fontaine

There are some good websites that work out your mileage.

I had a trip to manchester at the weekend and in my 1.4 duratec LX i managed 47 mpg

hi guy im the focus guy
i get about 50 miles to the gallon
its a 1.6 mk1 and its a very frugal car

Hey!

I have the exact same car (55 plate 1.6 LX) and I love it. I’ve been really impressed by its handling, speed, power (pretty quick for a 1.6) and fuel economy. The only fault I can find is that the road noise is louder in a focus compared to some other cars, but even then it's not bad at all. The revs aren't overly high, doing about 3500 rpm at 80MPH. My car has always started first time every time.

My parents continuously borrow the car to get shopping in the boot, carry passengers (leg room in the back is great) or to just generally when they don’t want to put much effort in to driving. It’s lovely to drive and as an added bonus, it is really easy!

I learnt to drive in a focus and now I have mine (I actually learnt in 2 different focus') and none of them have ever had problems or been a bother.

I would definitely recommend it to anybody.

Any other questions just ask

Fraser

i totally agree with you
the combination of fuel economy , acceleration speeed ,handling and easy to drive makes the focus good value for money
the car is really east to drive and a very instinctive car to drive
very well reccomended
parts are reasonable too

Hi

I'm looking to buy a new car to replace my 95 Escort 1.6 and the natural replacement is of course a Focus, however I have some questions following a test drive I had that didn't quite feel right.

The car in question was a 55 reg 1.6 LX (the new shape, with alloys) and alledgedly the 113bhp version. The car didn't start due to the battery not having enough umph, hardly a good impression for the garage.

On the test drive I was impressed by how much quicker the acceleration was from standstill compared to the old girl but once I got out of the town and up to speed I noticed that the engine seemed quite sluggish over 40mph and revving highly, taking 3000rpm in 5th to maintain 60mph on a level road when my escort does the same stretch at 2400rpm.

I know some engines are just high revver's, my parents old Rover 216 used to take ~4000rpm to do 75 on the motorway and the fuel consumption was as expected, but is this usual for a Focus? I know of the few issues they've had one is problems with the engine management computer so to look out for poor starts etc, could this have been something similar and being masked by the battery issue?

Needless to say I didn't buy the car (not least because of the overpowering smell of cigarette smoke when I opened it which was a big negative!) but I'm still looking at Focus' in general.

If it is a case that the 1.6 is under-powered what would anyone recommend? Is the 1.6 in the old shape focus any better given how its 100kilos lighter?

Any advice gratefully received!

Cheers

Daz

hi
i have a 99 mk1 estate and when i first drove it i was impressed with the acceleration
i think the gear ratio nis diffrent to your escort and this accounts for the fast acceleration
i think this would account for thesluggishness you experience although i dont experience on my car
i can only think that on the focus you drove the clutch might have had some slip in it

hi fontaine, could I just ask where this bad contact was? It may help with a problem i have with the dash
cheers, john

hi john
the bad contact was onthe battery
i took off the battery cover and noticed that the connections on the battery had some corrossio on the termonals
i cleaned these off with a wire brush, both battery terminals and the wies to the terminals and reconnected and coated the terminals in petroleum jelly
works fine now
some say the needle sweep on startup is due to a knackered battery, but in my case it was simply a matter of cleaning it up to factory standard

the light problem sometimes occures when a brake light filament is broke and shorting on the sidelight in the brake bulb so try replacment brake bulbs the idal problem could be the idle controlle valve requires cleaning or the speed sensor playing up

cheers mate your diagnosis with the light problem was spot on
problem now fixed
also the dial and idling problem was due to a bad earth contact
thanks again