Focus TDCi diesel - yay or nay

ukjoel

Have had several Ford Focus diesels all new company cars and up to 3 years old and all were perfect, no glitches, no dpf problems, they were faultless.
The 3 - 4 year old ones we purchased as second cars(we had 2 were far more problematic) we purchased them all with under 60k and went for ghia or titanium spec to avoid pool cars and ex rentals. I dont feel they are any more or less reliable than the petrols but they are more costly to repair when they go wrong.

SLITHER99

forgotmyname wrote: »

Buy a mondeo instead. Bigger car, Smaller prices.

Running costs are similar though.

I've had a Mondeo. The galaxy of "known issues" cost me a small fortune.

Bollox2em

I have two 1.8tdci focus estates that we use for parts deliveries..
The are the two best vehicles ever. 50+ mpg relatively comfortable.
I've just done 1500 miles round Germany in one..
Get one bought but maintain it properly.

forgotmyname

SLITHER99 wrote: »

I've had a Mondeo. The galaxy of "known issues" cost me a small fortune.

One the previous owner flogged because of them?

Mines ex lease with a wallet full of paperwork for everything and not run to 11,999 miles before every service.

Mine was done every 8000 or so. Came with quality tyres and nothing broken.

Plenty of choice so be fussy when buying.

SLITHER99

forgotmyname wrote: »

One the previous owner flogged because of them?

Mines ex lease with a wallet full of paperwork for everything and not run to 11,999 miles before every service.

Mine was done every 8000 or so. Came with quality tyres and nothing broken.

Plenty of choice so be fussy when buying.

I bought from Evans Halshaw - even paid £250 for their warranty. I guess a fool and his money, eh?

4 months into owning it, the McPhersen strut collapsed. Took it back, they claimed it wasn't covered under my warranty and wanted £1500 to fix it up. Lots of bad noise with them and their head office got me flat nowhere. I left it ride to MOT, basically driving an unsafe car. In the meantime, the driver's door mechanism fell apart as I tried to exit the car one day. Got to MOT day and it took £1300 at my indie garage for suspension, door mechanism (as it couldn't be opened from the outside) and brake disks. The EH warranty covered nothing at all.

Four days before the year's anniversary of owning it, I limped into EH's garage with zero power. They fitted a new coil pack and HT leads and summarily demanded £500. They were unimpressed with me waving my worthless warranty in front of their noses which they wouldn't pay a lick of attention to claiming it wasn't covered. Long story short, I paid the bill and got nowhere with customer services. I did try, but I paid £250 to be laughed at!

Add to that a further 4 years of frequent coil pack failures, General Module failures, more suspension work, the rat b****** air intake falling apart and taking out my head - which was entertaining as the GM had failed again meaning entry to the car was via the estate boot and the RAC refused to tow me home as I had a boot full of PA gear...

In fact... I'm kinda talking myself out of another Ford... hmmmm

C_Mababejive

Dont know if this adds to it but my transit Connect T230 TDCI 07 plate is coming up to 56,000 miles and has never had any engine issues.

motorguy

C_Mababejive wrote: »

Dont know if this adds to it but my transit Connect T230 TDCI 07 plate is coming up to 56,000 miles and has never had any engine issues.

Any issues i've had with the engines tends to be 60K -> 120K, so typically cars five years + old.

motorguy

JonathanA wrote: »

We've had two Focus CMAX 2.0TDCi - one from new, one from 3 months old. Both are 2.0 diesels. The current car has 37k on the clock and is 4 years old. No problems with it at all, certainly no DPF issues. The previous one, which we sold at 5 yrs and 60k miles was equally as good.

Prior to that we had a Focus 1.8TDCi - again no problems and the first Focus we had was a 2000 reg 1.8TDDi that did 18k miles in 3 years, which was troublefree.

There are a lot of doom and gloom merchants out there when it comes to diesel. Personally I prefer them to petrol cars and wouldn't hesitate to have another.

Our main car is a Mondeo TDCI which has done 120k. That had a new EGR valve at 98k & has just had a new DMF and clutch, but apart from that has been faultless, returns between 50 - 55mpg and frankly feels like it will run forever.

Its the 1.6 TDCI thats the one to avoid - its the runt of the litter.

Its a Peugeot / Citroen engine and its also in Fords and Volvos too.

motorguy

JonathanA wrote: »

There are a lot of doom and gloom merchants out there when it comes to diesel. Personally I prefer them to petrol cars and wouldn't hesitate to have another.

A lot of the doom and gloom comes from actual experience - well certainly on my part anyway.

The real pigs are the Peugeot / Citroen 1.6, the Renault 1.5 DCi and the Vauxhall / Fiat 1.9 from '05 to about '08.

All just time bombs waiting to go off....

JonathanA

Sorry Paul, my doom & gloom comment wasn't aimed at you! I do get annoyed sometimes that there is a very anti diesel movement, when as you say, not all diesels engines are bad. I know our experience isn't representative, and I agree on th Vauxhall 1.9 - had one very briefly, total pile of rubbish, not helped by the very indifferent attitude of the dealer.

As with all engines, petrol and diesel, there are good and bad. Knowing the 1.6 is the one to avoid is very helpful though, as we had thought about that in the Mondeo to replace the one we have when we eventually part company with it. Maybe that isn't such a good idea!