After being promised a Focus from the hire company, guess what we got?

.................a 2013 Hyundai i20!

Nevermind, its a nice car and it is unusual to get a car that new! It has good aircon too! ;)

When I brought my focus it had to go back a week later for minor bits the garage messed up with. I was given a 63 plate Astra for a couple of days as a hire car. Never again, I'd of been better off with a horse and cart. Horrid car.

Owner of Ford Focus Titanium, 2010.

Previous owner of Ford Focus Zetec Estate, 2002.

That's no good! Luckily Vauxhalls (Opels) are not very popular in Cyprus!

Our Police force has started phasing out mk2.5 Focuses in favour of Astra estates.

Bad enough in itself but in the last 12 months since we've had them the ratio of serviceability of the cars has gone from 90/10 for the Focus (road time/garage time) to about 60/40 for the Astra's.

I rest my case Mlud.

Sent from my S5

BTW, I am very happy I got a Mk3 ST estate instead :d

Sent from my S5

haha, its a good job you cling onto the blue oval for longer than most of your comrades :p

It speaks volumes though, I wonder if they will realise the error in judgement and return to Ford?

They've already expressed remorse by going away from Ford for standard patrol cars but they're tied now for the length of the fleet agreement.

At least they're retaining transits and connects.

Sent from my S5

shame it would cost more to breach the fleet!

One in three cars are laid up for more than 24 hours at a time.

Most problems seem to be poor integration between standard electrics and police specific kit.

Can't patrol a car if thr lights and sirens won't run.

Also already had a couple of dumped gearboxes, never had this problem on the Focus's.

They usually just wrnt down with cooked clutches and buckled wheels from revving the nackers off them and hitting speed bumps at 50.

Sent from my S5

Not me of course ;)

Sent from my S5

A lot of my local police force are Insignias or bmws. Not seen a focus one before.

Owner of Ford Focus Titanium, 2010.

Previous owner of Ford Focus Zetec Estate, 2002.

Most of the patrol cars where I live in the UK are 2013 Focus Estates and BMW X5

Our Police force has started phasing out mk2.5 Focuses in favour of Astra estates.

Bad enough in itself but in the last 12 months since we've had them the ratio of serviceability of the cars has gone from 90/10 for the Focus (road time/garage time) to about 60/40 for the Astra's.

I rest my case Mlud.

Sent from my S5

In our local gardai station theres a fiesta & focus estate, unmarked cars are usually mondeos.

Clive quick question. ..our area would be semi rural, why estate cars? I can undetstand for carrying dogs but surely on back roads estates would be nightmare, I drove my dad's Nissan primara estate thing was like a bus

I live in the midlands, we have a couple of corsa and insignia unmarked cars but most marked are bmws and insignias.

Owner of Ford Focus Titanium, 2010.

Previous owner of Ford Focus Zetec Estate, 2002.

In our local gardai station theres a fiesta & focus estate, unmarked cars are usually mondeos.

Clive quick question. ..our area would be semi rural, why estate cars? I can undetstand for carrying dogs but surely on back roads estates would be nightmare, I drove my dad's Nissan primara estate thing was like a bus

Estates are generally used to allow for carriage of more kit in the back.

Personal kit bags plus road cones, signs and lights take up a lot of space.

Also estates tend to have tougher suspension to compensate for heavy loads which is useful.

Sent from my S5

In our local gardai station theres a fiesta & focus estate, unmarked cars are usually mondeos.

Clive quick question. ..our area would be semi rural, why estate cars? I can undetstand for carrying dogs but surely on back roads estates would be nightmare, I drove my dad's Nissan primara estate thing was like a bus

Estates are generally used to allow for carriage of more kit in the back.

Personal kit bags plus road cones, signs and lights take up a lot of space.

Also estates tend to have tougher suspension to compensate for heavy loads which is useful.

Sent from my S5

And being Ireland, they can throw more drunks in the back to take them home!!! ;) :D :D :D

And being Ireland, they can throw more drunks in the back to take them home!!! ;) :D :D :D

Ha de ha ha. ..St kevin ;)

hehe ;)

Estates are no harder to drive than the normal car! Going from a Fiesta to a Focus Estate of course will differ, but from a Focus to its estate counterpart is easy enough!

hehe ;)

Estates are no harder to drive than the normal car! Going from a Fiesta to a Focus Estate of course will differ, but from a Focus to its estate counterpart is easy enough!

Jeebs size matters. ..I went from daddies primara estate to clio...dunno what back roads are like over there but no chance of throwing estate around over here. ..mid life crisis & vomit on sunday drives were half the reason he got rid of it

That might have had more to do with it being a Primera!!

I had a crapstra as a hire car...2.0 TDI - horrible, horrible thing...anything more than one or two mph and it needed a gear change. Oh and it injured me :-(

Sent from my SM-P600 using Ford OC mobile app

^watevs. ...daddy loved his nissans