2003 Ford Focus TDCi review from UK and Ireland

The electronic relay on the front wipers broke, but this was replaced under warranty by the local Ford dealer.

The front passenger-door speaker very occasionally stopped working; this is usually curable with a quick thump...

I have to admit that, before I test-drove the Focus, I doubted that I would like it.

The drive is surprisingly good; solid and stable with plenty of power from 2000 revs-per-minute onwards, but it sometimes feels like it needs a few more horses under the bonnet, so I'm hoping superchips will help me out on that one at some point soon.

Handling is GREAT for a car of its size - it managed the winding roads of the English Lake District and Pennine hills with consummate ease - the incident with the hump-back bridge was a one-off!

Having owned a 2.5 V6 Mondeo I was surprised that, by comparison, the Focus seems a far better all-round drive; basically due to it performing quite well in almost all areas. It is also far cheaper to run!

Its fuel economy is pretty good, though I've not reached anywhere near the Ford-quoted figure of 50.1 miles/gallon! It's perhaps my driving, but I don't think so!

The interior is functional, but little more than that. The velour upholstery is OK, whilst the plastic panelling is fairly solid, but, again, no more than just "OK". Dials and displays are clear and accessible enough.

The 6-disc multi-change stereo was appalling! It could just have been a flawed unit, but I replaced it very quickly with an MP3 unit.

The climate-control, more-or-less a thermostat controlling the heater/air-con, appears rather poor at keeping a constant environment, often producing a cold blast of air just when you were starting to get cosy on a cold morning's commute.

I feel like I'm really niggling to mention the minor flaws, but that's all they are. Minor. This has been a really good buy in my opinion, especially to think that running costs are so much lower; rather than spending 40GBP a week on fuel, I'm now spending 35GBP every 10-11 days.

Overall, I feel this car has been great value, doing pretty much everything I wanted from it. There are few cars that matched it for the combination of reasonable capital cost, running costs and performance - I've no doubt it isn't easy to bring those three features together in the way the Focus has, but I'm grateful to the designers for knocking this one together.