Faults:

Bought as a project car with rod knock, the engine was running but defective and needed rebuilding.

Pulled the engine, regrind of crank, new bearings, new belt, water pump and various other parts.

Sold after the engine was rebuilt, this is when the fun started:

Turbo blew after a couple of months.

Needed a new head gasket the month after.

Then the engine developed a knock after less than a half year - needed new rebuild.

I had to reimburse the purchase price and take back the car.

Gave up and sold it to a mate as a project car.

General Comments:

I just love this generation of Focus and with the 125 hp version of the Ecoboost it's quite peppy and frugal. These cars run very well and the 1.0 is much lighter than the 1.6 TDCI and it feels it in the handling. In this segment the Focus is a good contender. The safe option has always been the TDCI engines and manual transmission, this combo is pretty bulletproof.

Everybody knows the 1.0 Ecoboost is a gamble, but how bad can it actually be?

Let us find out.

I found out how bad these are the hard way.

As a professional engine builder told me after the fact: nobody rebuilds these engines for good reasons. These are as solid as melting snow.

Faults:

Nothing

General Comments:

Very good daily driver. 182 hp turbo engine, so decent acceleration and torque. Very nice and sharp 6 speed manual transmission.

Gun metal grey metallic. Factory sports suspension lowered 20mm and sports seats, upgraded rims and tyres, have not seen many similar cars around with these options and engine.

Used by my wife to pick up kids and get groceries as well as used as a family car on vacations. OK space for luggage and 4 people.

Faults:

Rear suspension, wheel bearings, brake calipers rusted, the distributor literally cracked, the motor controlling the wipers, wire for opening the door, door locks.

General Comments:

It was a decent car to begin with, OK on fuel usage, good comfort, spacious.

The heated windshield was awesome to have in the winter!

Great heater in this car, never once froze in it.

Very quiet on the roads, easy for a baby to sleep in it :).

But here comes the negative: The car decays, and it decays fast! I had barely replaced the brake calipers before I needed to replace them again, the brakes in the back wouldn't release, wheel bearings said bye bye.

A week later I threw it away. It felt more like sailing a boat than driving a car at this point. Not my plan to empty my wallet over a car I got for around 1k USD.

If you've got some extra cash for parts (a lot of parts), then it's a good car. If you want a car that you don't need to spend a lot on, don't go with this.