunts
Thank you all for your replies.

Well it's settled, I'll heed the advice given and stick to normally aspirated petrols. I'll also extend my search to cars other than the Focus.

Cheers!