Just looking for a few comments on wether this is a good deal or not. Been offered a Ford Focus Zetec 1.6 TDCI - 06/2006 with 70,000 miles for £5350. The car was an ex-government car, probably not a patrol car as it's silver. It has been registered since November 2006 and since then had five Ford services. It is guaranteed against rust until Nov 2011 under a Ford warranty. The garage offer a three month guarantee and an MOT, if anything goes wrong they'll fix it I'm told, with no exceptions.
The garage say they buy them in bulk and so look to make quick high volume of sales with the cars, hence the low price.
I know the high mileage young car is well discussed and I think I probably take the side of a car with high miles and low years by default must have hit the majority of them on the motorway which is good news for the engine. What about the clutch though, likely to run out any time soon? How much is it going to cost me to get the cam belt replaced when it reaches 100k miles.
Anything I am missing, please point it out. Any advice, constructive comments would be very much appreciated.
Thanks,
Mark
Edited by Pugugly on 28/08/2009 at 10:30
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I assume it has the dual mass flywheel? Is so at that age and price it will scare me.
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We have a simillar guarantee on a car we bought, I think. Few things to bear in mind...
The ford anti-rust guarantee is only valid if that part of the service book has been stamped, many are not (I'm told).
Our car was MOT'd by the selling garage (not a franchised dealer), so we have a 12 month mot. However, we've since learned that the reversing lights and the centre rear seatbelt weren't working. There's a conflict between a garage mot-ing a car they're selling. By the next mot, the garage guarantee is well and truly expired.
The place we bought from said they'd "guarantee the car for 3 months, using our own workshop - completely comprehensively with no exclusions". Sounds good... but this isn't in writing anywhere! I suspect that if we returned the car with an ingested turbo (and ~£5000 pounds worth of repairs needed), they'd say "what guarantee"!
As the garage we bought ours from is 85 miles from where we live, we're not likely to take minor problems back to them. We bought from the garage because the car/mileage/age were right, and not available locally.
However! the price looks ok, the history should be pukka - it'll probably be a super car! we bought ours with our eyes open, and are well pleased. It's just a case of buyer beware.
Harry
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Last month my wife got herself an 07/2007 1.8 TDCI Estate LX for £7.5K from Ford main dealer; 25K miles. one owner, balance of Fod Warranty being transferred with the car.
On that basis I would say this is a bit overpriced.
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...a bit overpriced...
The 1.6 Tdci Zetec is a very desirable spec, more so than a 1.8LX.
I had - and was well pleased with - a 1.8Tdci, but there is no doubt the 1.6s and 2.0s are smoother and more 'petrol like' to drive.
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At 75,000 miles the Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) is due for renewal plus a refill with EOLYS176 fluid and reset, so the next service is likely to be an expensive one.
Check if there is any judder from the clutch when it's first used for the first time in the day, if there is then either the clutch and/or DMF are questionable, another potentially expensive bill.
If you can haggle to include the next service, including the DPF renew etc. and HPI etc. and car condition checks out then it's worth considering.
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This seems very expensive.
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