Ford Focus Estate 2.0i 16V

...service people at my local ford dealership.

I have now had experience of 2 road accidents with my focus, one of them I was in the car. The first accident happened last summer, a large dumper truck came round a sharp bend and a rock fell off of his load onto the front bumper of the car and rolled underneath. When the accident first happened I thought the damage was going to be severe but luckily the bumper only got a scratch and the ...
...limited damage for the severity of the accident.

The second accident, which I was not involved in, was a little bit more serious. Two members of my family were in the car, a van pulled out in front of an oncoming car, the car swerved and lost control, it then spun 180 degrees and the rear of it impacted the front driver side of the focus at 40 mph. At 40 mph obviously both cars were written off. The car that hit the focus was a 1990's ... more

I could not wait to write a review on this car. I recently picked one up for around £4000 from a company called motoselect (as you can see from the pictures), which in my opinion is a fair price for the condition the car was in. I have the hatchback version and not the estate, however I thought I would put my review here as it was the closest to my model. Ok to the review, I will start out by laying out some of the cars specifications and technical jargon.

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Specifications- Taken from Ford
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-1,988 cc 2 litres 4 in-line engine with 84.8 mm bore, 88 mm stroke, 9.6 compression ratio, double overhead cam and four valves per cylinder
-Unleaded fuel
-Fuel Economy (According to the dashboard Computer ) 25MPG!
-Main 50 litre unleaded fuel tank
-130 HP @ 5,300 rpm;
-0-60 in 9 seconds
-50-70 in 5.5 seconds
-Premium Audio system
-Rear parcel shelf
-Clock
-Dashboard partial console
-Front seats and rear seats cup holders
-Door ajar warning
-Door pockets/bins for driver seat and passenger seat
-Driver and passenger front airbag
-3-point reel height adjustable front seat belts on driver seat and passenger seat with pre-tensioners
-Glove compartment
-Height adjustable two head restraints on front seats
-Internal dimensions: front headroom (mm): 998, rear headroom (mm): 983, front hip room (mm): 1,255, rear hip room (mm): 1,257, front leg room (mm): 1,095, rear leg room (mm): 955, front shoulder room (mm): 1,364, rear shoulder room (mm): 1,359 and interior volume (litres): 2,656
-Low fuel level warning
-Power steering
-3-point reel rear seat belts on driver side, passenger side and centre side
-Rear view mirror
-Electric remote trunk/hatch release
-Seating: five seats
-Four speakers
-Leather covered steering wheel
-Tachometer
-Driver and passenger mirror
-Ventilation system with recirculation setting

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Inside and Out
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The inside of the car is very spacious and you can easily fit in 5 grown adults. For me this is essential as if I'm going out and I want to be able to take as many people comfortably with me as possible. The upholstery in my model is perfectly adequate, it is a dark grey pattern and the comfort level is fine even for long drives. The wooden effect dashboard is slightly "tacky" but that has always been a feature with Ghia models so I guess I will have to put up with it for the extra features.

One of the cars best points is the features it has. On the dashboard there is a little information computer which can be changed using a stick behind the steering wheel, almost like the indicator, this can be used to tell you the average speed, average Mpg and others; I personally found this quite useful.

It has electric windows throughout the car which is handy and the back windows don't open too far so it is safe for small children. I think they can also be turned of if needs be, but I will have to check that out.

Both windscreens have a fast defrost feature which is quite efficient, I still have to use a screen defrosting fluid though to melt the frost quickly (I have definitely been able to test this recently!).

The air conditioning is also very effective, in the summer the car is often cooled in a matter of minutes and in winter the car can take a little while to warm up as obviously the engine is cold and it relies on the heat from the engine overall I would say 4.5/5.

The car has front lights, including fog lights, which are fully adjustable and as with any car offer a dipped and full beam. I have noticed however that they can get dirty fairly quick so before a long drive remember to get a piece of tissue and give them a quick wipe. This can prove to be so helpful when night driving. Rear lights are pretty much standard two side brake lights and a strip brake light, which give people plenty of warning that you are breaking. It only has a reversing light on one side, which should be noted as it is not always that clear that you are planning to reverse. Internal lights are also adequate and automatically come on when the door is opened. Both front vanity mirrors also have lights.

The in-car stereo is amazing, sound quality is excellent. The Ghia comes with a 6 CD changer as standard, a tape deck and an am/fm radio which has traffic and news program. The speakers are pretty good and suitable for pretty anyone other than those people wanting to be heard booming out bass from a mile away! The volume, tracks and radio can be controlled from a stick behind the steering wheel. This helps save you from starring at the radio and crashing!

I just realised that I had really mentionsed the exterior looks! Well the pictures down the bottom speak for themselves you either like it or you don't. I will mention here that the rear visibility is a touch poor so if you big on reversing the focus is not ideal. The rear of the car is a little bulky but this has never been a problem for me and just means I have a big boot! Cars should always say something about the person that drives them in my opinion and for me big and broad is quite suiting!

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Driving
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The ride of the focus is like no other car I have been in, it is smooth but slightly firm. This gives for excellent grip and you will definitely have faith in it when going around bends. Talking about bends I will now mention the steering. The turning circle is a little poor, and you will have to make sure you take the right line in when doing a U-turn or a tight manoeuvre other than that it feels good when steering during general driving, and can be quite a thrill when driving down a country lane!

The engine has got plenty of power being a 2.0l with 130 Bhp, this means you can leave those sluggish boy racers for dead! But you must remember that larger engines are also less economical even if they are more fun! Generally the car seems to like to cruise at around 75mph during motorway driving. To give you an idea of how gear changes are I left the gear ratios below, the clutch is nice and smooth and you can easily get away with a bit of a sloppy change. Getting the biting point is easy enough and normally it's quite near the top of the clutch, if you find its almost right at the top you might have to think about getting a new clutch.

Gear Ratios
1-15 MPH 1st gear
10-60 MPH 2nd gear
20-80 MPH 3rd gear
30-110 MPH 4th gear
40-133 MPH 5th gear

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Reliability, Safety and Security
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I have been driving focuses for about 3 years now. So far I have required a new clutch, 8 new tyres and some wiper blades. In my opinion that's not bad around £1000 in total for 3 years worth of repairs, I have experienced no problems with the service people at my local ford dealership.

I have now had experience of 2 road accidents with my focus, one of them I was in the car. The first accident happened last summer, a large dumper truck came round a sharp bend and a rock fell off of his load onto the front bumper of the car and rolled underneath. When the accident first happened I thought the damage was going to be severe but luckily the bumper only got a scratch and the protective shield under the car was cracked, this was very limited damage for the severity of the accident.

The second accident, which I was not involved in, was a little bit more serious. Two members of my family were in the car, a van pulled out in front of an oncoming car, the car swerved and lost control, it then spun 180 degrees and the rear of it impacted the front driver side of the focus at 40 mph. At 40 mph obviously both cars were written off. The car that hit the focus was a 1990's Honda civic; the front of the focus snapped the rear axel and the focus sustained damage to the bonnet and the engine. Luckily my sister had managed to slow down to below 30 mph so airbags were not deployed. My sister the driver incurred a small amount of temporary nerve damage to her right leg along with some whiplash and my mother the front passenger also suffered some whiplash as did the driver of the civic. Nobody was permanently injured, which if you could look at the pictures, was a miracle. This accident has just built my confidence with the focus it stood up to a combined 60+ mph crash without severely injuring any of the occupants.

Euro NCAP Safety link

http://www.euroncap.com/content/safety_ratings/details.php?id1=2&id2=34

I have never had a problem with security, which is good I guess, and the car features a remote central locking system on the key. The key also has a boot open button which comes in handy if you have been shopping and are returning to your car.

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Pricing
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Second hand 2.0 Ghia: 1998-1999 £3000-£4000 depending on condition
2000:2001 £3500 - £5000
2002 onwards £5000+

Brand new 2.0 Focus Ghia: Around £14,000

If you can find a 1999 onwards second hand focus for around £3500 then this could make a brilliant first car if you can afford it.

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Final Judgement
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The car is simply outstanding and, in my opinion, one of our countries best cars. I have driven a lot of cars including a Jaguar X-type estate, a Volvo V70 estate, a Vauxhall Corsa 1.4i design, I learnt in a 1.0 Vauxhall corsa (dreadful thing) and a new Nissan Micra; I can say this car is definately my favourite. It is great value and easy to drive, for a manual anyway. One of the main points is safety and this car is safe, I believe it is 4 stars NCAP rated, I never have to worry about crashing as I feel safe and secure when I am driving. So if you want a car with good looks, good features for a reasonably low price look no further than a focus!

 

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