Mk.2 Ford Focus

[NiceCupOfTea]

Looking for a medium Focus-sized family hatch for Mrs.NCoT, so thought a Focus seemed the obvious choice!

Budget is £3-4k, and requirements are:

• 5 doors
• Decent spec (looking at Titanium or Ghia)
• Miles under 80k or so
• Petrol

Are there any obvious gotchas? Coming from a Puma, so looking for something that isn't going to rust in front of our eyes, and have a reasonable amount of poke. I think the 1.6 will probably be a disappointment but ISTR the Mk.1 Focus petrol engines were a bit weak. What are the 1.8 / 2.0 offerings like, or would the 1.6 be OK?

Seems also that there aren't too many about bizarrely, really struggled on the PH website to find anything decent.

[BertB]

I didn't know there were two versions of the petrol 1.6 and ended up with the slower one and it really is slow.

One common fault I've read about is the control cable for the heater (temp) dial weakens and folds over on itself. Turn it to full heat and see if it moves back towards cold or there is resistance

[A3tdi]

2007
Titanium
Hatchback
35,000 miles
Manual
1.6LPetrol


AutoTrader.

[Camaro]

Read up on the engines. I have a Mk2.5 which has an updated interior as well as front and rear bumpers. My Mk2.5 has the 1.8 Petrol which actually has chain cams. After having two cars with belts snap before their service time, this was very much a peace of mind thing.

[NiceCupOfTea]

A3tdi said:

2007
Titanium
Hatchback
35,000 miles
Manual
1.6LPetrol


AutoTrader.

OK, should have said - also within striking distance of SE London as we don't have the time to go any further afield. Prefering 1.8 and 2.0 cars as well (although that depends on what I find about the engines - any more info?)

I suppose what I meant is that there were fewer than I expected, especially on PH.

[Jonny_]

I had the more powerful 1.6 version a while ago (06 plate), that went reasonably well although not what you'd call a fast car. Much nicer to drive than the lower powered 1.6 even though there's barely 15hp difference.

They used to let water into the boot via the rear light clusters and the dials on mine occasionally went mental (random fuel/temp/speed/rpm indication).

[oobster]

Had a 57-plate 2.0TDCi Ghia a few years ago, had a minor recurring problem with the metal rod detaching itself from the back of the heater controls on the dash, ended up getting the Ford Tech to show me how to fix it myself as it was happening every 2-3 weeks.

Major problem though was a pretty bad water leak into the cabin - drivers side footwell. Had a Ford main dealer look at it (3 times, each time the car was with them for >48hrs, over a week on one occasion.) Also had autoglass remove, check and replace the windscreen, and I then took it to an independant garage who reported back that they were 99% sure it was a failed weld on the bulkhead between the dash and the engine bay. They took some mobile phone footage of them putting a hose down a hole (i.e. a manufactured hole - not one created by rust!) in the bit where the winscreen wiper motor and mechanism was located, and the footage showed water pouring into the drivers footwell with the carpet peeled back.

The independant garage were recommending me spending a few hundred quid to strip the driver wing off the car, and perhaps the dashboard too. By this time i'd had enough of the hassle and expense, and was in a position to be able to trade it in. I only hope the new owner was handy with spanners etc and sorted the problem themselves cheaply.

I vowed at the time to not buy another Focus, but ended up buying a MK2 Green RS (which had 3 or 4 minor niggles in my 6 months of ownership) then bought a brand new 2012 MK3 ST in September last year that has broken-down twice, incompetent dealer eventually found a problem with the electrical wiring in the engine bay rubbing off the gearbox casing and shorting out.

If I ever post a thread on PH in the future asking anyone's opinion about buying a Focus, please find me and shoot me right in the middle of my face. Twice, just to make sure.