A nice looking Focus ST draws into view this week. The first problem we have to report is not to do with the car, but to do with where it is. It's in Flintshire, which is in a strange place many many miles away called Scot Land [Turns out Shed's road atlas may be missing a few pages so we've had an office whip round and are sending him a new one! - Ed.].
At our Shedly level, travelling from afar tends to knock on the head any idea of viewing without buying. You'll be wanting to buy a single on the train and then looking for any reason to drive the thing home. This puts you in a weak negotiating position, and the Scotch are canny folk who will spot that a mile off.
Hang on, is that spoiler standard?
Getting to it from Engerland will at the very least add three figures to whatever price you might be thinking of paying for it, unless you're Scotch yourself of course, in which case it will be much cheaper.
Anyway, what can you expect from the car, if and when you ever get there?
Launched in 2002, the Focus ST170 was something of a bitsa. Its Duratec 2.0 engine was built in Mexico. Bumped up from 127hp to 170hp by the addition of Cosworth mods to the cylinder head, new intake and exhaust manifolds, high-comp pistons, variable valve timing, a sports cat and a big-bore stainless steel exhaust, the engines were shipped to Saarlouis in Germany where final ST170 assembly took place. Connected to a Getrag six-speed manual gearbox and sat on model-specific alloys with enlarged brake discs, the finished product looked the bizzo, as we can all agree from the smart images of this still fresh-looking example from 2005.
Unfortunately a few things went wrong somewhere along the ST170 line. Weight, for a start. It tipped the scales at 1,314kg, which was about 100kg more than Vauxhall's contemporary 2.2 Astra. As a result you had the slightly odd situation in which a 145hp Vauxhall was capable of the same low 8-second 0-60 time as a 170hp Ford. A ridiculously stodgy gearchange didn't help the Ford's cause either. Nor did the poor set of ratios or the asthmatic nature of the long-stroking Cossie engine.
Focus still looking smart as it approaches 20!
All a bit of a shame really as at the end of the day you've still got a practical and good looking Focus with a neat half-leather interior and riding on the excellent Control Blade suspension.
Known issues? Clutches, water in the headlamps and pollen filters, loose camshaft actuator bolts, broken manifolds and cat heatshield brackets. Dirty throttle bodies can graunch up your pedal action, as can a worn cable.
Flickering dash lights can often be sorted by trimming down the brightness. If the EML is lit, that could indicate a broken lambda sensor or a stuck cable-operated butterfly valve in the inlet manifold (the IMRC). Or it could just be a lying sensor. They're not too clever on this car. If the coolant temperature sensor goes missing it will put the car into a failsafe limp-home mode that cuts the fuel supply to alternate cylinders and creates a very odd noise that sounds expensive. Obviously it will cost you money to fix it anyway, but perhaps not as much as you might have thought from the din.
An offer around £850 and you could be here...
There's something needing to be checked as regards the number plate of this one, as the number doesn't come up on the MOT history website. Usually there's a perfectly innocent explanation for this sort of thing. Communications failure, most likely. It's not uncommon. After all, Mrs Shed's mum never told her that condoms should be used on every conceivable occasion.
Even more likely though would be Shed not using his Amstrad correctly. He's never really enjoyed touching it after it gave him Mrs Shed on a dating website.
2005 Ford Focus ST170 5DR Petrol. 12 months MOT and 2 new tyres. 84,000 miles, part service history, full electric pack including ABS & Air Con. Half leather interior, in great condition. Radio & CD player. Cambelt changed at 79,000 miles and well maintained. Age relative marks on rear arch, but apart from this very good condition. V5 present with 3 careful owners. Drives A1 also HPI checkers & AA welcome. New car forces reluctant sale. Open to sensible offers. Please phone for further details.