6 years ago some eejit in a Rav 4 wrote off my wife's 7 seat Renault. She needed the space to put 4 car seats in a car to take ours and some other kids to school, so we bought a 135000 mile 13 year old Volvo 850 estate. Kids have grown out of car seats, some now walk to school, so she wanted a smaller more economical and easier to park estate, but still with space for tents and the rest of the camping kit. We looked at Focus, Golf, Fabia, Astra, Avensis, Laguna, 307, 406, V40, and maybe some others.

I sold the 850, still going strong at 186000 miles, 19 years old and a little rust starting to show where it had been scratched parking.

A friend who works for Fords gearboxes bit said the design life for the engine and gearbox is 150000, so we were reluctant to get anything near that mileage, and most of the Focuses for a grand or less that I saw were rusty and sometimes noisy.

We ended up buying a clean-looking 53 reg estate with 107000 miles on the clock with no service history or owners' guide.

I'm hoping that this forum will help me to keep the Focus running well for a long time, and that Fix Or Repair Daily, is an undeserved reputation.

I'm going to wait till the V5 and the Haynes manual arrive, change oil and filter, and then think about why the idling seems high, and if there's a way of telling when the belt was last changed (if ever).

Hello and wecome to the forum! ive had my Ford for over 8 years now, and although some parts have been changed (due to some minor modifications :) ) it all mainly original and still going strong.

Hi and Welcome to the Forums

Hi welcome :)

Welcome along - I've got a Ford / Volvo combo that works quite well

Hello and welcome