I'd go petrol every time in your situation. Not enough miles to warrant the fuel savings of a diesel and you'll avoid the potential for large repair bills associated with a well used diesel - dual mass flywheels, injectors, turbos. You'll get a more recent or better spec petrol for your money too. The 1.6 petrol in a Focus works well, I had a hire one for a week, many years ago and really enjoyed it.

Had a 55 plate 1.6 TDCi 110PS for 5 years, great car, no problems at all. Only parts replaced in that time were a slightly cracking alternator belt and tyres.

Ours was a late Euro 3 model thus did not have a dpf. At the time we did about the same type of trips as you thus a dpf would not have been a good idea. All cars registered after 01 Jan 2006 (euro 4) will have a dpf by law but late 2005 cars (like ours) could be either euro3 or euro4. Don't think the 90PS model was ever fitted with a dpf.

Before we bought the car we tried a 1.6 petrol first and found it very poor, then we tried a 1.8 petrol which was much better and perfectly acceptable, however the 1.6 TDCi was the best of the lot. Having said that I could have lived with the 1.8. Work colleague of wife bought a 1.6 petrol the same time as we bought ours, hated it.

Should add we also tried a 1.8 TDCi, a model that was never fitted with a dpf. It was simply horrid compared to the 1.6 TDCi even considering the deal offered by the garage.

Edited by skidpan on 09/01/2013 at 09:46

Yes, go for a petrol Focus 1.6 or 1.8. Go for a reasonable trim level too, the basic Focus's are fairly well-basic, and road noise was a problem in our LX. I've read that there's more sound-proofing in the higher speccd models. We get 40 mpg average, 44 on a run. If buying around an 05-08, check very carefully that rainwater has not dripped through the screen-wash nozzles into the spark plug recesses and filled them with water. This is a very common problem, causes all sorts of mis-firing maladies and can be very costly to fix.

We now have a 1.6 zetec, 60 plate, it's a nicer car than the earlier mk2 versions, although road noise still intrudes at motorway speeds. Performance is perfectly adequate for normal use. Check the boot for rain water leaks, not serious but a pain to fix, otherwise a perfectly functional car and good value used.

Thanks for the replys - a much better response than i was expecting for a first post!

I think a petrol is the way to go as the majority of diesels i had been looking at had done 70k + and from reading the forums that tends to be the mileage trouble can start with the 1.6 diesels.

In terms of the petrol engine size is there much difference in fuel/insurance/tax costs?

cheers