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Thanks for the info - the car is being purchased on behalf of my mother in law who needs to get about but can't drive anymore. My wife will be the main driver with me named. We already have an MPV and had been looking for a smaller car for around town and for those occasions when we need to be in separate places with the kids. Sometimes therefore the car will have 3 adults and 2 young teenage children in it so the power issue could well be a factor then. Hopefully we'll see the difference later on anyway.
Edited by Mazda-Man on 15/02/2008 at 09:05
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let us know how you get on anyway
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Been offered an 07 plate (Mar 07) 1.6lx today with 11k on the clock for £9k cash by a Ford Direct dealer. There seems to be lots of offers around most tied to finance though and the dealer where we tried the 1.4lx wanted £10k for the 1.6lx on a 56 plate. Any thoughts?
Cheers.
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Been offered an 07 plate (Mar 07) 1.6lx today with 11k on the clock for £9k cash by a Ford Direct dealer. Any thoughts? Cheers.
It shows there has been little inflation in Focus prices - I paid a little more than this for a 1.8LX Mk1 in 1999! I'd be tempted.
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Having driven the 1.6 100bhp version I would agree that the 1.4 must be really underpowered. To be honest, I thought the 1.6 was lifeless compared to my 1.6 Mk1 Focus. Is the 115bhp version really that much better? I just think that the Focus II is the best all round car but is hampered by its weight.
The new Astra doesn't suffer from weight so badly. I drove the 1.4 Astra and it was fine. However, the 1.6 Astra was a lot more fun (and I don't speed).
I am just wondering which engine is best for the Focus to make it feel like the 1.6 Mk1 Focus or the latest Astra. There's also the diesels, including the 1.6TDCi but I've read mixed reports about that.
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Dads 1.6 115PS is peppy. You rev it for the real power but it does fly. Economical too. I've driven the other 1.6 and while clearly better than the 1.4 it still is short of the 115 PS model. Haven't driven the 1.6 TDCi but i did drive it in a azda 3...thought it was a bit rough to be honest...but it could be remapped for really good power. I believe 130-140 is possible so it should be on a par with the 2.0 TDCi
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Sounds like the 115 is worth it then. Cheers for that. Interesting about the TDCi too.
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I just got a focus 1.6 115 titanium 54 plate and i love it nice and powerfull great drive very smooth paid £7100 for it with 22000 on the clock ive had it 2 weeks now and still grinning its much better than a 1.4 i test drove for a weekend the 1.4 was infact terrible even around town but nice to drive at under 45 mph
go for 1.6 all ways i hear that the diesel is even better
regards tony
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Hmmm the plot thickens. Today I test drove the Mar 07 07 plate 1.6lx (11k on the clock) presuming it was the 100ps model. The screen price was £10k, less £1k discount but they'd do it on finance for £8k. Anyway the car was fine - a bit more powerful and that's about it really however on checking the paperwork back at the office the salesman told me it wasn't the 100ps model but the 115ps model afterall making it an even better buy surely or have I missed something ? This is the bit that really confuses me however - if we wanted to finance it apparently we could so so and then cancel it after 4 months without penalty and settle the difference owing which would be based on the lower £8k price obviosuly not the higher cash price. Why would they do this? Is there a catch I haven't spotted? We were thinking of paying cash but this has made us think again. Can anyone shed any light please?
Cheers.
Edited by Mazda-Man on 16/02/2008 at 15:32
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Oh - I just checked the CBCB again and it appears that the 115ps model is a belt cam not chain cam - does this add any cost/reliability issues into the equation?
TVM as always :)
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Are these cars you are trying the same ones that are being offered under the Ford Direct scheme where you order a car which is supplied from storage somewhere?
My experience was that if you look at the Ford Direct website and identify a particular car it is supplied at different prices at different dealers. If you change your nearest town in the search facility you might see what I mean. I found a disparity of nearly £1000 between two different citys 50 miles apart.
Overall the experience was good with the cars supplied to a good standard. I think most have done the 1 year rental market.
Edited by Fullchat on 16/02/2008 at 16:56
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Fullchat - I bought a Ford direct Mondeo estate a few years ago. It was indeed an ex-rental from a major hire company. Six months old with 5 thousand miles and priced at 57% of new list. Quite a bargain I thought! By the way it had a TDCi engine and was never any bother ( sorry if I might have mentioned that bit before ) ;-)
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Focus petrol cambelts used to have change intervals of 100,000 miles or 10 years. If this is the still case it shouldn't be an issue, although a colleague's did fail after 5 years and 50,000 miles.
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The cars I've been looking at have been at particular dealers on their forecourt with lots of others - no shortage of 1-2 year old Focus obviously!
Re the cambelt - would like to avoid such horrors if at all possible so would prefer a chain. Anyway if there is much of an insurance premium difference between the 100ps and 115ps we may have to go for the lower powered version of the 1.6. Will find that out tomorrow am when Tesco call to confirm the regn. details.
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I went to Ford main dealer 2 months ago to buy a 1 year old Focus 1.6LX. However I found they were offering them brand new, unregistered and with delivery mileage only at £9999. This made the second hand ones seem poor value. The LX is being phased out but there may still be some new ones around.
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Hmmm - more confusion - now I've given them the regn. the insurer has the car down as being a 100ps model NOT the 115 the garage now reckon it is. Could this be because the insurers actually treat both variants as the same for insurance purposes and their system just defaults to that designation???
I will check with the dealer however because I am keen to find out whether it is a chain cam or belt. I've scoured the web to find this out and there seems to be a great deal of confusion about it. A relatively simple question to answer I'd have thought really .......
Re payment, the garage seems to be keen that we pay the deposit and balance by debit card. Other than the obvious ease of use is there any other reason they'd suggest that method and are there any downside for us in so doing? I tend not to like using debit cards if I can avoid it but they're suggesting a £500 deposit and the balance when we're ready (it'll take a few days to get the funds into our account).
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I think it should tell you on the cam-cover or thereabouts what the PS size is...it does on the hired diesels I've had.
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Recently (about 6 months ago) paid £10k for a brand new, unregistered 1.6 Sport (100PS) including metallic paint and mudflaps (wowey woo wooo!) from a local main dealer.
Spec MUCH better than LX (you get alloys, fog lights, colour coded door handles etc, fuel computer, leather steering wheel, etc etc etc).
The 1.6 100PS jinjin is perfectly fit for purpose (2nd car, low mileage, rarely sees a motorway) and sprightly enough. No hot hatchback, but enough grunt to overtake when needed.
Beware all nearly new Fords (inc Ford Direct). Nearly all of them are ex-Hertz hire cars and have potentially been abused to oblivion and back. Don't listen to the guff they tell you about it being a "management car". And before we start the "pro's and con's of ex-hire cars" debate, it's a risk I'd personally rather not take.... I've seen how appallingly some of them get treated. Heck, I've been known to abuse the occasional hire car myself ;-)
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whoopwhoop, you are spot on, all this demonstrator stuff is rubbish. Get a new one for as little as possible. Then you know how it has been treated and fueled.
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To be fair the the dealer in question in my case, they didn't claim these vehicles were ex-demos, they simply told me they'd purchased a whole load of them from a certain supplier. I suppose I could ask who that was couldn't I.
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I'd have thought you could get a 1.6 Zetec model for the price you would be paying, you'd get a few more toys with this.
As for paying by debit card, by all means pay the deposit with this but I would never attempt to pay the remaining balance with one again. Had a bad experience doing that which resulted in the card being cut up!
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Care to expand on the debit card problem? ;) My local dealers (Bromley area) are asking £10k OSP for 56 plate zetecs - doubt I'd get them down to less than £9k from there. TBH we're not that bothered about alloys - more hassle/potential cost than they're worth IMO but the heated screen would be nice.....
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As my previous posting. If you look on this link you will see the pool of Ford Direct cars that the dealers dip in to. Presumably they are all in storage somewhere in England. There are an awful lot of cars here and what the dealers have on the forecourt are just a sample. You will also see that the registration number of the vehicle is displayed. The greatest numbers of cars are in the lower spec range - so few Ghias etc.
As I said before, you might find that if you type in a different postcode or town it will throw up a different dealer and the price will vary.
www.locator.forddirect.co.uk/default.aspx
Click on Advanced Search to define your requirements more exactly.
Where have all those cars been for their short lives to put varying amounts of mileage on?? One fleet or another and my money is on the hire fleet which is where mine came from.
Edited by Fullchat on 17/02/2008 at 18:48
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My dad bought his 1.6 Zetec from Direct Cars in Sheffield. They were very professional and had loads of examples. Currently they have 07 Sports and Zetecs at "from £7999". 07 LX at £7799. I can't remember if there was much movement on this price. It's a massive place with loads of nearly news. It's probably worth a look as it can save you £1000. Check directcars.co.uk.
Can someone offer me some advice about ex local authority fleet Focuses? Please see my thread about Toyota Corolla write off. Ta
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With regards to the Ford Direct scheme, the cars are all pretty much ex-hire cars. Cars are collected back from the hire companies after a certain period, I believe before they exceed 13k and 1 year old.
They're taken to central body shops to remove all the inevitable scratches, chips and dents from their use as hire cars. These can be surprisingly plentiful for cars that are so new, but I guess that befits their life and use. Beware though, they are not repaired to 'as new' status. They're repaired to a certain standard, as in they're still allowed x number of scratches to forward facing panels, x number of chips, etc. A close examination of the panels will tell you if the repair standard is good enough for you. Sites at which they are stored include old airfields such as Thurleigh Airfield near Bedford. I am not sure how long the average storage periods are, although flat batteries and tires aren't uncommon.
One thing of which I am aware is the Ford Direct cars can be unpopular with the dealers. From what I've heard, the premium they pay to Ford over cars they can source and touch up themselves is around £1k, and they have to purchase x number to maintain their franchise. This obviously is recouped on the screen price. If you visit dealers who do their own approved used cars, alongside the Ford Direct ones, the price difference can be interesting for cars which are obviously repaired to the same standard.
On an entirely different matter, I am also currently in the market for a nearly-new Focus and will personally avoid the Ford Direct cars for the cost reasons noted above. I have today visited a car supermarket who are selling 57 plate 1.6 Zetec (115) cars with a few thousand on the clock for £9700. When I was chatting to the saleswoman about where the cars were sourced from, she stated that the cars were all ex-Jersey hire cars. The cars were originally registered on Jersey plates for their use as hire cars, and then re-registered on UK mainland plates for sale over here.
I was wondering if anyone had any experience of this kind of setup? I presume that the cars are sent new to Jersey for some kind of tax reason, to allow a lower resale price? What would be the side effects of buying a car not initially registered on the UK mainland. Would it effect the warranty / resale price?
Thanks in advance for any help..
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Many years ago I bought a Fiesta Ghia from a Ford dealer which had been an ex Jersey hire car. No problems at all. I am sure there are some tax / profit benefits from this arrangement as I am sure there are with the Ford Direct scheme.
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Our local Benfield Ford takes deliveries of ex Jersey hire cars once a year. You see them arrive still on Jersey plates. My Focus was ex hire and I had no trouble with it.
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On Jersey you struggle to get above about 40mpg. Is 13000 miles at this sort of speed a good way to run in a new car?
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The Jersey cars only cover one summer season so very few have as many as 13,000 miles, most have done under 10,000 and many far less than that.
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Any idea what are they're doing the 07 1.6lx/Zetec for currently?
Oh and thanks for the feedback so far everyone :)
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I noticed that a Ford Main Dealer (in Morpeth Northumberland) - I think either Bristol Street or Benfield Motors - has '07 plate 1.6 LX's at £6999.
Might be worth a peep if you check the actual car over carefully. I don't like the idea of a car off daily hire, however some of these will have been out with 1 company /driver throughout.
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Seems like there's some regional difference at work here. Anyway have managed to knock the garage down another £500 so they're offering the car now at £8.5k which is only £500 more than our local Ford Direct want for the 1.4lx. on a 56 plate. The dealer seems a pucker outfit too so at this price we'll probably do the deal tomorrow morning. Thanks for the help everyone. Will let you know how it turns out......
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Just a quick update really - collected the car (07 plate 1.6 lx) on Tuesday and swmbo's very happy with it so far. Have done around 80 miles now so we're getting used to it. Glad we went for the 1.6 in the end - it was mainly M25 all the way home from the dealer so the extra power was welcome.
All in all, I'm quite impressed with the overall quality, finish and feel of the car and the wife just loves the colour :) 10/10 so far!
Thanks to everyone for the feedback and advice along the way!!! :)
Edited by Mazda-Man on 29/02/2008 at 08:20
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Is power really noeeded for M-ways? If the stream is going at 70 mph, where's the need to overtake or find power? Noise is the only issue for me.
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lol - this car is no hot hatch believe me, it's just a wee bit quicker than the 1.4 version we'd considered. As for 'all that extra power', well it comes in very handy when overtaking etc. at speeds up to the limit which I found myself having to do quite a bit on the way back along the M25 from the dealer. Actually, this car won't be used for motorways much but given the small differences in mpg between the 1.4 and the 1.6 I think it was the better option all round and it's largely thinaks to the BR that we opted for it.
:)
Edited by Mazda-Man on 29/02/2008 at 12:42
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You made the right choice going for the 1.6 rather than the 1.4 which is a bit under powered especially with a load on board. The 1.6 is a good compromise and allrounder and fairly economical to own.
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