Hi everyone,

Am looking to upsize my car due to family growing. Was looking intially at a Zafira but my research has come back with nothing but reliability warnings etc. As my parents have had Fords (Mondeo estate and Focus hatch) for years I thought I might look in the direction of a Focus Estate (C-Max doesn't really seem to offer anything in terms of boot space, S-Max looks perfect but too pricey).

Could I please ask:

1) How reliable, generally, do people find Focus Estates in the '05 - '07 bracket - this is where my budget is leading me.

2) I am very tempted to go diesel due to the increased economy over petrol - I have read, however, that doing short journeys is not ideal for this type of fuel. I do a 2x8 mile commute each day and maybe a few longer drives at the weekend - nothing huge though. Is this an issue I should be looking at or are cars of the age I have indicated above now able to cope with this?

3) Would rather go high spec but older car. Will a Ghia do the job or is the little extra for a Titanium worth it?

Would really appreciate any advice that can be offered - many thanks in advance.

Hi everyone,

Am looking to upsize my car due to family growing. Was looking intially at a Zafira but my research has come back with nothing but reliability warnings etc. As my parents have had Fords (Mondeo estate and Focus hatch) for years I thought I might look in the direction of a Focus Estate (C-Max doesn't really seem to offer anything in terms of boot space, S-Max looks perfect but too pricey).

Could I please ask:

1) How reliable, generally, do people find Focus Estates in the '05 - '07 bracket - this is where my budget is leading me.

2) I am very tempted to go diesel due to the increased economy over petrol - I have read, however, that doing short journeys is not ideal for this type of fuel. I do a 2x8 mile commute each day and maybe a few longer drives at the weekend - nothing huge though. Is this an issue I should be looking at or are cars of the age I have indicated above now able to cope with this?

3) Would rather go high spec but older car. Will a Ghia do the job or is the little extra for a Titanium worth it?

Would really appreciate any advice that can be offered - many thanks in advance.

the car is pretty reliable and a good drive if you do short journeys forget about a diesel see the post about the dpf its a diesel filter that requires replacing at around 75k and is expensive at least 400-500 quid from an independant over a grand from ford its not a ford thing all modern diesels have them and short journeys will require this replaced frequently the titanium is my personal choice the ghia is loaded with kit but frequemntly the kit starts tio go wrong so the more gadgets the more it costs to fix with those miles a petrol will more than suffice youre needs a diesel will show poor mpg for those types of journeys.

indeed the mrs father had a zafira handles like a shopping trolley with a dodgy wheel and was forever needing fixed so ide stay well clear same with the scenic from renault and the espace piles of junk basically