2001 Ford Focus Reviews from UK and Ireland - Page 3 of 11

Waterpump @ 100k.

And that's it. If you're being picky, a sidelight blew at 125k and a numberplate light bulb at 111k.

I really like the Focus TDDi's. Excellent, reliable engines. Tad noisy perhaps, but I have added some sound deadening into the doors and underneath the carpet and quite a few people think it's a petrol now as far as noise is concerned.

The turbo has a very smooth delivery and if you give it the beans and change up around the 3k mark you can make excellent safe progress with it.

I don't think i'd be able to get any lower than 40mpg with mine. On average I get 51mpg and that is with a performance air filter, 205 width tyres and lowered suspension; not to mention the weight of a not-insubstantial driver and stereo install!

I chose it over the TDCi's as they are nowhere near as reliable- they seem to blow injectors very regularly and would cetainly not be as reliable as mine is @ 130k. I would also definitely not recommend an Astra DTI 1.7 as that's what I had before. Huge turbo lag and the fuel pump/ECU are very badly designed.

I do my own servicing on the Focus- the Ford garage is full of monkeys.

The standard velour interior was nice enough- its the Ghia estate, but have replaced this with leather which is more supportive. Stock stereo is rubbish and so are the stock springs- the car rolled a bit too much, especially with the 185/65 tyres.

Plastics inside are durable and cope well with odd scratches and the overall quality is good.

I would recommend a TDDi Focus, not TDCi.

Was running a high temperature (just below red) for a few days because the cooling fan fuse had blown. This was difficult to replace, as this fuse isn't a standard size and was awkward to find.

Stopped running due to a broken camshaft, which meant a new head needed to be fitted. This cost £1160 inc. parts and labour.

The cigarette lighter doesn't work.

I bought this as a "learner-friendly" car as my wife is learning to drive - the Volvo was a bit too big and too gutsy, so I bought a Focus instead.

Everyone seems to think the Focus is a great car. I'd say it's not bad - it handles OK, but it's a lot slower than I would have expected from a 1.8 in a smallish car. Whilst it's easy to drive, I find the gear change a bit stiff and it has irritating "features", like turning the air conditioning on when you de-mist the window. You can't open the boot without a key either.

It's also a lot thirstier than I bargained for. It's supposed to get around 38mpg, but I struggle for 28mpg and haven't been driving it that hard - not hard enough to break a camshaft anyway. Apparently that snapped because the head wasn't running true. My mechanic suggested the head had been off before (presumably for a head gasket) and wasn't re-skimmed.

So it's only OK. It's not the driver's car I thought it would be, neither has it been reliable. It isn't as practical as it should be (double buggy won't go in the boot) and it has its fair share of annoyances.

That'll teach me for trying to be the perfect customer in eBay and not properly testing the thing first.