Focus advice

[wiliferus]

Greetings

New to the 'Ford' section as haven't been a Ford owner for a few years, but need a bit of buying advice from the people in the know - which would be you lot!

The OH's car lunched its turbo the other day (VW Golf Tdi) and took most of the engine with it, so thats written off. Bit short on cash as got a little one on the way, so got a budget of about £2000. The most obvious choice is the Focus, you seem to get a fair amount of car for the money.

Need some advice on engine choice please! The Mrs is quite an enthusiastic driver for a girly, and liked her Tdi which has plenty of torques. MPG isn't really an issue as she's not going to be covering many miles for a while, so what are the characteristics of the 1.6, 1.8 & 2.0 petrol lumps?

Are any of the engines a bit of a pup and best avoided, have any major issues around the 70k-80k mile mark? Or are any of those three great?

Looking on internet will be looking about between 1999 and 2002 models dependant on condition etc.

Thanks in advance

[AndyT77]

I've got a 1.8 Ghia, and whilst it drives pretty nicely the power/torque is somewhat lacking.

MPG is pretty shocking too considering the lack of power. It goes round corners and rides well, but really needs more oomph.