I purchased my Focus as a second car for my wife in 2006. The car was 10months old with 2,000 miles on the clock. This is my first point, please don't buy new. This model lost about 30% in 10 months!
As this was our second car, I wanted something which was good around town, cheap to run, and above all safe. Safety isn't an issue with the Focus, as it scores 5 out of 5 when tested by NCAP. The only safety issue I have is that the 1.6 does not have traction control, but to be honest for a car with 115BHP it doesn't really needed it.
Here's the selling point in my opinion, as I'm sure it's not really on it's looks. The handling on the Focus is class leading. I have a 330 CI BMW, and to be honest it is easier to drive round corners in the Focus fast than it is in the BMW, without ending up in the wrong driection. Amazing! This is mainly down to the control blade rear suspension. It really
is superb.
The engine is ok, the 115bhp is acceptable, but for round town it's more than enough, quite economical too. Around town usually returns mid 20's, and on the motorway with the cruise control on you can get mid 40mpg. It's a little noisy though at motorway speeds, even with the Ghia's extra sound proofing.
The spec on the Focus is really quite good - all round electrics, cruise control, cd, aircon, self dimming rear view mirror, alloys, velour seats (quite comfortable with the lumbar support adjustment), to mention just the main items. It even has a aircon cooled glove box.
It has been quite reliable, but the car is only covering 4,000 miles a year. It needed a coil pack last year, as this was shorting and causing a mis-fire. I was not impressed with that as the car had only covered about 10,000 miles at that point. - £120- down the drain. I also have another axe to grind, other than for around town, short runs, taking the kids to school, (more than enough room for them and shopping by the way), I really do dislike front wheel drive cars. Driving pureists aside, they get through tyres at an allarming rate, due to the fact that the front wheels are doing all the work. The Focus ate through it's Continential rubber in 12,000 miles which I think is pretty poor. The wheels are not small (205/55 VR16) so I would expect at least 20,000. This is the case with all front wheel drive cars though. The only saving grace is the rears last for much longer, so on balance not that bad I suppose.
As far as the car itself goes I am pretty pleased with it as a daily run around. I would not like to drive it for endless hours on the motorway though. Too noisy and slow to allow you to arrive relaxed after say a 5 hour trip. That may also be influenced by the fact that I am in excess of 6 feet tall. My 5 feet 5 wife does not have the same legroom issue.
Ford running costs!!! Arrrgggghhh very annoying. The Focus if serviced in line with Fords recommendations, should be doen every 12 months or 12,000 miles. Ok so far. The services alternate between interim and major. It's the cost and the over servicing that the car receives if you are a light user like I am. The oil service is £150 - I pay this for my BMW for the equivalent service - not cheap is it. They only change the oil, airfilter, and pollen filter, and check the car over. The major service adds spark plugs and further checking and comes in at about £250-. That's steap isn't it? I mean it's only a Focus after all. Hand on heart I do similar mileage in my BMW, and the servicing costs over say a five year period are almost the same.
Ford - you need to introduce mileage / use based servicing, not just time. In effect I am over servicing the Focus. A modern car does not need spark plugs every oither year. My BMW is still on it's original plugs and it's six and a half years old!!
So to sum it, I think the Focus is a good car, well equipped to do the job expected of it, but a little over expensive to run, considering the servcing cost. This is not a VW or an Audi, even though it is a class leader, especially over it's VW rivals.
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