Only you know the true condition of your Focus, presumably the garage is a decent one and has done the repairs well.

I'd keep it but keep it serviced well by someone competent who believes in preventative maintenance, always cheaper than fixing when it breaks.

If i'd done the head gasket i would have put a new thermostat in at the same time for peace of mind, entirely possible it helped cause CHG failure in the first place.

Warranty is expensive wallpaper with few exceptions.

Nothing really wrong with Saabs, basically they are a Vectra underneath, some parts will probably be in increasingly short supply, but if there is a good specialist indy locally who knows his stuff and looks after his customers then you could do worse when you want to get a second car.

Similarly i wouldn't entertain a MB if i had to use the main dealers or a general indy, but i have an excellent make specific indy locally who has kept all of mine well tended.

If you've forked out good money for a head gasket and a timing belt, it seems perverse not to reap some benefit. They should help to sell the car, but that is your only benefit if you do sell. But if you can't suppress your lack of trust in the vehicle, spend some more money - you'll have to learn to (dis)trust a different car then ....

I would agree: keep the Focus but if you need another car buy whatever Toyota you can afford. Nothing soldiers on quite like an old Toyota, except perhaps an old Volvo It depends how big a car you need..

Like the others above I disagree with the "throw it away" brigade. Chances are that it'll be a fine car for many years as long as you look after it. Do you know what prompted the head gasket failure, or was it a burned valve? It could be that it wasn't well looked after from new, but as it's a not an old car that can be corected by yourself and there's no reason it shouldn't be reliable..

We had a similar experience with my wifes Rover 25. It burned out two exhaust valves a couple of years ago at about 60k and 7 years old. It cost us £850, but that included a cambelt, coolant change, water pump and full service all of which were near due anyway (so the "real" cost wasn't £850,more like about £500). We paid £5000 for it when it was 1 year old with 1700 miles (no there is not a 0 missing). We'll keep it at least another 3 to 5 years by which time we'll have had it getting on for 14 years and 130k. So it'll have cost us less than £500 a year in depreciation, even including the repair. The only other thing we've had fail is that the aircon has stopped working this year. As it only goes no more than 15 miles away each day and never does long journeys (we use my Saab for that) we're not going to bother sorting that, the missus would rather put the money towards this years holiday.

To sum up, I'd say keep it. All cars are complex machines and could suffer some similar failure during their lifetime. It's part of motoring. There are no guarantees.

As for buying a warranty - waste your money if you like, but I'd keep the money and just pay for what's required when it's needed.
I was offered a warranty for £450 a year for my Saab when I bought it. The example they used was that a gearbox failure could cost £000s. Really? A 40k second hand 6 speeder can be had for £400. Call it £300 to swap it out(about a days work at a competent garage). So £700 - less than 2 years warranty. No thanks.

If you're interested I wrote about my Saab here:
http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=99578

Like most other posters to this thread, I'd advise keeping the car. However, I recognise the sickening feeling when you're faced with a fairly significant breakdown that this could be the beginning, not the end, of something.

If your repairs have now been properly done and if there's no known other issues with the car, you've no good reason to ditch it.

I bought a second-hand Focus Mk 2 2-litre Titanium (05 plate) a couple of years ago and the alternator failed a year later, with less than 50,000 on the clock. However, I knew this wasn't a "known issue" and that I had just been unlucky. It was replaced and I felt confident enough to do a big tour of France in it last summer. Never missed a beat, nor since I got back. Excellent car - very pleased with it.

Edited by FP on 07/07/2013 at 13:36