We are looking for a used Ford car. Budget is £17,000 maximum.

Must be:

• Diesel or Petrol (NOT a mild hybrid or similar)
• Automatic.
• Must not have a 1.0 Ecoboost engine.

I'm thinking Puma, Kuga or Focus but open to suggestions. What engine do we all think is the most reliable ?

VW/ ford? All the same now. 😂😂

Automatic Pumas are all 1.0 EcoBoost so that model is off the list.

Automatic Focus would have to be 1.5 EcoBlue, 2.0 EcoBlue or 1.5 EcoBoost.  

The only additional engine in the Kuga would be the 2.5 petrol BUT...it's a hybrid.

 

So with your criteria I think the only one I'd choose would be 1.5 EcoBoost Focus.  Available in either 150 or 180bhp.

72 reg, 15k miles, £16k. Still with 4 years Kia  manufacturers warranty. The price  difference will buy 97k miles of home charging😂😂😂😂 I know I'm talking to myself but it keeps me amused. 

Or focus 69reg for £17.7k , maybe buy 12 months warranty that won't pay out, still it's low mileage. 

 

Or petrol Kia ceed. Manufacturers warranty to end march 2030. 

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

So with your criteria I think the only one I'd choose would be 1.5 EcoBoost Focus.  Available in either 150 or 180bhp.

Yes, the only other petrol option (2.3 ST auto) still seems to be well over budget.

The 1.5 petrol does seem to fare better than the 1.0, though it was dropped with the late '21 facelift, so even the youngest will be about 4 years old now, or halfway to our usual suggested wet belt change.

Presumably no recommendation for the 1.5 Ecoblue due to the number of failures we've started to see on here?

Does it really have to be a Ford?😀

4 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Presumably no recommendation for the 1.5 Ecoblue due to the number of failures we've started to see on here?

Does it really have to be a Ford?😀

I did like the 1.6 TDCI, and the subsequent 1.5 TDCI.  But the 1.5 EcoBlue seems to have been over-complicated for absolutely no benefit as far as I can tell.  Power is the same.  MPG is the same.  Yet they're considerably less reliable and seem to need 9-monthly oil changes due to lack of Adblue and frequent DPF regens.  I'm sure there are some on here who would recommend them, but I'm afraid I can't.

I'm also wondering whether it needs to be a Ford though.  Perhaps buying a set of Ford badges to stick on a Toyota would be the best way to get a reliable used Ford nowadays.

58 minutes ago, iantt said:

The price  difference will buy 97k miles of home charging

On the subject of home charging. My daughter lives on a farm (5 houses in total) which is fed by a two phase overhead supply. Two of the houses have two EV's each (God help us!!) and just before Christmas one of the other neighbours wanted to install a home charging point for what would have been the fifth electric vehicle.

The overhead supply was inspected by Northern PowerGrid who have refused permission for any further EV charging at any of the 5 houses as the supply is "maxed out"

During the conversation with Northern PowerGrid they also said that they are not allowing any further Battery Storage systems, private or commercial to be connected to their grid as it was already beyond capacity and due to the lack of traditional generating  stations they were finding it very hard to maintain the 50Hz frequency. Parts of Northumberland have now been switched over to temporary DIESEL generators to maintain supply to remote areas due to the problems caused by EV off peak charging.

21 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Does it really have to be a Ford?

Yes, for a few reasons, not least of all it will fall to me to maintain it and FORScan doesn't seem to work on Toyota's 🤣

28 minutes ago, unofix said:

Yes, for a few reasons, not least of all it will fall to me to maintain it and FORScan doesn't seem to work on Toyota's 🤣

Ah, in that case how about a Mazda with a 2.0 Skyactiv engine?

2 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

a Mazda with a 2.0 Skyactiv engine

It's a possibility, I'd have to see what models are available. Do we know if these are a good solid engine ?

Don't know why anyone would want a ford nowadays. Plenty of better more reliable cars out there so no need for forscan . 

I've seen Mazda 3s and the CX30 crossover for similar prices to Focuses of equivalent year. Their philosophy seems the opposite of the trend elsewhere, with a larger normally aspirated 4 cylinder rather than a downsized turbo triple (the latest versions have gone up to 2.5 now).

I've not seen any particular nasties but I'd be interested to hear any actual experiences myself** - I rather like the instruments and lovely manual change on these, though that's of no use if you want an auto. That could be the drawback - used autos seem pretty rare.

(**Only owner I know is a former colleague who swapped from Ford to the 3s predecessor (the 323) in the early 80s and has been driving the current equivalents ever since!)

 

1 hour ago, unofix said:

On the subject of home charging. My daughter lives on a farm (5 houses in total) which is fed by a two phase overhead supply. Two of the houses have two EV's each (God help us!!) and just before Christmas one of the other neighbours wanted to install a home charging point for what would have been the fifth electric vehicle.

The overhead supply was inspected by Northern PowerGrid who have refused permission for any further EV charging at any of the 5 houses as the supply is "maxed out"

During the conversation with Northern PowerGrid they also said that they are not allowing any further Battery Storage systems, private or commercial to be connected to their grid as it was already beyond capacity and due to the lack of traditional generating  stations they were finding it very hard to maintain the 50Hz frequency. Parts of Northumberland have now been switched over to temporary DIESEL generators to maintain supply to remote areas due to the problems caused by EV off peak charging.

So how does that work during the day when generally more electric is used than overnight esp at teatime periods. And a few years ago when more electric was consumed than now. ( Before EV era) 

Northumberland rural areas have for the last 50 years used diesel generators so not exactly a new problem. 

1 hour ago, unofix said:

It's a possibility, I'd have to see what models are available. Do we know if these are a good solid engine ?

I don't have any direct experience with them, but from what I've seen online they are generally reliable. 

Chain drive rather than wet or dry belt as well (though I didn't check oil pump drive).

3 hours ago, iantt said:

So how does that work during the day when generally more electric is used than overnight

It comes down to the diversity factor and the time loading.

If you have for example 4 EV's charging at 11kW each for say six hours then a constant loading of 44kW over that time frame will cause substantial heating of the overhead supply lines. Add to the fact that two of the properties have electric off peak night storage heaters, about 13kW per property then you can see the load over night is high and constant, compared to daytime use which is staggered and mostly less than 30 minutes at a time.

Just to add a fairly non-technical comment. When I joined the predecessors of Northern Powergrid in 1970, rural electrification was still ongoing, and was pretty basic - even the ability to have a mains radio and electric light was a great leap forward in the upper Dales.

From the frequency of outages we still see in upper Wensleydale where we keep our caravan, I'm not sure things have improved much! I doubt it's any better at the top of Weardale. The network is still mostly carried on wood pole overhead lines, which are very vulnerable to poor weather conditions.

 

We had a complete blackout where I live last week.  Caused by an underground cable failing.  I was surprised by the time it failed though.  7pm!  Wouldn't have thought there was a surge in usage at that time.  

I can't remember seeing it so dark here before, took out such a large area there wasn't even an ambient glow from outside at all.  Luckily came back on within the hour due to electricity being 'remotely re-routed' somehow.  Not sure I'd have managed a whole night with it off in an all-electric property, though I did then wonder whether modern gas and oil heating work without electricity anyway?  Guessing they all use an electric pilot light for start up and probably an electric waterpump as well?

6 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

We had a complete blackout where I live last week. 

Coincidentally so did we, the week before, just after dark. Lasted about an hour and (according to their website) Northern Powergrid had rerouted supplies. 

That's another point (which I'm sure Unofix could explain better!). In urban areas, most districts are supplied from two directions, so with a bit of switching of circuits, power can usually be initially restored fairly quickly, pending proper repairs.

In rural areas, that's not always the case and the single supply to more remote property has to be physically repaired.

It's a bit like your house wiring - most circuits are a ring, but extra sockets may well have been installed by taking a spur off the ring.

I think you're right on all electric property. Our ancient gas boiler at home still has a pilot light but the circulation pump is electric so you're still screwed. Our static caravan has a modern boiler (bottled gas) which won't work at all without power, and there's no mains gas anyway, so you need a thick jumper and a torch!

In the case of our recent cut at home, two new housing developments (almost 300 houses) have been taking place in our village, despite local opposition and dire warnings about the local utility infrastructure. I'm pretty sure they have something to do with it.