written by alsy on 29/11/2005
Good Points
Reasonable performance & good handling. Spacious & comfortable
Bad Points
Unreliable & harsh ride
General Comments
I have generally enjoyed having the Ford Focus 1.8 TDdi 90 LX 5dr as it is comfortable spacious performs reasonably (it gets a bit breathless at about 4500 rpm) & handles well. The economy is excellent at around 50mpg & group 5 insurance mean day to day running costs aren't going to bankrupt you. Tyres last around 15000 miles on the front & up to 50000 on the back whilst brake pads & discs are poor with the discs prone to warping. Oil consumption is negligable & servicing is every 10000 miles (cambelt every 100000 - costs around 100 quid). However overall the car has not been a paragon of virtue as the ride is pretty harsh & with several major failings during my ownership. To date it has had 2 rear wheel bearings (60 qiud per side) 2 front springs (80 quid fitted) a steering rack & power steering pump (320 quid - ouch) handbrake cable (20 to buy 55 to fit) throttle pedal (fly by wire meant 75 quid to buy the bit & 30 quid to fit) discs & pads (I have tried several known brands Ferodo, Mintex etc usually around 80 quid all in - but it has had 5 sets in the last 800000 miles) & a bottom suspension arm & braket as the bushes were shot (40 quid from a breakers) - oh & the air conditioning no longer conditions. Bear in mind I have kept the costs down by doing some work myself & using non-franchised garages for the rest. Whereas I think you can expect occasional problems on a car which has done over 150,000 miles it has got to the point where the bills are coming too regularly so it has to go...
00Vectra's Response to 218979_alsy's Review
Written on: 10/04/2006
Did you really mean 800,000 miles? Wow! I had one of these cars from new and sold it at 27,000 miles on the original brake pads. Had one serious problem only, the clutch pedal broke, [the eye which links to the master cylinder, in turn breaking the master cylinder] and Ford said hard luck mate, 2yr warranty is expired. [I had got it from an import company so didn't get the 3rd yr warranty]. These Focus estates have a very spacious boot for size of car.