Ford Focus 1.6

onlyfordwilldo

hey guys,
I am currently driving a 1.3 petrol fiesta and want to upgrade to a 08-09 ford focus 1.6 style/zetec diesel.
I am having a serious problem of not being taking seriously going into dealers enquiring about focus' that they are selling. Maybe its because im only 21 and a girl and not being acompained by a man. they wont let me take any focus for a test drive and just blunty answering my questions. I know a few things about cars like the colour the oil should be, checking the history of the car and the panels should be all the same etc. I want to trade in so i have to do a deal with a dealer / garage, any good ones in galway county? athlone and roscommon has being a disaster so far.
Any other help would be grateful. (I am not going to be bringing any mechanic with me until I am serious enough to buy the car)

Alanstrainor

What year is the fiesta? It might not be worth anything, so even suggesting that they take it as a trade in would turn them off.

onlyfordwilldo

its a 03, with only 81000 miles on it

mullingar

Is it the 1.3 or the 1.25? (both taxed @ 1.3)

kirving

I remember going with a friend to look at a few cars a couple of years ago, and plenty of dealers wouldn't give him the time of day. It's their loss at the end of the day.

nickcleverley

I'm sure your fiesty would be a 1.25 as it is a 2003 but nevertheless that seems like an acceptable trade-in. You often see cars of that year in dealerships.

That's really strange that they won't give you a test drive, have they given you a reason for this?

I have a 1..6 petrol focus, lovely car to drive, I'd recommend one to anyone!

bazz26

OP, does your annual mileage really warranty a diesel car? 81k miles on a 10 year old Fiesta would suggest to me that you don't drive enough to benefit from a diesel car when you take all costs into consideration.

DylanII

bazz26 wrote: »

OP, does your annual mileage really warranty a diesel car? 81k miles on a 10 year old Fiesta would suggest to me that you don't drive enough to benefit from a diesel car when you take all costs into consideration.

But a 1.6 Petrol Focus has less BHP and are about the same price as the diesel.

There would be the extra servicing but otherwise the costs would be the same or less.

nickcleverley

DylanII wrote: »

But a 1.6 Petrol Focus has less BHP and are about the same price as the diesel.

There would be the extra servicing but otherwise the costs would be the same or less.

I didn't think there was any extra costs with the modern diesels having such a small engine? Not like when any diesel had to be at least 1.9 to get up a hill and cost 600 to tax.

bazz26

DylanII wrote: »

But a 1.6 Petrol Focus has less BHP and are about the same price as the diesel.

There would be the extra servicing but otherwise the costs would be the same or less.

A 2008/2009 petrol Focus should be cheaper to buy than a similar year diesel Focus as the petrol is less popular. I know it is a trend at the moment for everyone to buy diesel because of the mpg/motor tax savings but people need to look at the bigger picture and do the maths first rather than just following what the neighbours are doing. If the OP is doing small mileage then she needs to work out how long it will take her to actually make it worth her while spending more on purchasing the diesel model.

bazz26

Another thing to add is that the 1.6 TDCi engine is not known for being the most reliable even if servicing is followed to a tee. They can develop turbo problems and short trips can prematurely cause problems with the DMF or a DPF if fitted. Replacing anyone of these can cost serious money that would wipe out any small savings made at the pump.

Just my 2c.

mullingar

bazz26 wrote: »

Another thing to add is that the 1.6 TDCi engine is not known for being the most reliable even if servicing is followed to a tee. They can develop turbo problems and short trips can prematurely cause problems with the DMF or a DPF if fitted. Replacing anyone of these can cost serious money that would wipe out any small savings made at the pump.

Just my 2c.

There is nothing wrong with the 1.6. Its biggest weakness is that its not very tolerant to poor servicing. The 1.6 is an extremely common engine with extremely few failures that was the fault of the engine itself.

Every diesel engine that has DPF will block if not driven correctly, and its very rare for the 1.6's DMF to fail prematurely. The old 1.8 was near guaranteed to fail by 100kmiles.

Any diesel driven mainly for start-stop driving doing tiny mileage will fail, and fail very expensively as they need to be driven

bazz26

mullingar wrote: »

There is nothing wrong with the 1.6. Its biggest weakness is that its not very tolerant to poor servicing. The 1.6 is an extremely common engine with extremely few failures that was the fault of the engine itself.

Every diesel engine that has DPF will block if not driven correctly, and its very rare for the 1.6's DMF to fail prematurely. The old 1.8 was near guaranteed to fail by 100kmiles.

Any diesel driven mainly for start-stop driving doing tiny mileage will fail, and fail very expensively as they need to be driven

I know that engine very well, I had two cars with it. They are not rock solid in my experience despite how they were cared for.

JohnBoy26

mullingar wrote: »

There is nothing wrong with the 1.6. Its biggest weakness is that its not very tolerant to poor servicing. The 1.6 is an extremely common engine with extremely few failures that was the fault of the engine itself.

Every diesel engine that has DPF will block if not driven correctly, and its very rare for the 1.6's DMF to fail prematurely. The old 1.8 was near guaranteed to fail by 100kmiles.

Any diesel driven mainly for start-stop driving doing tiny mileage will fail, and fail very expensively as they need to be driven

Even properly serviced 1.6 hdi units suffer from the same problems as poorly maintained examples. Also the DMF in the 1.6 also gives problems, 100k miles isn't premature for a DMF to fail imo. I have seen Audi's with less miles than that with dmf failure and these were motoway miles also.

DMF aside, the 1.8 is a more reliable engine than the 1.6 and is livelier as well. Also if a 1.6 diesel is a must , something like a Kia Cee'd or Hyundai I30 are much better options as they have a much nicer more reliable diesel engine than the psa unit in the ford imo.

Mister Jingles

nickcleverley wrote: »

I'm sure your fiesty would be a 1.25 as it is a 2003 but nevertheless that seems like an acceptable trade-in. You often see cars of that year in dealerships.

That's really strange that they won't give you a test drive, have they given you a reason for this?

I have a 1..6 petrol focus, lovely car to drive, I'd recommend one to anyone!

The were many 2002/2003 1.3 Fiestas when the mk6 came out.