ford focus petrol or diesel? whats best? maybe a completely different car?

The Mask 13

Just looking for any advice at all. I'm going to spend about 2000-2500 on a car to get me to college and back, something really reliable, decent fuel consumption and if something does go wrong it wont be too expensive. I drive about 30 miles per day so not that much. I realise the diesel would be better on fuel but if something goes wrong like the turbo, flywheel, dpf it'll be expensive. But is the 1.4 or 1.6 petrol a good engine? A 2006-2007 would be in my price range but i'm open to any suggestions of other cars, i had a peugeot 206 and citroen xsara and had nothing but trouble so looking for something reliable this time. Thanks in advance

colm_mcm

Petrol Corolla

The Mask 13

yeah i was looking at those but for the same money for an 06 focus you'd only get an 03 corolla

colm_mcm

Yeah, but Focus are overrated and the 1.4 is a dead duck.
You might be able to do better than 03 in the Corolla on your budget though.

colm_mcm

Here's an 06 with all the gear
https://www.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/toyota-corolla-1-4-vvt-i-t3-quotnew-nct-quot/13648949

Skatedude

Are you ok for insurance as that can have a big influence on what you will be allowed to buy?

The Mask 13

i didnt think i'd get an 06 for that price thanks for the reply

colm_mcm

There's a good few out there. That ones nice spec and colour so worth a look.

goat2

the ford focus is such a reliable car, I see so many of the 2001 to today on the road and they look great, I drive a ford fiesta and love it, the thing is 10 yrs old and never ever had me visit the garage only prior to the nct tests, also great on the pocket, this is my experience

colm_mcm

There were bazillions of them sold new.

The Mask 13

yeah insurance is fine and ive a full license. i'm driving an 03 1.3 ford fiesta for the last 6 months and it hasnt given any trouble it seems to be fairly reliable compared to what i previously had. The only bad thing is its really small, really dead and not great on fuel.

The Mask 13

yeah thanks i'll definitely have a look into that

bazz26

The 1.4 litre petrol Focus is woefully underpowered, you would want to be looking at the 1.6 litre petrol version to match the performance of the 1.4 litre in the Corolla.

The Mask 13

bazz26 wrote: »

The 1.4 litre petrol Focus is woefully underpowered, you would want to be looking at the 1.6 litre petrol version to match the performance of the 1.4 litre in the Corolla.

i was thinking the same. The tax isnt much in the difference anyway and i cant imagine the fuel consumption will be much worse than the 1.4 either. Its a bit heavy for a 1.4 engine you'd probably spend a lot of time in the high revs trying to pick up any speed at all.

bazz26

It's not that the body is too heavy for the car it's just that the power output of the engine is poor. The 1.4 litre in the Focus produces 80bhp while the 1.4 litre in the Corolla produces 97bhp. A Focus and Corolla would nearly be the same weight.

grogi

The Mask 13 wrote: »

yeah i was looking at those but for the same money for an 06 focus you'd only get an 03 corolla

Why could that be...?

al_g

goat2 wrote: »

the ford focus is such a reliable car, I see so many of the 2001 to today on the road and they look great, I drive a ford fiesta and love it, the thing is 10 yrs old and never ever had me visit the garage only prior to the nct tests, also great on the pocket, this is my experience

Repped I'm driving a 1.4 TDI Fiesta vanette since January 2009, best car i ever drove. It is 12 years old and just passed the cvrt.

JohnBoy26

The Mask 13 wrote: »

i was thinking the same. The tax isnt much in the difference anyway and i cant imagine the fuel consumption will be much worse than the 1.4 either. Its a bit heavy for a 1.4 engine you'd probably spend a lot of time in the high revs trying to pick up any speed at all.

There is a significant difference in tax actually, or at least there is when you are on a budget. Tax on the 1.4 is €385 per year and tax on the 1.6 is €514 per year.

I had both the 1.4 and 1.6 (mk1 focuses) and both burned a lot of oil, suffered niggles like central locking, door lock problems and coil pack failures.

The 1.6 was livlier but was harder on fuel and whilst the 1.4 was underpowered it wasn't noticeably so until you drove the 1.6. The difference in performance is bigger in the mk2 due to the weight of the car.

The corolla is better in almost everyway. It's more reliable, better built, more pleasant and more comfortable to drive and the vvti engine offers the same performance as the 1.6 in the focus whilst also being more economical, more free revving and more refined. It's also cheaper to tax.

JohnBoy26

goat2 wrote: »

the ford focus is such a reliable car, I see so many of the 2001 to today on the road and they look great, I drive a ford fiesta and love it, the thing is 10 yrs old and never ever had me visit the garage only prior to the nct tests, also great on the pocket, this is my experience

A lot of them are in the scrapyard due to engine issues and rust.

I think they aged very badly too, especially the facelift for some reason.

The Mask 13

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

There is a significant difference in tax actually, or at least there is when you are on a budget. Tax on the 1.4 is €385 per year and tax on the 1.6 is €514 per year.

I had both the 1.4 and 1.6 (mk1 focuses) and both burned a lot of oil, suffered niggles like central locking, door lock problems and coil pack failures.

The 1.6 was livlier but was harder on fuel and whilst the 1.4 was underpowered it wasn't noticeably so until you drove the 1.6. The difference in performance is bigger in the mk2 due to the weight of the car.

The corolla is better in almost everyway. It's more reliable, better built, more pleasant and more comfortable to drive and the vvti engine offers the same performance as the 1.6 in the focus whilst also being more economical, more free revving and more refined. It's also cheaper to tax.

thanks for the reply, i know what you are saying but for the same year in a corolla its slightly more expensive which obviously tells me one thing of course and the mileage on most ive seen is a lot higher than that of the same year on a focus. would i be silly to even consider a corolla with 150,000 on the clock? i know the japs can go forever

JohnBoy26

The Mask 13 wrote: »

thanks for the reply, i know what you are saying but for the same year in a corolla its slightly more expensive which obviously tells me one thing of course and the mileage on most ive seen is a lot higher than that of the same year on a focus. would i be silly to even consider a corolla with 150,000 on the clock? i know the japs can go forever

Well my focuses had small mileage, one had 68k on it and the other had 75k miles. Both felt a bit old even at that mileage despite being well maintained genuine examples.

In my experience the corolla can take the miles better and just feel better screwed together. I wouldn't get fixated on the mileage either. It's only one factor, the care the car got throughout it's life is a bigger factor imo.