Best / issues with Focus for £2.5K

[MattBCardiff]

Long story but need to source a 5dr Focus or possibly 5dr Fiesta is a hurry. Its these two as it for a mates wife who is a nervous driver and she knows these, not my top choices hence I know very little about them. Know of the poor consumption on Zetecs and the DPF issues.

She'll be doing about 300miles per week so going for a diesel...anything to watch out for other than avoiding the DPF models? budget is only £2.5k so cant be too picky but needs to be solid and reliable as travelling all times of day alone.

Any common mechanical issues or body issues to know of?

Cheers all.
Matt

[CaptainCosworth]

With that budget she'll be restricted to either the lower powered diesels or higher mileage. I've driven a base spec Mk2 focus diesel and it felt rather gutless. We had an early Mk7 Fiesta 1.6 diesel, averaged around 55mpg, power was fine and no real issues other than a cracked thermostat housing which was a simple fix under warranty at the time. Reached 65k miles before coming off worse in an argument with a van, if it wasn't for that we'd have kept it a lot longer.

However, she shouldn't rule out petrol as they can be surprising economical. I had a 1.6 Zetec petrol Focus (Mk1) for years, it probably averaged about 38mpg when I commuted in town, when we moved and my commute was 50 miles a day on mainly B roads it shot up to high 40's. And in terms of reliability the 1.6 petrol is pretty much bulletproof, for her budget she could probably get a decent Mk2.

[mike80]

I've got a 55 plate MkII 2 litre petrol which has had no issues other than general wear of tyres and brakes.

It's probably worth a fair bit less than your budget as well!

[mike80]

Should add, I've had it since 2008.

[ZX10R NIN]

MattBCardiff said:

Long story but need to source a 5dr Focus or possibly 5dr Fiesta is a hurry. Its these two as it for a mates wife who is a nervous driver and she knows these, not my top choices hence I know very little about them. Know of the poor consumption on Zetecs and the DPF issues.

She'll be doing about 300miles per week so going for a diesel...anything to watch out for other than avoiding the DPF models? budget is only £2.5k so cant be too picky but needs to be solid and reliable as travelling all times of day alone.

Any common mechanical issues or body issues to know of?

Cheers all.
Matt

Hi Matt the Focus is a good reliable car yes they can suffer DPF issues the same as al diesels do if they're being used incorrectly but your mates wife is doing 300 miles a week so there shouldn't be an issue with those, the 1.8 is the better engine out of the two.

2006 Focus LX 1.8tdci 50k

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

2007 Focus Style 1.6tdci 68k

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...