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Focus Mk1s


sierraman

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Recent trip down south I saw a fair few S plate Focus Mk1s, really scarce sight up north. None of them seemed particularly rusty either.

 

Now theyre getting on a bit these are real shite fodder, anyone else a fan?

I had a green Mk1 Estate, 1.6. Was a good car, my first proper car! Had it about a year, I had one problem with it! The little white plastic lug on the clutch master cylinder snapped (top of the pedal), that was a right bugger to replace. 

 

51 plate I think mine was.

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I had a Focus 1.8 TDDI(?) as my first car. Sort of. First can I could regularly use anyway. I really liked it. I particularly liked the truck like noise the engine made for some reason, it was reassuring. Anyway I crashed it and wrote it off. I'd have another. However I'd want to do something with the cupholders which are terrible.

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I had a 1.8 TDCI, It was a nice car, only thing I had to change was the clutch master cylinder. That was until I crashed it into a verge and wrote it off. 

 

The rust is what would put me off another, mine was a 52 plate and although only 7 years old and low mileage at the time it was starting to go in a couple of problem areas.

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Owned and ran an 'ebony' from new for about 8 years - essentially a 1.6 pez zetec with lots of extras thrown at it. Was a lovely car, went wrong twice - once was a failed coil pack (at about 2 years old) and then a failed cambelt tensioner which meant a local mechanic had to fit a head from a scrapped car for me as well as new tensioner, belt and water pump. Was due a belt which was scheduled in for a couple of weeks time, just unlucky I guess. Sold the car soon after but still have fond memories, it handled really well. Would have no reservations about buying a good, looked after one.

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I had a T-reg. 1.8 petrol Focus as a hire car in late 1998 when my Lotus Excel was written off.

 

The Focus went well with the 1.8 engine and felt much better than the Lotus at 3-figure speeds, really planted on the motorway, but was bloody awful to drive in town due to the poor visibility out of its tiny windows (especially the back window, I could only reverse it properly by leaning out of the door).

 

They're not the easiest thing to work on, it was one of the first cars I've worked on where changing a headlight bulb is a massive ball-ache.

 

The interior & exterior styling seems to be very Marmite. I don't like it at all myself. The estate version is a bit of an improvement IMO.

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Had a Y reg 1.8 Ghia saloon, bloody loved it. Huge boot, comfy velour, icy aircon, and it went like a stabbed rat. Was pissed off when it was written off, was a low miler ex giffermobile, and bsrring a couple of bumper scuffs, was minty. Would have another in a heartbeat

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They’re way too new to be of any interest to me, but my parents had a 1.6 Zetec, 02 reg. it was the best car they’ve ever had.

Never gave any trouble really, only issue was the instrument binnacle started playing up (poor solder joints aging) making the instruments go ape shit randomly and the vss playing up. Got both fixed and it gave no more trouble at all. Even the clutch and exhaust were original items when they sold it a couple of years back with 130k odd miles. Great car.

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Never owned one but have used a few as hire cars and company pool cars and always liked them. Was never an Escort fan and the Feck-Arse was a world away from it thankfully. 

 

I drove early examples of both the 1.6 & 1.8 and TBH thought the 1.6 was better for some reason. As someone else said, was not a fan of the high waisted design (which is now the case with almost every car) which reduced vis though. The estates are a useful mix of overall compact size and decent/useable internal loadspace, much like the 90's Astra estate was. 

 

Overall, a nice car (I'm not a Ford fan as such), the performance versions will follow the path of previous fast Fords and skyrocket in value before long. 

 

 

The instrument cluster failure was a very well known (They-all-do-that-Sir) Mk1 fault. Don't know about now but at one time, prob about nearly ten years ago, Ford reduced the price of the PCB to £50 to help out as demand was so high. 

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28702_1304648774541_1148316_n.jpg?oh=258

 

When I say I crashed mine, I really crashed it. Wasn't doing a smidgeon over NSL and tipped it off the road, it dug in quite a lot and flipped over.

 

Treasured memories. Ironically, my next most serious car collision was grazing the back wing of a parked Laguna, it polished out. 

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I had a TDCi Ghia in black with comedy 18" Ford Rims on it and I liked the way it drove and looked when it decided to work.

 

We had it for 2 years and it ate 2 fuel cards and pumps in that time with a 3rd on it's way out when we chopped it in for the Honda S2000, thankfully done under warranty by Central Garage in Irthlingborough (by far the best main dealer I have ever delt with, top top quality service at the time)

 

I'd roll in a 2.0 Pez Ghia Auto with no mechanical worries, corrosion issues have probably taken most of them out by now i'd expect. 

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I had the TDCi on an 02 plate and that engine was a nightmare in our case. Search "flashing glowplug light". It would just cut out at random. As above, really comfortable and it has that uncanny Ford thing which gives you great steering feedback. Unbeatable on a motorway. I would buy one if it were very cheap, because they are all bound to be rotten.

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My son in law has had a 1.4 3 door for several years, bought with about 50K and now showing 120K.  No rust, only failures to date have been a coil pack and an intermittent speedo fault.  It's comfortable, goes well compared with his previous old VW Polo and does the job - but no character.

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Got a run in this the other week. 

 

post-7629-0-42370200-1520970123_thumb.jpg

 

It was a bit second hand, some bloke called Carlos had it before me. Went well though...

 

 

Joking aside a friend of mine worked at a VW dealer in the early 2000s and I used to get a shot of GTis etc. Then I drove a 1.8 Focus and it was a revelation handling wise compared to the stodgy Mk4 Golf

 

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Bought this in late 2015 with 12mth ticket on, FSH with John Gross, recent cambelt & water pump for £595, and it had just over 90k on, sadly written off a few short weeks later after a rear end shunt

 

post-5211-0-11453100-1520967920_thumb.jpg

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Saw a MK1 saloon cabriolet today.  57 plate.  Didn't manage to get a picture, was at work and that would have violated policy.

 

EDIT: Total cock-up and utterly misidentified a MK2 as a MK1.  I am ashamed.

 

Went in one recently.  My friend's Mum has one and drove us to the theatre (so we could get pissed).  Was a bit odd given that I'm nearly 30 but it came flooding back.  My Mum had a V-reg estate 1.6 in Pacific Green when I was 14/15 and it was an absolutely stunning car.  Absolutely loved it and would have one in a heartbeat if I had the money.

 

Ford really, really got the MK1 right.  The MK2 is an excellent car too (Lady Grumpius has one) but I prefer the MK1s styling.

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