Anyone any experience of ford focus

We have just bought a lovely 07 ford focus estate luckily just in time, because yesterday our 53 ford focus estate blew head gasket on motorway and was towed home, now we are trying to scrap it or sell as spares or repairs.

ANYWAY! I am looking for a little runaround for myself and the dogs. Nothing too big, Im thinking ford focus hatchback size, been looking at 03 reg's.

Can anyone tell me if they are reliable? Whats been your experience with them?

Any help appriciated x

I have a Ford Focus '03 hatchback myself However, I've only had it 6 weeks so I can't speak for it all that much. I'm really liking it though, it is sooo comfortable, seems economical, got used to the size now (upgraded from a Micra so it seemed massive at first!) and no problems so far. I went for it in particular as OH thought it was a good idea, my stepdad had one and got on well with it with no problems, and I could get just about the age/mileage I was after in my budget (I ended up paying the top end of my budget for this one and slightly compromising on age - mid '03 instead of an '04) but this one was by far the best condition one I saw, full service history, obviously very well looked after as practically no stratches and only one tiny ding, very good for its age (got them to change the cambelt too in return for paying full price, which was a good deal as they were only willing to knock £100 off anyway)
Part of me does think I should have maybe gone for an estate version as I have two big dogs but I've bought a Hatchbag to line the back and should soon receive my custom-ordered guards to fit the tailgate and behind the front seats. The dogs have had a couple of trips out in it (being tethered down) and seem happy enough, and I never really find myself in the situation where I need to transport more than one passenger and the dogs so the seats-down option works for me. With slightly smaller dogs you could probably fit two in the boot and one on the rear seat with a seatbelt/harness or in one of those tubes that go on the back seat anyway.

I think my sister had an 03 hatchback. It was either that or the year later, can't remember. She really liked it and never had any problems with it. The only reason she got rid of it was because she likes to change her cars VERY often lol.

We have a focus estate 53 plate and LOVE it. My in-laws gave it to us and, touch lots of wood, it's been very reliable.

Helen

I think my hubby would give this one the thumbs up (he knows his stuff coz he owns a garage ) as he thought about getting me the estate version, but we ended up with another Astra estate purely because he says they are THE most reliable, and I have to say, I'm on my 4th one now, all of them having done over 100K miles, and none of them gave me any trouble ever! Kiss of death probably there, but this one's still going strong even though I've turned it into a skip inside!!

I've always had astras and only really switched because we were given the focus, although I do love the focus. We had 4 and never had much trouble at all from them, and we did a LOT of miles in them.

Helen

They're a great workhorse car, that's why you hardly ever see them for sale 2nd hand for very long, coz the builders usually snap them up, knowing how reliable they are I once sold an old one that had done 160K miles on the clock and got £500 quid for it much to hubby's surprise, coz he was embarrassed to sell it the state it was in on the inside lol! I had a Volvo once inbetween the Astra's but I'm afraid I got rid of it and went for another Astra, they're the perfect dogmobile imo! So are those Ford Focus Estates though, plenty of room for two big doglets, and very reliable.

Glad I'm not the only untidy car owner! lolol My car is horrendous. I usually have a good chuck out every few weeks but between that, it's not nice lol.

Helen

See our 53 estate focus has just died, so I thought id stay well away from them...but I reckon its just a one off coz there are loads of them around arent there!

So you think a ford or a astra is the best bet?

I'll ask hubby for you tonight, but I can't think he would have wanted me to have one if it wasn't going to be very reliable, because of course, he wouldn't want it parked up at his garage permanently being fixed lol, hence the Astra's!

I had one , yrs ago, it was a nice car, and reliable