ford focus 1.8 as my 1st car

[zombie12]

hello folks, a new driver here at the age of 26. Passed my test 3 weeks ago, been searching high and low for cars. finally came across one that suits my budget of £1000. it's a 2000 reg ford focus 1.8 5 door hatchback. I learned in a ford focus 1.6 5 door hatchback, so i'd be familiar with all the controls. can anyone tell me what the difference is between the 1.6 and the 1.8? is it a good 1st car to have? was previously looking at renault clio's because the insurance is so cheap on them but yet to find one within a 10 mile radius of where i live and under £1k. i live in the staffordshire area.

this 1.8 is going for around £695 ono. 120k mileage, kept in great condition inside and out, no scratches or dents. it's had one owner from new and the owner works for the AA, who is only selling it as she's had a new company car. has all the goodies a focus has(PAS, abs, air con, electric windows, central locking, cd/radio player ect), had a new clutch and tyres in 4 months ago. MOT runs until April 2014, has 2 months tax.

i did an insurance quote with Tescos(the cheapest i could find) and they quoted £822. found it really bizarre, as i did a quote on a 1.0 nissan micra and the insurance was just over a grand. i'm not a big fan of small cars really as i'm 17st and nearly 6ft. i tested a peugeot 206 LX 3 door, 1.4 and i felt underwhelmed by it's power when going off in 1st gear and parking a car on a hill. then i tested 3 other cars. nissan micra 1.0, felt like i almost put my foot through the car, applied way too much power and couldn't feel the clutch pulling. tested a fiat punto 1.2, which was okay(nothing to shout about) but the insurance hit me by £1400. i was wondering if Tescos don't trust small cars as young drivers tend to go for the smaller cars. last car i tested was a ford fiesta zetec 1.25 but the insurance was £1200. not bad but i felt i could find a better car with lower insurance. appears this focus 1.8 could be a winner if it works fine? i'm going to view it on Sunday with my mechanic friend.

[Viperz888]

Mk1 Focuses are great first cars, they are cheap, parts are easy to get and cheap, and they are pretty bulletproof. Fuel economy won't be much to write home about, you'll probably get mid 30's mpg, no matter how you drive (I had a slight;y older version of the engine in an Escort and could never get it under 25 no matter how hard I pushed ). They are simple enough to work on if thats what you want to get into. The only difference between the 1.6 and the 1.8 will be a bit more power - about 20bhp as far as I can remember. If it's been looked after, 120k isn't much at all.

Nothing major to look out for when you view it, the usual tyres, lights etc that i'm sure your mechanic friend will talk you through. One thing to note is that the idle control valve on zetec engines gets clogged very easily - meaning the car won't idle very well or at all. Revs will go down to near cut off, then back up to 1000, even 1500. this is a pretty easy fix, you usually won't even need a part, the valve just needs to be cleaned out with brake cleaner or petrol and then put back. It can be a bit of a hassle to reach it though, as on some engines its under the inlet manifold.

Insurance wise, to me it just seems like a complete minefield on how well you do. I think the trick is to just try as many companies as possible - ie spend an entire day phoning every company you can. Start off with the comparison sites - confused.com comparethemarket, etc. Then you will have a decent baseline to phone companies that don't sell through those sites. If you run out of ideas, get a copy of nearly any motoring magazine - there will be pages of insurance ads in the back. If your parents/close family drive, and have at least a semi clean licence, adding them to the policy will probably save you some money, as well as giving you extra drivers for emergencies etc.

Anything else you need to know, just ask

[zombie12]

thanks for the advice.

well i bought the car. got it for £475. All it needs is a new tyre, aircon needs regassing and an oil change, which hopefully won't cost much. drives very smoothly.

bit of a stupid question, but how much would a full service and aircon recharge cost?

[Viperz888]

Servicing costs very greatly depending on where you go. Best to phone some local independent garages and get some quotes, but I'd factor £100 - 150 depending on how 'full' a service you mean. On the other hand, easy peasy to do it yourself, lots of guides/advice to be found if thats your thing.

For the Aircon, I've heard kwik fit do a deal where they will only charge you for regassing the system if it actually hold pressure (IE it works). It's more common that it has a leak or is otherwise broken than just needing a regas. Aircon servicing can be very costly, so I'd say unless it is essential, leave it be. Depends on how much you want to sink into the car. Probably worth the kwik fit thing, think it costs about £60.

It's all the rage now to buy tyres online, and then get them fitted at a part worn tyre type place, could save you a few quid.

Then get some pics up

[zombie12]

went to get my car serviced today. the closest one to me was kwik fit as two of my tyres had low tread and didn't want to risk getting caught. so i made the mistake of doing a full service at £145, although they had discount on air con recharge £39. could have done it myself for half the price if i knew how to do it. had brake fluids changed for £30. they tried to con me by saying these repairs will cost me £996, telling me the car is so badly damaged it won't make it out of the garage and should have been written off when it had it's MOT in April 2013.

1)OSR brake pipe rusted - they refused to fix it/give a price
2)OSF drop link broken - £135.20
3)OSR/NSR droplink broken/perished - £106.80
4)inner steering rack gaitor split NSF - £75.00
5)flexi pipe movement - £78.20
6)OSF spring broken - £76.60
7)both front tyres had low tread - £111.50
8)NSF/OSF brake pipes starting to rot - refused to fix it/give a price
9)middle & backbox starting to rot - £189.20
10)both rear springs rotted - £144.60
11)geo alignment alter suspension work - £349.95

so i asked to see underneath the car because i didn't believe a word he said. i told him there was no way i was paying over the odds and just asked him to do my tyres and i'll be on my way. so i got home and did a little research. my Haynes manual hasn't arrived yet so i'm just going off observations of what i saw and a bit of research on car part prices. i think i made the right decision not to get ripped off.

1)the brake pipes were rusting a little and could do with replacing. i checked car parts online these cost between £10-15.
2)from my observational understanding these just looked like nuts and bolts that needed knocking back in with a hammer/wrench or simply replaced.
3)i can get these drop links for about £5/10 each.
4)i can get 2 of these for around £25.
5)if i shop around for a new one i could probably get it for around £40/60? not sure on this one.
6) they weren't broken,felt pretty solid to me, perhaps a connection with the drop link? again not sure.
7)paid for, otherwise i'd be driving illegally.
8)same as number 1.
9) i believe this is the exhaust. from my own knowledge of cars, exhaust pipes are usually replaced every two years. these could cost between £25 to £60? not sure. but it wasn't as bad as he was making out, just means my car may sound a little louder until i get it replaced.
10) he was full of st, i rubbed my hand on them and they were just muddy. no red dust on my hands, in fact they went oily and black.
11)no idea what this is. sounds like something to do with wheels needing to be aligned, £349?? sounds as if the figure was plucked out of the air.

i drove it home for about 2 miles. i felt no pulling to the sides. suspension wasn't rough, brakes worked well(the road was very wet), steering was fine and i drove up to 50mph, which is the fastest i've gone in this car yet.

so really, the most i could pay for these parts is around £160? i have my uncles mate who would fit all the parts for me without extensive labour costs.

also noticed a small clover chip which has just scratched the surface, no bigger than 2mm on my windscreen, not in my driving view. covered on insurance but i can get a repair kit for around £11. cheaper than getting auto glass to do it and sending my insurance company the bill. might as well train myself to be a mechanic if i'm going to get garages attempting to rip me off. expensive game if you're naive and haven't a clue about cars.

[deeen]

The giveaway is your last point - a full 4 wheel geo check and adjustment on a TVR cost me £120. I would find someone to do a simple tracking check on the front for your car, £35 / £40 (if it needs adjusting), might slow wear on front tyres.

[mnkiboy]

You've learnt the rule that a lot of us learn in the first year or two of driving - Kwik Fit are fine for tyres if you need them at short notice, but don't get them to do any other work as they're way over priced.

Find a local independent garage if you need any work doing. If the car's driving fine at the moment then hopefully you won't need to visit a garage until next MOT time.

I've had 3 different versions of the MK1 Focus and I think they're great cars. The biggest issue tends to be rust, so keep an eye on the trailing edge and bottom of the doors, and also around the strip above the rear numberplate. If you find rust, treat it before it gets worse.

[Rickyy]

Those prices are way out! All of those faults are to be expected of a car that age and probably don't require immediate attention, I'd get the springs looked at though, by an independant garage. My Focus failed on a cracked rear spring one year.

I've had two Mk1 Focuses, a 1.8 and a 2.0. I'd actually go for the 1.8 if I were to buy another, seemed more responsive and much better on fuel!

My 1.8 was relatively trouble free, wheel bearing and drop links used to fail every 20k though, mainly because I bought non OEM-replacements. Failed an MOT on emissions one year because of the Lambda sensor.

My 2.0 had a few more issues, mainly due to neglect and I think someone must have slid the OSR wheel into a kerb, as I had to replace a buckled wheel, spring and calliper slider on that side. The thermostat housing was leaking and I split the top rigid coolant pipe whilst levering a screwdriver against it trying to reposition the exhaust heatshield, the pipe let go in an extreme fashion a few days later!

I'd definitely get the 4 wheel geometry checked, cost me £60 and transformed the car completely.