Ford Focus 2008/09

Ferris_Bueller

Hi all, I'm hoping some of you could share some of your knowledge as I am absolutely clueless when it comes to cars.

Looking at getting a new car (upgrade on a banjaxed '01 Clio), and had a Ford Focus in mind. My budget is around €5500, it seems as if I should be able to pick up a 2008/09 1.6 Diesel Focus for in and around this price. Does anyone have any advice on what to look out for? The mileage generally seems to be high enough on them, two I was thinking about going to have a look at were around 120k (08) and 130k (09). Is this too high or would it be acceptable?

Any difference in buying from a dealer or buying privately from donedeal?

Atlantic Dawn

Make sure you check the service history and run a full car history check regardless if private or from a dealer.

bazz26

Was your Clio petrol or diesel? If it was petrol has your typical journey or annual mileage increased that you are considering diesel?

130k miles is going to be the norm for an average 8 year diesel car at this stage. Those 1.6 TDCi engines are finicky enough and don't tolerate any sort of abuse or neglect from previous owners and there are a fair share of bad ones out there.

Ferris_Bueller

Service history is a good idea. I was going to bring my mechanic with me to have a look before I make a purchase as he is a family friend.

No there is no real reason why I was looking at a diesel, just the majority of focus out there seem to be diesel engines. With my commute to work I'd be driving about 300 miles a week or about 15k a year.

AnCatDubh

120k/130k miles or kms?

a 03 focus 1.8 TDCi got me 460,000kms when I replaced it (obviously with some replacing of parts along the way).

a 06 focus 1.6 TDCi got me 300,000kms with not a lot needing to be done outside of normal servicing. Was starting to get a bit "rattley" and circumstances were right so i've changed it now. If I recall correctly from my time with the older focus (1.8), it was in and around then (300k kms) that I started requiring to make regular relatively large investments in new parts of one kind or another for it. I didn't mind continuing to pay money to have it maintained but each trip with it to the mechanics was a disruption from work and getting a bit too regular.

I don't own or haven't owned an 08 or 09 model, but on track record of those I have owned I wouldn't be at all concerned with 120 or 130k kms on one if I were buying and if you are dong 15k a year, then you should easily get a decent few years out of it.

Ferris_Bueller

AnCatDubh wrote: »

120k/130k miles or kms?

a 03 focus 1.8 TDCi got me 460,000kms when I replaced it (obviously with some replacing of parts along the way).

a 06 focus 1.6 TDCi got me 300,000kms with not a lot needing to be done outside of normal servicing. Was starting to get a bit "rattley" and circumstances were right so i've changed it now. If I recall correctly from my time with the older focus (1.8), it was in and around then (300k kms) that I started requiring to make regular relatively large investments in new parts of one kind or another for it. I didn't mind continuing to pay money to have it maintained but each trip with it to the mechanics was a disruption from work and getting a bit too regular.

I don't own or haven't owned an 08 or 09 model, but on track record of those I have owned I wouldn't be at all concerned with 120 or 130k kms on one if I were buying and if you are dong 15k a year, then you should easily get a decent few years out of it.

Sorry I must have put a typo in my post, it's 130,000 miles on the car. And I meant to say I would be doing around 15000 miles a year not km. Still good to hear that you got good usage out of your car.. Would ideally be looking for one closer to 100,000 then realistically.

bazz26

A Kia Ceed 1.6 diesel would be a far less risky proposition imo. Better still if your mileage is only average then your money will go alot further on a less complex petrol car.

9935452

bazz26 wrote: »

Was your Clio petrol or diesel? If it was petrol has your typical journey or annual mileage increased that you are considering diesel?

130k miles is going to be the norm for an average 8 year diesel car at this stage. Those 1.6 TDCi engines are finicky enough and don't tolerate any sort of abuse or neglect from previous owners and there are a fair share of bad ones out there.

Bazz is right here, The 1.6 engines if not serviced to a t are known to cause a lot of bother.
Best advice is look for a 1.8 diesel. They have a better reputation

Ferris_Bueller

Cheers for some of the tips lads.

Had a car lined up to buy tomorrow which seemed a decent price, went ahead like someone mentioned and got the cartell check done on it, what I found was it was a UK import and had the mileage tampered with, it had 100,000 miles on it in 2011 but then for it's next MOT in 2012 only had 50,000. Currently sitting on 120,000 so realistically it has somewhere around 180,000 miles on it which is quite high for a 2008 (too high would you all agree or is there any point in taking a chance?). Felt for the owner as I genuinely don't think he had a clue about this.

Wanting to just get my hands on a new car I proceeded to check out another car I had gone to look at earlier in the week (2nd choice), onto cartell again and paid the €35. Low and behold the exact same problem as the other car, mileage had been tampered with and it was last serviced in England in 2012 at 170,000 miles despite it now being advertised at 130,000 miles.

Really losing faith here and getting highly frustrated, is this common for cars imported from the UK or have I just been unlucky with the 2 I have gone to see? €70 well spent in the end I suppose but I'm feeling like I might never find a genuine car at this stage.

bazz26

If your looking at the cheapest examples of certain models for that year then chances are they are cheaper for a reason.

Also you can put the UK reg into this free MOT checker and it will tell you the mileage:

https://www.check-mot.service.gov.uk/

There is also a entire thread on the main motors forum about cars from the UK that are being clocked and sold on by lowlifes over here.

Ferris_Bueller

Thanks bazz, that is the website I have been using to check the mileage of the cars alright but I have had to pay for the car history check on cartell in order to get the UK reg in the first place. I might have a look over in the main forum at that thread.

What kind of mileage would you consider too high if there is such a thing?

punisher5112

Look at 1.8 or 2.0 as said above 1.6 are soft and really need to be cared for.

I have 2.0 tdci Mondeo coming up close to 300k kilometres going strong on original turbo only thing changed was original dual mass fly wheel and clutch.

bazz26

A lot of UK imports coming in are ex fleet cars that cover very high mileage but are driven on good roads and maintained properly over there. These cars because they are well looked after can hide high mileage very well. They are cheap to buy at auctions over there and then the mileage is altered once they are landed over here. Problem is that for example a 2008/2009 UK import Focus diesel could easily have had 200k miles on it but looks like a car with only half that mileage on it. Chancer over here then shaves 70k miles off it so sells it with 130k miles on the clock and most buyers would think that's hardy clocked and would not suspect that 70k miles is missing so don't do any background checks.

The best way to avoid getting caught is to do proper background checks and scrutinise the service history, ie ring the dealers who stamped the service book. The Focus for example is one of the biggest selling cars in the UK and as such there are a vast amount of them for sale over there and the higher the mileage on them the cheaper they tend to be to buy which in turn means there is more profit in selling them on over here clocked. Unfortunately your budget and target market puts you right in the area of the dodgy ones.

Benmoore86

Being a ford tech I'd advise going for the 1.8 if you can
The 1.6 are not a great engine at all, also a 08- car will have a dpf which requires regular motorway driving and a uk 1.6 of that year uses an older system which is crap!
For a short commute a petrol would be far more practical imo

DakarVert

Ferris_Bueller wrote: »

Thanks bazz, that is the website I have been using to check the mileage of the cars alright but I have had to pay for the car history check on cartell in order to get the UK reg in the first place. I might have a look over in the main forum at that thread.

What kind of mileage would you consider too high if there is such a thing?

There's ways to get the UK Reg from an Irish one.... (I can only do Fords though)

Feel free to PM me and with a link or an Irish Reg and I'll get you the Uk Reg.

bazz26

A DPF was only fitted to the 110bhp version of the 1.6 TDCi, the 90bhp version did not have one back then. It was only from 2011 that DPFs were mandatory by which time Ford dropped both the 90bhp 1.6 TDCi and 115bhp 1.8 TDCi engines from the MkII Focus.

Also while the 1.8 TDCi is more reliable than the 1.6 TDCi, it still can suffer from premature failure of the "wet" timing belt so make sure there is service history to prove the belt was replaced as it's labour intensive job that costs around €800 to do.

Ferris_Bueller

Thanks for the advice lads appreciate it a lot as I know next to nothing about cars, the whole thing has myself and the auld lad in a state of confusion. I'm currently driving a 1.2 so the thing that was putting me off a 1.8 was that my insurance would probably spike. The website motorcheck.ie to check if a car is a UK import for free, I think I am just going to steer clear of UK imports as each time I would be spending €30 to check them out. Myself and my dad were wondering if it would be worth our while for a trip up the north ourselves as there seems to be a bit of value in it and it is obviously what a lot of people are doing before selling the cars down here, at least we can check the MOT history too for free.

punisher5112

Ferris_Bueller wrote: »

Thanks for the advice lads appreciate it a lot as I know next to nothing about cars, the whole thing has myself and the auld lad in a state of confusion. I'm currently driving a 1.2 so the thing that was putting me off a 1.8 was that my insurance would probably spike. The website motorcheck.ie to check if a car is a UK import for free, I think I am just going to steer clear of UK imports as each time I would be spending €30 to check them out. Myself and my dad were wondering if it would be worth our while for a trip up the north ourselves as there seems to be a bit of value in it and it is obviously what a lot of people are doing before selling the cars down here, at least we can check the MOT history too for free.

Cars from the north you can't check for free only cars from mainland uk.

Be careful of what areas up north as rust from salted roads can cause many issues.

Look up autotrader.co.uk and check through in UK. With the pound down you may get a good deal.

wally1990

I have a 1.6 diesel 2009 focus TDCI ZETEC bought it back in July and upgraded from a Opel corsa 1.0 . I was looking around for ages at Astras and insignia(apparently rubbish up to 2011h and seats but settled on the Ford for reliability and parts being easy to source . I am very happy with my decision. My insurance went up 400 with my renewal but I priced around and got it for the same price as the year before when I had a 1 litre corsa petrol so happy out to be honest . It's a spacious car for the type and the boot is huge which is handy so I'd recommend for your budget

Ferris_Bueller

Ah didn't know you couldn't get free MOT checks on cars up the north. Getting a new car is turning out to be a massive pain in the arse really, all I have learned is that Ireland seems like the perfect target to sell dodgy used cars.

Ferris_Bueller

Another quick question for you, on a VRC does it mention if your car was a U.K. import or is there any documentation anyone would have where it would give the previous U.K. reg on a car? If each owner had access to this I might just ask them straight up for the previous reg and check it online.

bazz26

The original UK reg number is listed on the car's Irish VRC. The seller should have no problem giving this over the phone.