My Shed Mk1 Focus Ghia

[MC Bodge]

greenarrow said:

Honest truth, I would have more confidence pushing that old Focus down my local back roads in the wet than the BMW, which I just don't trust on slippery, bumpy surfaces thanks to those tyres. Yep, point to point on those narrow lanes I am sure the Focus would be faster!!! Go figure....

I can believe it.

[Eyersey1234]

greenarrow said:

So, quick update. The shed Focus is still going but the MOT is due in the next 2 weeks! She has developed a leak- I think perhaps one of the gutters is blocked - but haven't got that sorted yet. Anyway my daughter (the new keeper) has a job delivering for Dominos so the Focus is doing quite a few miles now, being hammered down back roads, farm tracks and so on. Anyway, she doesn't miss a beat- still. These old Focus' are like tanks, they just keep going.

Anyway, I bought a F10 3 series in May and enjoy it very much - BUT, a drive the other day in the Focus showed a few things I am missing! After I had re-adjusted to the very high driving position compared with a 3 series and the awful brakes, I quickly enjoyed the feelsome steering (loads better than the BMW), the responsive n/a petrol engine (the 318d is a typical laggy 4 pot diesel) and of course the supple ride. The BMW comes on run-flats and skips over bumps and ridges. The focus of course just flows over anything bumpy.

Honest truth, I would have more confidence pushing that old Focus down my local back roads in the wet than the BMW, which I just don't trust on slippery, bumpy surfaces thanks to those tyres. Yep, point to point on those narrow lanes I am sure the Focus would be faster!!! Go figure....

I can believe it too.

[greenarrow]

So the Focus went for its MOT today and the news wasn't too bad. Yes it failed, but only on two things. A rear fog light bulb(I swear those things last about 5 mins, they seem to fail every year) and the manifold has basically gone which I suspected as its been a bit on the noisy side for nearly a year now. The bad news is there is now an advisory on the nearside rear trailing arm bush. Last year it cost me an arm and a leg to get the offside one done because the bolts were rusted. So I am thinking we may not get through next year's MOT and it might be time then to move the car on to someone else....

Anyway, the Focus will live on for another year, what a trooper it has been and its quite a rare Mk1 because there are still no rust advisories!! Not many MK1 Focus' left now that have yet to be welded and no rust advisories on the MOT after 21 years!!

What a trooper!

[greenarrow]

Not sure if anyone still reads these old readers cars posts but the focus passed another MOT today. 22 years old now and just a broken track rod end and the usual bulbs (the fog light bulbs go every year it seems!).

My 21 year old has owned it since May 2021 and it gets used hard. Domino delivery car thrashed down unmade Dorset roads five days a week. Still hasn't had a proper service now since 2018 or earlier (one oil change in 2020 aside). Also regular trips to stoke or Manchester from East dorset.

Such uncomplicated tough cars.

Got rust starting in the inner sills now so may let her go with a 12 month ticket and upgrade to a mk 2 focus we've seen......My daughter loves her focus. Not many gen z girls would put up with a 22 year old shed!!!

Edited by greenarrow on Monday 1st August 20:32

[Mr Tidy]

That's impressive, and it's always interesting to read later updates.

[Alfa Pete]

Keep the updates coming.
My girlfriend’s 2003 1.6 Zetec is still going. It just did a 300 mile round trip this weekend.
It needs another rheostat for the blower motor, the drivers door handle requires a certain knack to open the door , but it still drives well.

[R5kst]

greenarrow said:

thebigmacmoomin said:

greenarrow said:

Not sure how long I will keep it tbh. My wife hates it. She has a chronic bad back and says that non sporty Fords lack any sort of lumbar support. She simply hates riding in it! She has a Fiesta ST with the recaro seat and so I've been looking for a tidy 5 door Mk1 ST170 - but they just don't seem to be about - all the ones that pop up seem to be knackered....

The Zetec spec seats were a lot better than the Ghia spec seats. The Zetec ones are the same as the Focus RS seats just with a different headrest.

That's interesting because I've also owned a Mk1 Zetec in the past and the wife said the seats were bad on that one too. Are you sure it has similar seats to the RS? They look pretty similar to Ghia ones to me, just without the velour covering.

I had the RS too and the seats were bloody awful in it, in fact i think they were the first RS that were non recaro. didnt stop me keeping it 7 years and a 22 hr drive to Spain and back, but TBH if the seats were better would probably still have it. The CS recaros in the mk2 were so much better. Still love the mk1 RS and look out for my old one. Where are you R5 BVM?...

[Philibuster]

Definitely keep the updates coming! Love reading about old sheddy cars. More interesting to read about keeping something out of the scrappers with some sensible maintenance than new stuff! Good news on another MOT pass. That other thread on the Transit that was welded for cheap, maybe you can squeeze another year out of it!

I had an 04 Focus with the 1.6 (Yamaha?) petrol that was brilliant. Bought it for £750 from a driveway trader as it was going to be cheaper than a hire car for a month. Ended up keeping it for 4 years. Think it broke down once (alternator) but other than that it was great. ARB droplinks a few times, and annual oil changes (can't bring myself to not change oil). Really fun cars to drive considering what they are!

[rickygolf83]

that's amazing news, long live the focus

[jmn]

1.8 Zetec Focus here.

Owned for 13 yrs. Never failed to start. Never broken down on the road. I've done about 70k miles in it.

Seems to handle much better than a lot of the more modern cars.

Colour is Neptune Green. IMHO looks a lot better than a lot of what is produced now. Manufacturers seem to be engaged in a race to produce ever more ugly vehicles.

[V6Nelo]

Was visiting a tiny island near Tenby in Wales.

Hardly any cars but saw a mk1 Focus, always like seeing them on travels, they often still look much younger than they should.

Dad has a 1.6 2001 with paint work as good as my 2015 car, also drives great and hardly any issues.

I should volunteer to get the a/c looked at, might just need a re gas.

Keep the updates rolling

[greenarrow]

So a sad today as we said farewell to our Focus. My daughter has been driving it for the past 20 months and the car had developed a few issues, which together with its age and woefully inadequate headlights for this time of year(she delivers pizzas on rural roads for dominos) meant we decided to upgrade to something newer. The interest on the car was amazing. Within an hour of going live the advert had hundreds of views and it’s eventual buyer, a desperate lady who bought it unseen for full asking price! I made £125 profit on the purchase price. What a car it has been!

[greenarrow]

We've simply purchased a similar type of car which can live in the slightly dodgy part of Manchester where my daughter currently resides at Uni, survive as a pizza delivery car and be cheap to run. Its a 2009 late model MK5 Astra 1.6 petrol. We did look for a Mk2 Focus, but they were another £600+ for the same year and at this age are starting to have rust advisories. In my experience Astras don't generally rust, or at least from the Mk4 onwards, they don't.

Some of you will probably say that we should've stuck with the Focus, but my daughter travels 240 miles from home to Uni on busy roads and dodgy fast rural lanes and to be frank, I just wanted something for her a little newer where everything worked and she felt safe. I'm sure any father would understand. Also, rust was starting in the sills so I thought with 8 months MOT on it, maybe it was a good time to move it on.

I've got to say, we (her and I) got attached to the car and for my perspective I will happily buy another one in the future. This has been a fun readers car article to write and I had some of my best drives ever (during lockdown) in this car on open, empty country roads. The MK1 Focus remains one of the stand out brilliant cars of the last 25 years.

[MC Bodge]

How is the Astra?

[greenarrow]

Just signing off this readers thread on a sad note. Realising it was MOT time I looked up the registration number out of curiosity to see how it got on. Oh dear, mot expired. Then looked up the GOV UK site for evidence of tax or registration..... No record.... So basically it looks like it's been scrapped.

Such a shame really as it had never been welded and whilst the last MOT showed an advisory of "rust starting in sills" I feel it unlikely it would have deteriorated so badly within a year.

Unfortunately we do live in the age where binning cars rather than patching them up has become the norm. Farewell Focus, I will remember the brilliant drives I had in you during that Covid year!!

Edited by greenarrow on Thursday 7th September 15:26

[greenarrow]

MC Bodge said:

How is the Astra?

Very very belated reply.

We had a bit of sticky patch in April when it failed its MOT on welding (front chassis legs, common Astra fault, but the second garage I took it to said the first one was very fussy!!) and it needed new coil pack and plugs due to the rocker gasket leak.

However the main news is that my daughter has moved into a central Manchester flat by the canal with no parking so I am now the custodian whilst we weigh up what to do with it. You know what, I really like driving it. Its just a basic 1.6 petrol model, the Life spec. Vauxhalls tend to get slated on Pistonheads but I have to say it drives really really well. Its done almost 110,000 miles and has plenty of scratches but the damping is spot on really for cross country work, it rides quite nicely. Also, nothing squeaks or rattles and its very quiet on a cruise. In fact I need to do a Readers cars feature on this, because at the moment as a cheap run around around its worming its way into my affections like my two Ford Focus Mk1s did and I can see me holding onto it!! Knowing how you're a man like me who also appreciates sensible sized wheels and good road handling, I think you'd approve of how it dismantles a country back road!

[acme]

greenarrow said:

Just signing off this readers thread on a sad note. Realising it was MOT time I looked up the registration number out of curiosity to see how it got on. Oh dear, mot expired. Then looked up the GOV UK site for evidence of tax or registration..... No record.... So basically it looks like it's been scrapped.

Such a shame really as it had never been welded and whilst the last MOT showed an advisory of "rust starting in sills" I feel it unlikely it would have deteriorated so badly within a year.

Unfortunately we do live in the age where binning cars rather than patching them up has become the norm. Farewell Focus, I will remember the brilliant drives I had in you during that Covid year!!

Edited by greenarrow on Thursday 7th September 15:26

That is a shame as I enjoyed reading about it, but thanks for posting about it, appreciated.

[MC Bodge]

greenarrow said:

Very very belated reply.

We had a bit of sticky patch in April when it failed its MOT on welding (front chassis legs, common Astra fault, but the second garage I took it to said the first one was very fussy!!) and it needed new coil pack and plugs due to the rocker gasket leak.

However the main news is that my daughter has moved into a central Manchester flat by the canal with no parking so I am now the custodian whilst we weigh up what to do with it. You know what, I really like driving it. Its just a basic 1.6 petrol model, the Life spec. Vauxhalls tend to get slated on Pistonheads but I have to say it drives really really well. Its done almost 110,000 miles and has plenty of scratches but the damping is spot on really for cross country work, it rides quite nicely. Also, nothing squeaks or rattles and its very quiet on a cruise. In fact I need to do a Readers cars feature on this, because at the moment as a cheap run around around its worming its way into my affections like my two Ford Focus Mk1s did and I can see me holding onto it!! Knowing how you're a man like me who also appreciates sensible sized wheels and good road handling, I think you'd approve of how it dismantles a country back road!

That's good to hear and good to hear that somebody else still appreciates a good drive in a simple, non-aspirational, but suitable car with suspension built for bumpy roads.

I had a rental Mk4? Astra 1.6 in the late 90s for a few days that I was quite impressed by at the time. It was much better than the Mk3 Astras I had driven before.

[greenarrow]

MC Bodge said:

That's good to hear and good to hear that somebody else still appreciates a good drive in a simple, non-aspirational, but suitable car with suspension built for bumpy roads.

I had a rental Mk4? Astra 1.6 in the late 90s for a few days that I was quite impressed by at the time. It was much better than the Mk3 Astras I had driven before.

As I recall, the Astra Mk4 was quite well regarded at the time. It was of course completely overshadowed by the Mk1 Focus, but I've an old issue of Car with a group test of Astra, Golf and Focus and they said that the one area an Astra might beat the Focus was on a bumpy road due to its smoother ride.

The Mk5 Astra I have was considered a bland 3 star can when new, compared with the 5 star Focus Mk2. I have to say driving one in 2023 that verdict seems harsh. The Astra is not as adjustable maybe as the Focus (feels on the limit like it was will just understeer off) but the ride is definitely superior to my Mk1 Focus and on my favourite local back lane which I use to test any car (typical lane which has never been resurfaced but patched up multiple times by the utility services), its one of the best hatches I have driven in recent years. It takes yumps better without feeling like the wheels are going to lose contact with the road. Surprisingly, my last Focus which admittedly was a Ghia and didn't have the Zetec spec suspension, didn't like those little crests/compressions you find on country lanes. The Astra is unphased. I did not expect that! Just shows you always need to try a car for yourself and not just listen to media hype! Glad you've enjoyed my reports. Look out for my Astra H readers car feature soon!

[Eyersey1234]

Thats a shame the Focus appears to have died, it served you well.