Mk1 focus st170

I have not owned one before, but have lived with one ; a good friend of mine had one for a while.

If you are after hot hatch thrills they will not quite deliver. Expecting French Hot Hatch antics or like RS Turbos of old? This car is not it. Sure, it's quick but it is very civilised with it, to the point of almost not noticing. On paper, it looks like a great car with a Getrag gearbox, bigger brakes, more power and if you are lucky, a set of figure hugging Recaros. But, for some reason it did not translate to paper.

Some parts however can be pricey. While brakes are a reasonable price a clutch is close to £300 in parts (you'd be mad not to change the slave cylinder at the same time with it being concentric) as well as some things on the engine unique to the ST170. But generally they are OK. When we worked on his and me on the car I bought from him (a 1.6 Zetec at the time) we didn't really struggle with anything.

That said, they are a great everyday car with all of the usual Focus refinements and climate control etc. on a number of models and let's be honest, they are very cheap for what they are.

I wouldn't discount a Focus 2.0 Zetec or Ghia however. You'll get almost all of the performance and possibly a sweeter gearchange in the mix.

Whats the score with the getrag gearbox?
Sorry, like i said, know nothing on fords

Most cars these days will have a pricey clutch change. The days of £200 clutch changes are ebbing away I hate to say, with something like a 205 GTi look comparatively simple now.

The Getrag gearbox is OK, but it's not the best shifter ; it is one of the first FWD 6 speed gearboxes next to the 206 GTI-6, so steering lock when turning right can be akin to moving the QE2!

I'm not saying don't go for one, but I'd drive an ST170 and a Focus 2.0 ; you may end up preferring the 2.0 Ghia in all honesty and save a packet.

@astranout, that is surprising. The 1.6 Escort LX Saloon we had as well as the Orion 1.8 Ghia 16v prior to that felt lethargic compared to the ST170, even in the driving dynamics; there was no comparison between the two. If I am honest, the 1.6 Focus I had felt lively, but maybe we were lucky .

Regarding costs on the Focus, my 1.6 cost the following after I bought it off a mate:

Clutch change: slave cylinder failed ;now it would be around £360-400 to do the same job
Manifold flexi joint went ; I bought a replacement manifold ; this would not be an issue on the 1.8+ Foci
Drop link went on the front
Rear wheel bearing died
CV joint needed changing due to the boot clip breaking and not being noticed when the clutch was changed
Brake pads
Tyres
Crank sensor

In that time I reckon we put on 40k, and my sister who I gave the car to didn't exactly drive it gently back then!

Lamdba sensors tend to be OK if they are genuine/OE spec items IME. The 1.8 on 324k is still running on its original Lambda sensors. It has occasionally had an EML Lamda light on many moons about but that was down to other faults, including curse word ignition systems and a dirty TB .