We've all seen those stories about 'the most important cars in history'. The usual suspects that get trotted out are the Beetle, the original Mini, and of course the Finknottle Chuffmeister, which we all now wish we had kept.
Chronologically speaking, most of these lists seem to come to a screeching halt in the 1970s, suggesting that no significant cars have been built in the age of robotisation. Shed begs to differ. He thinks that the most important car of modern times, by a very long chalk indeed, is the Mk 1 Ford Focus, and that the 1.6 petrol is the best one of the lot.
Why? Shed doesn't remember much about anything these days, but he does know that he will never forget spending a week piloting a pre-launch 1.6 around a big French test facility in 1997, some months before the Focus went on sale in 1998. At the time he remembers thinking that he must have slipped through some sort of hole in the time-space continuum because not only did the Richard Parry-Jones Focus handle far better than anything else in its class, it outdrove 'premium' motors from one or even two classes above. The difference between the Focus and its Escort predecessor was bordering on ridiculous.
Subsequent iterations of the Focus seem to have slipped down a different and less pleasing hole in the matrix, saddled by increasing weight and complication in the relentless search for profit opportunities. The rot actually started in 2002 with the Mk 1 ST170, which many folk bought thinking that they would get all the dynamic attributes of the basic Focus plus a useful dose of extra speed. The extra speed bit was sort of delivered in the ST, but the price for your 134mph was too much weight over the front wheels, a wheezy engine, poor gear ratios and a horrid stick to rummage through them.
The 1.6 might only have 99hp but it's a really sweet and willing 99hp. The gear change is beautifully slick and precise and the car comes in at under 1100kg, which is a good 100kg less than the ST. It's light on its feet and the balance is impeccable. You can have an absolute ball on the right road without troubling your licence. For once, the European Car of the Year judges didn't have to be pilloried after they gave the Focus the big gong in 1999.
So whenever Shed sees a late-model, low-mileage and apparently unwanted Mk 1 1.6 like this one for sale at under a thousand pounds, a weird feeling goes through his loins. The immediate suspicion is that it must have the rust, but the MOT history here is incredibly clean. It's only an LX, but this kind of hair-shirt minimalism only adds to the appeal for Shed, who was brought up in a remote forest by a kindly old sheep.
The Mk 1 Focus is important because it brought a fantastic mix of practicality, affordability and genuine driving entertainment within the reach of ordinary people. Some will lambast it for its highish driving position, or simply for its Ford badge, but Shed's advice to non-believers is to give one - and why not this one - a try.
Any sixteen-year-old car is bound to have issues. Common Mk 1 ailments apart from the aforementioned rust to the wheelarches and door bottoms can include coil packs, crumbly wiring, faulty alternators, leaky oil filler caps, wonky door latches and a loss of power caused by a duff PCM module, plus the airbag might suddenly go off in your face, but at £995 any problems would have to be more terminal than this to put Shed off. And anyway, according to the ad you get a year's breakdown cover thrown in. Job's a good 'un.
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