|
Might buy Mrs Bob an old model (brand new) Focus as I've heard there's lots around that Ford needs to shift going cheap, cheap, cheap. Anyone point me in the right direction and what's the best engine for a bit of punch and fuel consumption ? Thanks in advance. Bob.
|
Where to begin.
Don't be seduced into thinking the 1.4 is economical. It does not shift the car at all. I personally think the 1.6 is a bit slow but it's a nice revvy engine and people who have them seem to like them.
The 1.8 is uncharacteristically thirsty. Of the 2.0 ones I have driven, I can't say it's felt much different to mine although there does seem to be a little more pull at certain points through the rev range. Unnoticable for the most part.
Because of this, I would suggest a TDCi. Absolutely fantastic engines - loads of grunt and economical. Whatever size you want is up to you. I'm afraid I can't comment reliably too much on them but I'd be tempted to plump for a larger one.
You'll be shocked and amazed as to how much power those diesels have. I certainly was.
--
Adam
|
|
I got rid of a 1.8 zetec about 2 weeks ago and had 2 years of great motoring with it. Agree with Adski that it was thirsty (25-30mpg at best). Great to drive tho and never had any problems with it.
|
1.4 and 1.6 very crisp and free revving though not quick, 1.8 and 2.0 punchier, 2.0 really quite sporty, likely to be as, if not more, economical than the 1.8. TDCi's very refined, TDCi 115 pretty quick. TDCi 115 and 2.0 petrol benefit from rear disc brakes.
If performance is not an issue 1.6 Zetec is a great allrounder.
|
2 litre petrol Ghia. Good torque characteristics ~ no need for high engine speeds or lots of frantic gear changing. Comfortable. Has most of the goodies that you could ever wish for.
I much prefer the flatter Ghia seats to the bucket seat variants (which feel like you are sitting on the rim of a bucket!), but I realise that not everyone agrees with me on this. Make sure that the seats suit your personal preference.
--
L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
|
|
|
|
|
Interested in Adski's thoughts. I briefly had a 1.6 Zetec. It was less than a year old, and I ran it for nine months. Maybe my ex-Motability car, with less than 1000 miles covered, was not run in. I don't know why but I just found it gutless. It needed two downward changes to go up hills. When not going uphill it was a flier. Apart from that it was fine, except that it didn't have much of a boot, and the airbag cover in front of the driver reflected sunlight. Alao, its petrol consumption was not a lot better than the Mondeo with a bigger engine. The problem was I sold my 2.0 Mondeo to get this, and its performance characteristics were so different. I should not have expected to be happy with a smaller car with smaller engine, but eventually I accepted it was not right for me, and bought a one year old diesel Mondeo, which suits me. A friend drove the Focus and loved it, and had he not just replaced a stolen car, would have bought it off me.
|
oldpostie,
I'd agree with your post. It all depends what you're coming from. Most of the people I know who drive a 1600 have traded up from a Fiesta and Saxo so it's good to them. Trading down from a 2.0 Mondeo is going to make you think it's quite slow. I did feel the need to pretty much plant my foot to the floor to get anywhere but as you say - on a level road, it did fly.
If it were me, I wouldn't get smaller than a 1.8 but as Cheddar says, for the power gains, the 2.0 is worth considering as it's not as uneconomical as you might think looking at the 1.8.
--
Adam
|
|
|
|
Where are we on automatics here. I have long thought Fords now offer a good deal in Focus and Mondeo, but talk of fragile autoboxes worries me. How good and relaible are the Focus autos?
|
I bought my wife a 9 month old Focus 1.6 Zetec from a car supermarket with 12000 miles on it.
It has been so far a really great car.
My observations are that 5 th gear on this model is a very TALL gear, giving low revs on the motorway but making the car seem slightly gutless under up hill driving on minor roads. Other than this the engine is quiet smooth but expects to be revved to get any sporty performance.
Fuel consumption is good, and I can certainly live with the car in general even though I drive an A4 130 BHP diesel which seems very powerful compared to the Ford.
There are great deals to be had on these cars and I would recommend them for VFM.
|
|
|
|
Father in law has got a three year old Focus 1.6 auto, low mileage so lots of stop-start short journeys, it has been fine to date.
|
|
Before buying a 1.8 Zetec, I tried the 1.6. The power figures are very similar, but there was a notable difference between the performance of the two. I opted for the 1.8 purely for this reason, and it was only about £300 more than an equivalent 1.6.
|
One of my offspring has the Focus Zetec 1.8 TDCI (03) - plenty of in-gear get up and go, super handling and ride and excellent fuel consumption.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
|
Everyone's favouring the TDCi, and I'll give it it's due, it's a fab engine that really suits the way the Focus goes about it's business, but the initial price of the TDCi is much higher than the petrol engined cars. For this reason I'd be considering 1.6/8/2.0.
It can be debated all day, but for the average car in this class the 1.6 (which appears to have been taking a bit of a hammering here) is absolutely fine. It sits in insurance group 5 (2 groups lower than 1.8), I get 42mpg from mine doing a mix of town/country road driving, and performance is enough to keep up with most traffic, and safely overtake the 30-mph'ers that wander my country roads.
You seemed concerned about economy (and therefore cost of ownership in general) so I thought I'd make a similar case (but assume this car is slow - it doesn't feel it - and perhaps that's more important than actual figures sometimes), and for overall cost of ownership, the 1.6 is the best buy IMHO. But then I own one, so I'm converted :P.
|
If you'd only asked this a couple of months back, the dealership that I worked for was selling brand new Focus Edge (the better spec run-out model) 1.8 TDCi 115 3 doors for £10,800 including the metallic. As you can imagnine they flew out of the door seeing as secondhand ones were going for the same money.
I wouldn't imagine there are many left now, Ford ceased production of old Focus months ago and there wasn't much left when I resigned from my job at the beginning of March, nearly two more months have passed now, so if anything is left it's likely to be a pretty nasty colour! Honour Green springs to mind, urgh!
Blue
|
The place where my parents got their Focus Flight from in late 2002 has a couple of old shape Foci in stock still.
www.pwmillar.co.uk
£11k for a 1.6 Ghia hatch, £10k for a 1.6 LX (both metallic) or £9k for a 1.8 LX saloon in solid red.
www.directford.co.uk is doing some nice deals on diesels, at least according to their website.
The 1.6 took about 8k miles to be run in and until then it felt utterly gutless. It still needs to be revved but isn't too slow when you put your foot down, and gives just under 40 mpg (dropping to 36 if driven hard). If you're not a performance driver, I'd say it's adequate, although I dread to think what it would be like with 25 bhp less.
|
|
|
|
|
