Hi all,

My first car back in the early 90's was a Fiesta, followed by mostly Escorts and Sierras (I miss the days when you could buy cars second hand so cheaply that they were near enough disposable...), only owned Fords throughout the 90's.
Then I got hooked on BMW 5 series, and have been through several E39's in the last 20 odd years, absolutely love them. Problem is, a recent repair quote for bodywork (dreaded sill rust, the mortal enemy of the E39) would have made far from economical sense. Being older, wiser, and doing less than 2000 miles a year, thought it was time to get myself a cheap and reliable runaround for the limited driving needs I have, rather than buy another time consuming money pit to maintain (not that there are many good ones left for good prices). So back to Ford it is.

Hoping that this mk2 Focus 2.0 petrol  engine is as reliable as I'd been lead to believe... Been doing most of my own wrenching for years, not afraid to get my hands dirty, but haven't touched a Ford this century until now. Posts on here already helped me know what to look for before I bought, and I'm sure this place will have a lot of knowledge to draw upon if (when?) things go wrong.

Cheers!

Hi welcome 

Mk2 Focus is a good car

2.0 Duratec a good engine

Just keep and eye out for rust, especially sills, rear arches and front and rear crossmembers/axles

Cheers Gents.

53K mileage, MOT history good, sills and arches, all the common places I could see are rust free and smooth. Rear axle has a bit of surface rust, but what car of this age doesn't. Nothing flagged on last MOT, so presumably sound enough for now at least!