Hi,

I currently own a MK1 Focus, 1.8 TDCI 2004. I bought this car less than a month ago for £1,000. I was just browsing the used car websites out of interest to see roughly how much they are worth. I stumbled across a really nice looking 2003 Ford Focus 1.8 Zetec for sale for £1,750 from a trader.

The car I was looking at had ST170 alloys, three doors and also better looking interior. Mine is a five-door with standard 'Edge' alloys. The car for sale has a full service history, was passed through M.O.T. two months ago and also has two keys, whereas mine has no service history, M.O.T'd four months ago and only has one key.

Has anyone owned a MK1 1.8 Zetec before and can give me their advice? What's the best engine out of the two; a 1.8 petrol Zetec or a 1.8 TDCI? I'm thinking of part-exchanging my car for this. Mine has 88,000 on the clock and the one for sale has 79,000 so not much of a difference. I'm not going to be impulsive, so I thought I'd ask away on here before heading down to view it later on this week.

The Zetec is a lot more sporty looking and costs around the same amount each month for me to insure as well. Please let me know if you need more information or if you would like me to share a link to the car I'm referring to. Thanks a bunch. :)

Are you more concerned about looks over practicality? You don't say what you need the car for, what mileage you do etc. If you only do low miles and are more concerned about how the car looks then perhaps you shouldn't have bought the TDCi in the first place.

Are you more concerned about looks over practicality? You don't say what you need the car for, what mileage you do etc. If you only do low miles and are more concerned about how the car looks then perhaps you shouldn't have bought the TDCi in the first place.

The TDCi I own isn't a bad looking car, although the Zetec looks the part with the wheels and the metropolis blue coloured body. I'm concerned about practicality as well, so that's why I'm wondering what's the best out of the two models. I'm not a long-distance driver and tend to travel 20 miles each day, perhaps even less, to and from work.

You'll probably notice a big difference in fuel costs between the two engines.

Admittedly not a Focus but 2 of the previous cars I owned were identical except one being a 1.8 petrol and the other being a 2.0 diesel (in fact I owned 2 of the petrols and 6 of the diesels over the years lol). There was 20mpg difference between them, even with diesel costing more at the pump it worked out much more expensive in the petrol.

Tax is also higher on the petrol model I think. (Not checked tax on these myself).

Seems like a bit of an odd change to me tbh, you could always fit a Zetec bumper to your car. Or wait for a diesel Zetec in the colour you are after. Just make sure it's definitely what you want when you do make the decision.

Given your projected annual mileage, you should probably have bought a petrol engine rather than a diesel but you have made your choice and I think you will lose money if you trade in. Its unlikely you will see the £1000 you paid if you trade in your current car. A service history on the TDCi would have been nice but given you only paid £1k for it, I think its worth the risk. Its worth noting that both cars will need a cambelt change pretty much right away based on age rather than mileage. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong but I think the cambelt interval on both cars is 100k miles or 10 years.... whatever is sooner. If the 1.8 zetec you are looking at has a cambelt change shown on its service history then it might be worth thinking about. Otherwise, keep the TDCi and use the money you saved to make it look nicer (although I would do the cambelt first).