Which car?

[mark thorpe]

get the focus, my dad works for ford over here, and owns a 1.8TDi focus, 54 plate (2004). beautiful cars to drive, they have an amazing amount of grip, and their diesel engines are brilliant. i would highly recommend that you get a diesel focus, the low down torque is brilliant on it, and they are solid engines.. having driven my dads car for a short distance, and been in it countless times, the handling is brilliant, when he puts his foot down on the back roads it grips a hell of alot.. i dont know if you have the same chassis over there, but if you do (and i would have thought you do) i would reccomend the diesel focus...

 

[Jesusfrk611]

I knew D-Lew would post in here sometime, lol

Ok, on transmissions, I need an auto... I really would like a manual, but I can't drive them worth crap. I don't want to be one of those people that actually try to drive a manual on the road and they can't, I know they are annoying, so I'll stick to what I can drive atm.

I probably won't be getting rims unless the ones that come with the car are bad. I like the rims on the Zx2, and some of the stock rims on the Focus looks good for me.

Aww man, oil filter is a pain on the Focus too? Never mind that idea...lol jk. But the oil filter is such a pain on my Tempo as well, so I was hoping for something easier to work with on that... Not a really big deal since it's a small car anyway.

As I said, I don't mind the noise. I usually drive with my windows down, so with that I am guaranteed to get wind noise... I was just noting that was the only bad review I have heard of the Zx2, which isn't major.

Thanks for the tips. I'm going to look at more reviews and such. I hope I can eventually find both to test drive before I choose.

get the focus, my dad works for ford over here, and owns a 1.8TDi focus, 54 plate (2004). beautiful cars to drive, they have an amazing amount of grip, and their diesel engines are brilliant. i would highly recommend that you get a diesel focus, the low down torque is brilliant on it, and they are solid engines.. having driven my dads car for a short distance, and been in it countless times, the handling is brilliant, when he puts his foot down on the back roads it grips a hell of alot.. i dont know if you have the same chassis over there, but if you do (and i would have thought you do) i would reccomend the diesel focus...

I don't think we even have a diesel Focus here. If we did I don't think it would be worth the cost in gas really. Diesel costs more than Unleaded atm.

 

[mark thorpe]

this is the review from one of the UK's best review sites..

http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/reviews/ford/focus-hatchback-1998.aspx?model=269

my dads car gets easily 5-600 miles to a tank of diesel, and he doesnt hang around either.. in the long run, imo, diesel is cheaper..

 

[Jesusfrk611]

I guess all the diesels in the UK get good gas mileage too though. Not too many diesels here that make above 15MPG, usually less than that. I was kinda basing it on that, that if you associate something with diesel here, it's gas guzzler...lol.

 

[D-Lew]

No diesels in the US.

We have the 2.0 Zetec, 2.0 Duratec, 2.3 Duratec, 2.3 Duratec PZEV, and the SVT 2.0 Zetec, which is the same as the ST170 overseas.

The oil filter will be the same for the ZX3 and the ZX2 assuming the Focus has the Zetec. Look at the engine though, if it has a silver valve cover that would be my choice. Hopefully your transmission won't meet the same fate as mine, but I know of someone else who had the same problem and I don't know many other auto Focus drivers... so take that with a grain of salt. Since your dad has hookups you might be able to fix it cheaply though. The $500 I spent was on a racing part from Canada. lol

Fixed the problem and then some.

 

[Jesusfrk611]

I'm trying got the best deal I can get for the lowest mileage I can find.

I've been looking at AutoTrader a lot just to see what they got. It will be after summer, and probably then some before I can get it though.

I need it soon though, my Tempo is slowly deciding to do weird little things. It's been having things go out and then fix on their own , or just go out due to age. Today it was making a funny clicking noise that was loud then went away. It had to be something mechanical since the clicking would speed up as I sped up, and slow down as I slowed down... I thought it might be bad gas, so I filled up half a tank with the mid-grade gas today. All my drive home it was quiet. I first thought it was due to the fact that a deer decided to cream the side of my car this morning and it was metal rubbing, but after I heard it slowing down and speeding up, I dunno.

If the Zx2 and Zx3 are made anything like the Tempo (quality wise), then I think they should be fine. My Tempo has not given me a major problem yet or left me on the side of the road. The transmission is still the factory installed one, never had anything fixed on it. It makes noises (as all old cars do), but still runs strong even after my abuse... Just don't know how much longer I will stay lucky.

EDIT: My dad doesn't work for Ford anymore, but he recently went back to where he used to work to get a gear kit for my window and they gave him a discount...lol. Doesn't work there anymore and he gets a discount. It was still like $20 after the discount though...

 

[Tommy Boy]

None of the above......