Which Focus diesel?

Boardwatcher

Hi guys

I have posted here before about updating my car and was leaning heavily towards a diesel focus.

I have my eye on a 2009 diesel Focus which is the 1.8tdci coming in at around 15.5k cash or he may possibly take a trade in on my 2002 petrol primera.

I have not driven the 1.8tdci yet. I recently drove a 1.6tdci and found it to be quite nice, though the drive was short and on a flat good quality road.

Do people have an opinion on which is the better engine/car of the two. I have heard the 1.6 is actually a French (renault?) engine? I know there is a slight road tax difference, but the seller was trying the tell me the i.8 is a much better car?

Any help greatly appreciated as am going to look at it in the coming days.

Zonda999

Boardwatcher wrote: »

Hi guys

I have posted here before about updating my car and was leaning heavily towards a diesel focus.

I have my eye on a 2009 diesel Focus which is the 1.8tdci coming in at around 15.5k cash or he may possibly take a trade in on my 2002 petrol primera.

I have not driven the 1.8tdci yet. I recently drove a 1.6tdci and found it to be quite nice, though the drive was short and on a flat good quality road.

Do people have an opinion on which is the better engine/car of the two. I have heard the 1.6 is actually a French (renault?) engine? I know there is a slight road tax difference, but the seller was trying the tell me the i.8 is a much better car?

Any help greatly appreciated as am going to look at it in the coming days.

Nearly everyone on this forum will tell you that the 1.6 is the better engine, far more modern, less noisy, less turbo lag, lower road tax..

steve french

Boardwatcher wrote: »

I have heard the 1.6 is actually a French (renault?) engine?

the 1.6 is the same as the peugeot hdi 1.6. i think it was jointly developed but i have the 1.6 tdci with 100000 miles on it and has not given the slightest bit of trouble. so i would definetly recommend the 1.6

Mc Love

Just bought the 1.6 tdci recently and I love it after coming from a 1.4 petrol!

mumblin deaf ro

I have the 1.6 tdci and it's great. The 1.8 units are ford engines (1.6 is a peugeot engine) - I haven't driven the 1.8L, but if you do a search here you'll find that people who post here have a preference for the 1.6L, which is also used on the volvo s40 and v50 i believe.

bazz26

Boardwatcher wrote: »

Hi guys

I have posted here before about updating my car and was leaning heavily towards a diesel focus.

I have my eye on a 2009 diesel Focus which is the 1.8tdci coming in at around 15.5k cash or he may possibly take a trade in on my 2002 petrol primera.

I have not driven the 1.8tdci yet. I recently drove a 1.6tdci and found it to be quite nice, though the drive was short and on a flat good quality road.

Do people have an opinion on which is the better engine/car of the two. I have heard the 1.6 is actually a French (renault?) engine? I know there is a slight road tax difference, but the seller was trying the tell me the i.8 is a much better car?

Any help greatly appreciated as am going to look at it in the coming days.

Well the seller is going to say that isn't he.

The 1.6 TDCi is superior to the 1.8 litre. The 1.8 litre is the same basic block that has been around since the Sierra, it has been modified over the years to include common rail technology. Compared to the 1.6 litre it is a bit unrefined and not as frugal. The 1.8 litre also has a narrower power band than the 1.6 litre neaning you get all the power delivered between 1.5 and 2 x 10000 rpm. The 1.6 litre is alot more flexible and power delivery is alot more similar a petrol engine.

The 1.6 TDCi is a joint venture with Peugeot/Citroen (PSA), with Ford fitting their own turbo and other little modifications afaik. There are two versions of this engine 90bhp and 110bhp, I had a Focus with the 110bhp version and it suited the car perfectly, nippy and you will get around 1000km from a full tank of diesel. I had the car two years and put well over 60k miles on it with no issues.

I now have the same engine in my current car, a Volvo S40. It struggles a bit with the weight of the S40 but again the car has covered nearly 80k miles and there have been no issues with it either to date.

Dopey

Mc Love wrote: »

Just bought the 1.6 tdci recently and I love it after coming from a 1.4 petrol!

same here

daveharnett

Boardwatcher wrote: »

Do people have an opinion on which is the better engine/car of the two. I have heard the 1.6 is actually a French (renault?) engine? I know there is a slight road tax difference, but the seller was trying the tell me the i.8 is a much better car?

The 1.8 is very responsive, but is quite loud if you put the foot down (even a little).

By all accounts, the 1.6's lower power makes a difference, but there is a 108bhp version out there too (not sure if they were sold in Ireland, but there are some in the market and they are very importable).

Row

I've got the 1.6 hdi in a 407 and its well able to pull it along...:)
Average Mpg is in the mid 50's.
Oil Change intervals are 12,000mls but i normally change mine @9,000 mls and use a good quailty low ash oil which is dpf friendly.. (mobil 1 5w/30 esp)
frequent oil changes are critical on these engines...;)

Also the diesel partical filter may need attention at around 100,000ish...But nearly all modern diesel engines today have dpf's fitted ..:eek:

Martron

i had the 06 1.6 and the 08 1.8 diesels.

and i did not notice much of a difference to be honest.

the only test i did was with a colleague on a road project. we had a bit of a straight line race ( on a closed road) and you only notice a diference from about 70kph and its not much of a difference. 1.8 slightly faster and the the 1.8 had slightly better efficiency on long journey.

but if the 1.6 is way cheaper i would go fir the 1.6 as the difference is not great. but if they are the same price i would go for 1.8

GTE

With the Peugeot connection that Im reading here I would go for the 1.6 over the all Ford 1.8.

Thats not what my post is about. Just general advice that cropped up when I was looking for diesels in the last year. Make sure it was serviced very well and the correct oil was used.

These high pressure common rail diesel engines and VW pump dusse engines put more demands on the oil from what I have read. I think its to do with temperatures. So, make sure its been serviced very well and by a good place.

slave1

Just bought the 1.6 tdci recently and I love it after coming from a 1.4 petrol!

+1, getting ~ 800km around the town on a full tank

Boardwatcher

daveharnett wrote: »

The 1.8 is very responsive, but is quite loud if you put the foot down (even a little).

By all accounts, the 1.6's lower power makes a difference, but there is a 108bhp version out there too (not sure if they were sold in Ireland, but there are some in the market and they are very importable).

Yes i was on parkers car reviews last night and several people commented on the loud road noise in the cabin on the 1.8tdci. I will have to see if and when i take the car out on a spin.

Dont talk to me about importing:( have had 3 seperate people on the case since january and not one can come up with a focus diesel from 2008

Boardwatcher

Martron wrote: »

i had the 06 1.6 and the 08 1.8 diesels.

but if the 1.6 is way cheaper i would go fir the 1.6 as the difference is not great. but if they are the same price i would go for 1.8

Get this, i looked at a 2008 1.6tdci Zetec in a ford dealers with a sticker price of 16.5k. He did not come back to me when i offered him 12k with my own car as a trade in with a new NCT.

This 1.8tdci Zetec is a 2009 model with a cash price of 15.5k. He has not given me a price on a trade in as he wants to see my car first.

So going by that, the year younger 1.8 is the cheaper car.

Mc Love

Boardwatcher wrote: »

Dont talk to me about importing:( have had 3 seperate people on the case since january and not one can come up with a focus diesel from 2008

They havent been looking very hard

Stevie Dakota

Boardwatcher wrote: »

Dont talk to me about importing:( have had 3 seperate people on the case since january and not one can come up with a focus diesel from 2008

Care to elaborate? The UK is awash with them.

bazz26

A friend of my dad's buys a few cars in the UK regularly, owns them for around 6 to 8 months and then sells them on. He generally buys cars like the Focus, Mondeo, etc that are easy enough to sell on here. Was chatting to him recently and he said the number and quality of used cars for sale in the UK has dwindled in the last 12 months. The tidy stuff is snapped up straight away but the rubbish passes from auction house to car supermarket to auction house again.

Boardwatcher

bazz26 wrote: »

The tidy stuff is snapped up straight away but the rubbish passes from auction house to car supermarket to auction house again.

This is exactly the feedback i have gotten and you have answered sevie dakota's question above yours. It seems there are not many around and the good ones are gone in a flash!:(