Hi All,

I'm new to this forum but I'm think of buying a focus Mk1/II 1.6/1.8 deisel. I've had a few Ford's in the past such as MK1 escorts, 1600E, Mk4 2l, Ghia, Galaxy, Fiesta...

Having succumbs to my wife's wishes a few years ago we ended up with a Renault scenic for the past 10 years but now we need to update.

I've been looking on Autotrader and spent a few Saturdays looking at small dealer's car.

I've test driven 3 cars two 1.8 TDCi and a 1.6TDCi. Two of these went into limp mode during a test drive. One stalled (1.8 TDCi) as I pulled away and went into limp mode when I restarted but recovers on another restart. The other (1.6TDCi) went into limp mode after I had stopped on the side of the road, restarted and pull away. In this case it went into limp mode as the engine got to 3000 rpm.

Is this bad luck or should I avoid the focus or just small dealers.

I know I'm new to this forum and haven't contributed but some comments would be gratefully received because I'm getting disheartened with the Focus.

Many thanks

Andy

You didn't say what age of car you're looking at. A car going into limp mode is never a good sign. The repair bill could be anything from a few quid, to several hundred. Even if the dealer says he'll fix it up for you, I would not touch it with a bargepole no matter how many 'sweeteners' he offers you.

I had a Mk1 Focus, for eight years up until January 2012. It was the most solid, bulletproof (not literally) car I've ever owned, and I only got rid because I have a large dog, and it was a Focus saloon. I've had quite a few Fords; Escort, Fiesta, Mk2 Mondeo, Escort again, Focus, and now a Mondeo. With the exception of the Focus's fuel pump failing (£1,100), and the current Mondeo (Mk3) having one fault after another, I have no complaints at all with the others.

All of that said, I can't help but notice a mind-blowing number of common complaints about newer Fords - certainly the Mk3 Mondeo is bad, and the Mk4 seems even worse. I'm not really sure what's going wrong but it's safe to say I won't be touching another Ford after this one, unless I lease it, then Ford can worry about the endless repair bills.

Hi BigD,

The age is about 04/05/06. I can't remember exactly which year. The mileage was about 70K on one and about 90K on the other.

I agree about not touching them with a barge pole. ie Why buy a car with a known fault? and as you say it could be an easy fix or a real nightmare.

And you comment about not touching a ford is where I seem to be going. Perhaps a VW.

Cheers

Andy

At the end of the day, every make and model is going to have it's own set of common issues. From personal experience, the problem with newer Fords is that it always seems to be massive, show-stopping expensive issues. Just to be fair though, plenty of people have Fords and don't have any major problems. I've just dropped on a lemon that's giving me problem after problem after problem.

Has that tainted my opinion of Fords? Yes, it has.