The wife's new shed - Auto for under £1k! - ford focus
Discussion
The wife has been without a car for a little over a year now, she scrapped her last car which was funnily enough another ford focus, when money was a little tight and we knew it would need a bit of work to get through an MOT.
She's been wanting another car for the past few months. She can only drive automatic and because she will only use it to get around town, do the school run etc we didn't see the point in spending more than £1500 on anything.
This one popped up on Facebook marketplace with a Very honest listing at just £695! I dropped the seller a message yesterday and collected it today.
So what is it?
A 2000 ford focus 1.6 Zetec.
Automatic.
Petrol.
5 door.
Owned by an elderly lady for the last 15 years who only used it to drive to her daughter's house 1.5 miles away!
Currently on 71,000 miles.
MOT until November.
Cosmetically it isn't amazing. It needs a really good clean but we're not bothered about looks. It runs and drives really well for a 22 year old ford focus.... I barely fit in it but it's not my car
The one problem.... It's got a power steering fluid leak. Nothing I'm worried about. It appears to be a split pipe so should be an easy and cheap fix.
Ill be giving it a good clean tomorrow weather permitting
Other than treating it to a clean and some new number plates (old ones deteriorated) it shouldn't need anything but I'll keep this thread updated.
(Edited because I got the year wrong)
She's been wanting another car for the past few months. She can only drive automatic and because she will only use it to get around town, do the school run etc we didn't see the point in spending more than £1500 on anything.
This one popped up on Facebook marketplace with a Very honest listing at just £695! I dropped the seller a message yesterday and collected it today.
So what is it?
A 2000 ford focus 1.6 Zetec.
Automatic.
Petrol.
5 door.
Owned by an elderly lady for the last 15 years who only used it to drive to her daughter's house 1.5 miles away!
Currently on 71,000 miles.
MOT until November.
Cosmetically it isn't amazing. It needs a really good clean but we're not bothered about looks. It runs and drives really well for a 22 year old ford focus.... I barely fit in it but it's not my car
The one problem.... It's got a power steering fluid leak. Nothing I'm worried about. It appears to be a split pipe so should be an easy and cheap fix.
Ill be giving it a good clean tomorrow weather permitting
Other than treating it to a clean and some new number plates (old ones deteriorated) it shouldn't need anything but I'll keep this thread updated.
(Edited because I got the year wrong)
Edited by BigHeavy10 on Wednesday 6th September 07:31
ScoobyChris said:
Excellent. We are still on the lookout for a sub 1k reliable auto for Mrs ScoobyChris and they appear very thin on the ground!!
Chris
Very. We've been keeping an eye on the market for the last three months at least, there's very little out there that fits the bill. Chris
budgie smuggler said:
Glosphil said:
71000 miles in 15 years doing only 3 mile return trips. That's a lot of trips - all with a cold engine & oil. Roughly 1500 trips a year - 30 a week - 4 a day.
If I'm reading it correctly she was the second owner?We just sold last month my girlfriend’s 2003 Focus 1.6 Zetec.
It had only done 72000 miles but the list of advisories on the last MOT would have been expensive to correct this year and corrosion had taken hold in the sills.
We had it for 5 years, bought it for £350 and sold it to WBAC for £290 . Most we ever needed to do was buy tyres to get it though an MOT.
It still drove sweetly when we sold it.
It had only done 72000 miles but the list of advisories on the last MOT would have been expensive to correct this year and corrosion had taken hold in the sills.
We had it for 5 years, bought it for £350 and sold it to WBAC for £290 . Most we ever needed to do was buy tyres to get it though an MOT.
It still drove sweetly when we sold it.
BigHeavy10 said:
Power steering fluid leak has been fixed. Turned out to be the power steering pressure sensor. Apparently a very common issue with these and a nice cheap fix. The part was £12.
Spent a few quid on a jet wash, scrubs up alright.
That’s come up well. I had a similar era 1.8d. The 88 bhp/ps ? Model. Best car ever, pound for pound, for me. Spent a few quid on a jet wash, scrubs up alright.
I had an identical focus in the same colour but with a manual box. Had it for about a year and never put a foot wrong. Great handling, comfy seats and didn't cost me a penny. Even sold it for the same price I bought it for. Bangernomics!! Glad to see another one still going strong. Don't forget to check if the cambelt has been replaced. Usually 10 years or 100k. Should have been done by now, but you never know. Happy motoring!
That looks like a really good buy.
My sister bought a 1.8 LX in 2005 and kept it for 10 years. She only sold it because it was starting to produce frequent bills that kept costing almost as much as it was worth, and she fancied a change. But it was a great drive, although not that quick and quite thirsty with surprisingly expensive Road Tax - IIRC 1.6s were a couple of bands cheaper.
My sister bought a 1.8 LX in 2005 and kept it for 10 years. She only sold it because it was starting to produce frequent bills that kept costing almost as much as it was worth, and she fancied a change. But it was a great drive, although not that quick and quite thirsty with surprisingly expensive Road Tax - IIRC 1.6s were a couple of bands cheaper.
Nickbrapp said:
Had 2 1.8s, one in that green actually , dog slow and returned 29 mpg most of the time but it was my first car so I loved it.
Eaten by rust in the end
the 1.8 zetec?Eaten by rust in the end
Strange I had it in a ropey old escort Si and it was the only good thing about the car, went like a stabbed rat.
MPG was shocking though, I remembert that well.
We've put a fair few miles on the old bugger....
Fuel economy hasn't been as bad as we thought it would be. We brimmed the tank when we got the power steering fixed and have only topped up with £15 since.
Radio suddenly stopped working today... Was fixed with a few whacks nothing else to report.
Fuel economy hasn't been as bad as we thought it would be. We brimmed the tank when we got the power steering fixed and have only topped up with £15 since.
Radio suddenly stopped working today... Was fixed with a few whacks
nothing else to report. Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff