Focus ST170 a good buy or not

[FordMadAndy]

Looking to replace our Almera 1.4 shed as it is one bad day away from the scrapyard. So I have a bag of sand (£1000) budget and although the car is only going to be used for station run and trips to B&Q, the dump etc I want to have a bit of fun and as I have owned a couple of mk1 focus's I know they drive reasonably well and are pretty much bullet prove reliable.

Has anyone on here made a second hand purchase of a ST170, possible future classic worth holding on to ???? or just a future shed ?

[Alan_I_W]

FordMadAndy said:

Looking to replace our Almera 1.4 shed as it is one bad day away from the scrapyard. So I have a bag of sand (£1000) budget and although the car is only going to be used for station run and trips to B&Q, the dump etc I want to have a bit of fun and as I have owned a couple of mk1 focus's I know they drive reasonably well and are pretty much bullet prove reliable.

Has anyone on here made a second hand purchase of a ST170, possible future classic worth holding on to ???? or just a future shed ?

Drove one for a couple of months while our Galaxy was being operated on in 2002. Fantastic car. Everyone said it was down on power but you won't think so coming out of an Almera. You've owned a couple of Focus's so you know how nice the handling is. For 1k avoid the 3 door like the plague, they're ALL boy racer cars. The 5 door is usually better condition and in my opinion nicer to look at. Look out for lambda sensors, foggy projector headlights. You may want to find one with the smoked headlights as they don't fog up as bad. Look for recent clutch changes as a new clutch will be around £500. Parts are easy to find. I'd get one with a standard stereo as it shows it may not have been a boy racers car. Hope this helps.

[AdamIndy]

Alan_I_W said:

Drove one for a couple of months while our Galaxy was being operated on in 2002. Fantastic car. Everyone said it was down on power but you won't think so coming out of an Almera. You've owned a couple of Focus's so you know how nice the handling is. For 1k avoid the 3 door like the plague, they're ALL boy racer cars. The 5 door is usually better condition and in my opinion nicer to look at. Look out for lambda sensors, foggy projector headlights. You may want to find one with the smoked headlights as they don't fog up as bad. Look for recent clutch changes as a new clutch will be around £500. Parts are easy to find. I'd get one with a standard stereo as it shows it may not have been a boy racers car. Hope this helps.

Most of this is true. The 3 door being a boy racer car, not so much. They genuinely are a bargain car, I know most will disagree.

I have had mine for 6 years now, it's a 3 door with an alpine stereo. I bought it with 52k and it has now done 92k. By far and away the most reliable car I have ever owned.

I did the clutch and flywheel myself and the cost of parts alone was around £500 as said above. If I did it again I would put a ttv racing solid flywheel in it.

If you are willing to use all of the revs, they aren't slow. All of the power is above 5500rpm up until the 7200 redline. Keep it there and progress can be made.

GENUINE Ford service parts are cheap if bought off the interweb, GENUINE oil can be had for £22 for 5litres, a set of genuine plugs for around £20, main stealers will charge £20 EACH for them!!

My car has done a trackday, driven me around the country many times, taken me hooning around Wales, tip runs and daily duties. It has never once gone wrong. It doesn't use any oil even after getting hammered around silverstone.

The engine and box are very strong and the chassis's are still very sharp. All in all, a very good bargain do-everything car. The only major thing to look for is rust. Sills, rear chassis legs and rear arches.