A trade centre near me has plenty of one year old new Focus 'Trend' Tdci 90s. They look to be good value at 12000 Euros (about 7,800 pounds??) with 18000kms (about 12000 miles)on them. The estate is 13000 euros. They will have and one years factory gaurantee left on them. They will be due their first service after being bought.
I was just wondering if this car feels underpowered, it having the smallest power output on the new Focus diesel range???
Any experiences???
This centre is in Grenoble, France. You often see good deals on good cars in which the French have little interest, e.g. Fords, Skodas, Nissans. The French buy French cars.' Why'would start a very interesting thread.
You can take a look at ac38.com
Then click on 'notre stock'
The word 'break' means estate. Otherwise, you should understand I think. Cheers and thanks to all for the pleasure of reading your
postings.
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The Ford Focus 90hp version has 0-60 in 12.6 secs and the 108hp has 0-60 in 10.8. The equivalently powered 307s are 90hp 0-60 in 12.5 secs and 110hp 0-60 in 11.1, both diesels, obviously. I drive a 110 Hdi and find it fine but I think 90hp might seem a bit underpowered, to anybody!
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Whether it 'feels underpowered' is surely subjective and dependant on what you are driving at the moment. It'll be a rocket machine compared to an old 2cv for example. For me the 1.6TDCI felt underpowered when I drove one recently. It was very nice but I was 'used to' having rather more power so I've ordered the 2.0TDCI.
You have to test drive it in order to get a 'feeling'.
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I have only driven the 110 and in a C-Max, see the "Ford Focus Engines" thread, though the 90 apparently gives the Fiesta very spritely performance so must be OK in a Focus.
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Its ok. I've driven a hired one which had very few hundred miles on it. It was very tight but still quite a drivable little motor on the As and Bs I drove on. We actually ended up hiring the very same car (by chance) a couple of months later by this time the mileage had climbed into thousands and the car had loosened a lot and drove a lot better. Not in BMW country of course but then we know that.
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I agree. I was happy with the old Cavalier Isuzu diesel for years - don't know what that was but it was certainly less than 90 horses. You just got used to driving it at the level of which it was capable. Now have the 130 Mondeo TDCi which was a revelation - and still is in many ways. Don't suppose I'd choose anything less than that, now.
Splodgeface
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I have driven a Focus 1.6 TDCi LX for the last month covering 3500 miles of heavy London traffic as well as fast motorway journeys. So far it's been perfectly fine. I was a bit disapointed when it turned up (it's a hire car while I order a company car) but it's reasonably impressive.
It will quite happily hold its own in most traffic situations and when you do need to overtake it reacts very well. You do need to use the gears a bit and it would certainly benefit having 6 rather than 5 speeds.
Unless you really want something very quick, I reckon it's worth considering.
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It's not the HP that gives the acceleration;it's the torque and there is plenty of that.
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It's not the HP that gives the acceleration;it's the torque and there is plenty of that.
When we first got our Xantia, torque from the engine made up for the drop in power that we had experienced with the two Alfa's, so the performance loss was not noticeable in real life driving. I do notice the difference with the C5 having so much more power and torque, but the Xantia's XUD engine is such a lovely unit that the car is still a joy to drive on country lanes.
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>>it's the torque and there is plenty of that.>>
Plus knowing exactly when to change up...:-)
Which is what many people don't understand about diesels.
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>>The French buy French cars.' Why'would start a very interesting thread.>>
Brainwashed patriotism almost from birth I would imagine.
Always struck me that the French look after number one....:-)
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>>The French buy French cars.' Why'would start a very interesting thread.>> Brainwashed patriotism almost from birth I would imagine. Always struck me that the French look after number one....:-)
Why do so many people in this country buy Fords? It is because of the history of manufacture in this country, so lots of the people buying them thought they were buying a British product. Many still do to this day, I would think.
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Because Fords are pretty reliable, cheap spares are readily available at motor factors as well as dealers and they are cheap to maintain & service.
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The other thing is that Fords are now actually very good cars. I was put off Fords for years by an Excort 1.8 TD, made enough noise to wake the dead. Awful on-off power delivery. Nasty horrid thing.
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The other thing is that Fords are now actually very good cars. I was put off Fords for years by an Excort 1.8 TD, made enough noise to wake the dead. Awful on-off power delivery. Nasty horrid thing.
Back in the late 80s/early 90s, my employer offered a choice of a 309 or Escort to some of its employees. Now the 309 was not a great looking car but it was lovely to drive, with a much better ride than an Escort. Lots of the staff concerned still went with the Escort, even though it was a poor car in many ways, at the time.
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I had no choice with my first company car a lovely 1.8d M reg Escort and have hated Ford ever since
My favourite memory is heading south out of Inverness on the A9
which involves a long hill section followed by a slight dip then a steeper long hill stretch
I used to look longingly at the HGVS and Transits overtaking me
I've driven 90bhp TD's in various different cars for many miles and unless the new shape Focus is carrying bricks in the back it should be OK in my opinion
One skill the Escort did teach me was to constantly look ahead and anticipate, and at age 23 it probably kept me safer than something more powerfull
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I had no choice with my first company car a lovely 1.8d M reg Escort and have hated Ford ever since
I imagine there are still lots of drivers of company cars who still do not get any choice and, in many cases, it will be limited to Ford or Vauxhall. Better cars nowadays, of course.
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Because Fords are pretty reliable, cheap spares are readily available at motor factors as well as dealers and they are cheap to maintain & service.
Exactly what I have found with the PSA cars I have had. Perhaps the French find the same with their own cars too.
Personally, I find it hard to understand why a Ford, in France, would be any cheaper for spares and service than a Peugeot or Citroen would be.
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Agree wholeheartedly, Machika. Any small garage in France can fix your Renault or Peugeot quickly and cheaply. Or you can wait a week for parts from Opel/Vauxhaul, as I found when my Vectra was broken into while on holidays in Brittany.
As for Citroen, I asked a French friend about them (she has a relative working for the PSA group) whose answer was "Oh, Citroen, nobody drives them at home any more".
People generally buy what they know, which is why Ireland is full of VWs bought for their reputed reliability, and the Germans kept far, far away from Fords until the Focus came along and coaxed them out of their Opels...
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