Ford cars

daveyjp

What age Astra?  Thanks to ever increasing car sizes the new Fiesta/Puma is almost the same size as the original Focus.

SiliconChip

daveyjp said:

What age Astra?  Thanks to ever increasing car sizes the new Fiesta/Puma is almost the same size as the original Focus.

Does the current Puma have anything to do with the Fiesta? The length and width of the Puma are both greater than the dimensions of the Fiesta, so I would be very surprised if they share a floorplan. And as a Fiesta owner it feels an entirely different size to my sister's Puma. Of course, the original Puma was indeed based on the Fiesta of that time, I bought one new in 2000 and it was a great car, it's just a shame that Ford have never repeated the experiment (I suspect that it wasn't economically viable to build a small volume car that sold at a relatively low price, especially with the engine having been assembled by Toyota in Japan before being shipped to - I think - Germany for installation).

TonyMMM

Had two Ford Focus's in recent years ( still got one).....no issues with either. 

400ixl

SiliconChip said:

Does the current Puma have anything to do with the Fiesta? 

They are both built upon the Global B-car Platform although the Puma is 54mm taller, 71mm broader, and has a 95mm longer wheelbase.

Goudy

Annie1960 said:

Goudy said:

If you are looking at new or nearly new I would also look at:
Toyota Corolla
Mazda 3
Skoda Octavia
Kia Ceed
Hyundai i30

The Ford Focus probably drives better then all the above, but they do tend to suffer a fair few problems, though the Focus and Astra tend to beat the competition on price.

Thanks for your list. I'll take a look, and also check out if any of them have garages near me. There used to be loads of different car brand dealers and garages near me, but many of them have gone.

It's the same everywhere.
My local dealer for my car, that wasn't exactly local to start with has closed recently.

It's left me with a fairly lengthy trip out to the next nearest and has left me wondering if it's worth hanging on to the car much longer.
Luckily it's needed nothing except servicing so far so we weren't on first name terms.

Trouble is all the local dealers aren't local anymore, I live close to central London and all the dealerships these days are in the home counties.
Looks like I will be hanging around a Kent town for a day in winter when the next service is due.

I'm not knocking Fords, they sell a lot for good reason, mainly due to the price and the way they drive.
It's because they sell a lot that their problems do become better known and they have had a few problems with their Ecoboost engines.
They have tended to crop up when the cars is out just out of warranty but not that old to be considered bangers and have left onwers with some big engine bills.

Most of the cars on my list tend to come with longer warranties to start with, some 5 years other 7 years, so if you are going new or nearly new, you should benefit from a lengthy manufacturers warranty which should be worth more than the toilet roll a third party used car warranty is written on.

Alanp

Toyota offer a ten year warranty I think, even on used cars, the caveat is, they have to be serviced at a Toyota main dealer 

Goudy

Alanp said:

Toyota offer a ten year warranty I think, even on used cars, the caveat is, they have to be serviced at a Toyota main dealer 

Yes that's right.
Toyotas registered after 1st June 2021 come with a standard 3 year warranty but after that they will warranty your car for a further 12 months/10,000 miles with every service up to 10 years or 100,000 miles.

Before that date they came with a standard 5 year/100,000 mile warranty though you could extend that up to 10 years/100,000 miles at a cost.

MEM62

I started with Fords in my youth back in the late 70's.  We bought them because they were cheap, reliable and anyone could fix them.  Some of them were even cool!  Whilst the face of motoring has changed out of all recognition in the intervening years, I think that Fords still reflect most of those original qualities.       

Annie1960

Goudy said:

If you are looking at new or nearly new I would also look at:
Toyota Corolla
Mazda 3
Skoda Octavia
Kia Ceed
Hyundai i30

The Ford Focus probably drives better then all the above, but they do tend to suffer a fair few problems, though the Focus and Astra tend to beat the competition on price.

Interesting. I went to the Ford dealer this morning to have a look. My Astra is coming up to 3 years old, and the difference between what they would give me for this and sell me an 18 month old Focus was nearly £8K!!!!

Annie1960

Goudy said:

If you are looking at new or nearly new I would also look at:
Toyota Corolla
Mazda 3
Skoda Octavia
Kia Ceed
Hyundai i30

The Ford Focus probably drives better then all the above, but they do tend to suffer a fair few problems, though the Focus and Astra tend to beat the competition on price.

I discovered this morning that there's a huge difference between what they are prepared to pay me for my less than 3 year old Astra with 8,600 miles, and an 18 month old Focus with 11,500 miles. This was in their so-called 'Sale'!!