Ford Focus Hatchback (2005 - 2011) 1.6 TDCi LX (110ps) 5d Owner Review

I purchased the car for what I thought was a bargain at £850 with 142k on the clock... how wrong was I. The build quality was really really bad. It rattled, the window motor made a funny noise when fully wound up, the gearbox was terrible, the engine leaked, it was already starting to rust and the injectors seals were bust and it was leaking fuel on the head. Some would put this down to it's age and wear and tear. However, I had a MK4 Golf Tdi with 160k on the clock before the Focus which was 4 years older and the gulf in quality and build was massive. People will assume it's good on fuel because it's a diesel and a small 1.6 diesel engine at that.... It's not! The base spec LX doesn't even have an MPG trip computer (yes, I know they're not always accurate) but I calculated it at doing around 30-35 mpg. The engine is the same as the HDI 1.6 found in French cars like Citroen and Peugeot. Google problems with these engines and you will see. Sadly I didn't do this before purchasing the car which was a schoolboy error. Now, it does have some good points. The road tax was cheap about £9 a month, the stalk for the radio on the steering column was handy, it had air con, it handled really well on country roads and parts are readily available and cheap to purchase (you will need parts) Overall I didn't like the car and only owned it for around 2 months before selling it on. I've owned around 10 cars in all my years of driving and the Focus was definitely the worst. Personally I would stick with German, Swedish or Japanese. Or at least go for the petrol Focus model if you really want one. Don't go with the 1.6 diesel.