Ford Focus 1.6i LX do you suggest?

Cahit

Hi;

Tomorrow I may buy 99 Ford Focus .16i LX for a reasonable price but no nct and no tax, currently I own Peugeot 106 but I want to buy more safe car and good car, any particualr stuff I need to pay attention for the car? any chronicle faults? what should i really examine? and finally do you suggest this car?

Thanks

Cahit

Alanstrainor

Whats the price? Mileage? You have to realise that it is a 10 year old car, and without an nct there could be any number of things wrong with it. Get it checked out by an independent mechanic

EPM

As above. Its 10 years old so get it checked over properly, if buying privately especially. Usually the focus is ok, solid and reliable. If it feels rough to drive then is been abused as these cars can stand up well to being abused. There are loads about so be very picky. And dont go with the 1.4 as its a bit of a dog

Cahit

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Whats the price? Mileage? You have to realise that it is a 10 year old car, and without an nct there could be any number of things wrong with it. Get it checked out by an independent mechanic

1550 the price mileage is 116K, i know 10year old car but for my budget seemed fine thoughour mechanic will not be able to come as hes busy i dont know kinda %50 %0 to buy or not to be honest

Baldie

I'd say no. I have a 00 Focus, 1.6 Zetec. There're to problamatic. I have had to fix the following in my car over the last 18 months;

ABS sensor (common fault) €20
Clutch bearing (common fault) and as a result, the clutch. €500
Ignition coil (common fault) €180
Heater blower resistor (common fault). €15

If you're willing to fork out money every few months then go ahead and get yourself a focus.

Cahit

Baldie wrote: »

I'd say no. I have a 00 Focus, 1.6 Zetec. There're to problamatic. I have had to fix the following in my car over the last 18 months;

ABS sensor (common fault) €20
Clutch bearing (common fault) and as a result, the clutch. €500
Ignition coil (common fault) €180
Heater blower resistor (common fault). €15

If you're willing to fork out money every few months then go ahead and get yourself a focus.

so you woulnt recommend buying it? 1550 would go wated? im really confused now:(

Mr Benevolent

FTW

Honest John's Focus stuff

GERMAN ROCKS

i always wanted to know what ftw means

Tony Broke

Baldie wrote: »

I'd say no. I have a 00 Focus, 1.6 Zetec. There're to problamatic. I have had to fix the following in my car over the last 18 months;

ABS sensor (common fault) €20
Clutch bearing (common fault) and as a result, the clutch. €500
Ignition coil (common fault) €180
Heater blower resistor (common fault). €15

If you're willing to fork out money every few months then go ahead and get yourself a focus.

Things like that happen to every car.I have never owned a Focus ( and dont plan on ), but 800e on maintaince over 18 months is not bad.One of clutches, head gaskets, gear boxes, electrics, water pumps and so on will go in most cars at some point.You may get very lucky and might never have any of those problems, but its just luck at the end of the day.

OP Focus's are a well proven motor, as good as anything in its class.

Mazda 323, Nissan Almera and Kia Rio are also worth looking at.

http://www.driving.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=1318301

http://www.driving.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=1323192

Cahit

Tony Broke wrote: »

Things like that happen to every car.I have never owned a Focus ( and dont plan on ), but 800e on maintaince over 18 months is not bad.One of clutches, head gaskets, gear boxes, electrics, water pumps and so on will go in most cars at some point.You may get very lucky and might never have any of those problems, but its just luck at the end of the day.

OP Focus's are a well proven motor, as good as anything in its class.

Mazda 323, Nissan Almera and Kia Rio are also worth looking at.

http://www.driving.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=1318301

http://www.driving.ie/usedcars/index.cfm?fuseaction=car&carID=1323192

Those cars look nice actually but in Dublin, I live in Limerick well for 1550 this seemed to be a good value i mean focus

Cahit

Confab wrote: »

FTW

Honest John's Focus stuff

There are good and bad points for this review as ABS is one of the most important thing (as my peugeot does not have it right now i struggle to stop it sometimes)

com1

Get the seller to NCT the car before you buy it. It wont guarantee that there are no problems with the car, but at least you wont have problems getting the NCT done yourself and possibly finding expensive problems with it. I would be suspicious of buying a car without an NCT

bazz26

First of all the Focus didn't get ABS as standard until around 2003. Upto that point it was an optional extra on most models except Ghia afaik.

Secondly OP don't buy a car without an NCT, it costs €50 to put a car through the NCT and an hour of the seller's time. Given how hard it is in the current climate to sell cars no NCT would have me believe there is something majorly wrong with the car, the seller probably knows this and wants shot of the car. The car is cheap maybe because it needs alot of work done to it which is uneconomical on a 10 year old car. Given it is a buyer's market and there are plenty of choice out there so why settle for a car that has alot of unanswered questions around it/

Thirdly, don't buy a car (especially one with no NCT) without first having a mechanic check it out. If he is busy wait for him or find anohter. Whether the car cost €1500 or €15000, it's all the same, money down the drain if you buy blindly.

Cahit

bazz26 wrote: »

First of all the Focus didn't get ABS as standard until around 2003. Upto that point it was an optional extra on most models except Ghia afaik.

Secondly OP don't buy a car without an NCT, it costs €50 to put a car through the NCT and an hour of the seller's time. Given how hard it is in the current climate to sell cars no NCT would have me believe there is something majorly wrong with the car, the seller probably knows this and wants shot of the car. The car is cheap maybe because it needs alot of work done to it which is uneconomical on a 10 year old car. Given it is a buyer's market and there are plenty of choice out there so why settle for a car that has alot of unanswered questions around it/

Thirdly, don't buy a car (especially one with no NCT) without first having a mechanic check it out. If he is busy wait for him or find anohter. Whether the car cost €1500 or €15000, it's all the same, money down the drain if you buy blindly.

Thank you, My wifes dad friend will have a look at it and we will decide then see what is wrong and what is good, If he approves we will take the car if not we will leave it.

Cahit

com1 wrote: »

Get the seller to NCT the car before you buy it. It wont guarantee that there are no problems with the car, but at least you wont have problems getting the NCT done yourself and possibly finding expensive problems with it. I would be suspicious of buying a car without an NCT

Probably with NCT he will ask for more money, but yeah we ill have it checked before we are going to buy it, better to be safe than sorry

kermitpwee

No way would i pay 1500 for a ten year old focus with no nct.

EPM

If the seller has nothing to hide get it nct'd before buying it. The problems listed are what you come to expect with an older car but there is no reason why a 10 year old focus cant be as reliable as a 5 year old one. My last car was an 04 focus. I did have a lot of stupid electrical faults-i think it was just a monday morning car personally-but mechanically it was fine. Even the faults were liveable to be honest. Dodgy sunroof and central locking basically. From memory i think the timing belt is 10 years or 100k miles so check to see this is done. It would be maybe 3-400 euro to do. If its a hatch, check the v-shared ridge at the end of the rear screen for signs of corrosion. Water seems to gather there and has been known to cause rust. I'd be going for a ghia saloon as they have a good spec. Should be plenty about

Cahit

kermitpwee wrote: »

No way would i pay 1500 for a ten year old focus with no nct.

I think threre is NCT on it bu expiring in 2 months time so basically it is out of NCT, seemed reasonanble price though my concern is high tax (and will get higher)

Cahit

EPM wrote: »

If the seller has nothing to hide get it nct'd before buying it. The problems listed are what you come to expect with an older car but there is no reason why a 10 year old focus cant be as reliable as a 5 year old one. My last car was an 04 focus. I did have a lot of stupid electrical faults-i think it was just a monday morning car personally-but mechanically it was fine. Even the faults were liveable to be honest. Dodgy sunroof and central locking basically. From memory i think the timing belt is 10 years or 100k miles so check to see this is done. It would be maybe 3-400 euro to do. If its a hatch, check the v-shared ridge at the end of the rear screen for signs of corrosion. Water seems to gather there and has been known to cause rust. I'd be going for a ghia saloon as they have a good spec. Should be plenty about

thanks a lot for your suggestions, I havent bought it yet as it will be checked by number plate so, next time I go to see the car I will check for the corrosion and hopefully our mechanic will able to come with us to check the engine. (I also started to look Honda civic 1.4 just in case)

Top Dog

Much better alternative -> http://www.adverts.ie/showproduct.php?product=97254&cat=2

Cahit

Top Dog wrote: »

Much better alternative -> http://www.adverts.ie/showproduct.php?product=97254&cat=2

seems good alright offered 1600eur but refused so anyway we checked the mileage and it seemed genuine as 4 years ago it was 80.000miles and 2 years agi 102.000 and now 114.000 so seems it is not changed, I will consider other peoples ideas here and get it checked seems very clean and will pass NCT:D thanks Rob, appreciated

Henry Ford III

Cahit wrote: »

seems good alright offered 1600eur but refused so anyway we checked the mileage and it seemed genuine as 4 years ago it was 80.000miles and 2 years agi 102.000 and now 114.000 so seems it is not changed, I will consider other peoples ideas here and get it checked seems very clean and will pass NCT:D thanks Rob, appreciated

Did you make an offer on a car you haven't seen nor driven?

Cahit

Henry Ford III wrote: »

Did you make an offer on a car you haven't seen nor driven?

yeah I did as its just passed NCT and since it is far from Limerick made the offer if he had accepted id take my mechanic and have it looked dunno if it sounds right ?