Been looking into replacement cars for the Fiesta, which won't see another MOT due to severe rust so will need replacing within the next 6 months or so. Its also approaching 100k now, we bought the car at 60k and was bought to last us three years and upto 90k, we have now owned it for 4.5 years not bad for a £850 banger. It is still mechanical sound but the rust is now so bad that I no longer consider it safe.
In many ways I think the Focus would be the perfect replacement, my dad likes cars which handle well (he hated my old Corsa B) and likes slick gear changes. If we had around £5k to spend (and that would have to the the max budget) what Focus would be a good buy. Is £5k enough to buy a genuine 30k 2007 example with FSH etc? The car would need to last around 10 years and my dad would do between 5-7k a year depending on what job he ends up doing.
Brand new is also a consideration but the budget would need to increase,. My dad is a bit snobby with regards to brands, because he used to have a few Ladas thinking what is wrong with them, when he bought the Fiat Punto he was amazed just how bad the Lada was.
I do think my dad would want to go for another Ford, because in his eyes in the ten years of driving nothing but Fords, the only let downs have been due to flat batteries (twice).
The car would need to be petrol as the annual mileage isn't high enough and there is just too much things to go wrong in the future in diesels. I was thinking a 1.6 petrol LX Focus would be the ideal spec? It doesn't have to be fast but I think the 1.4 is perhaps too under powered in a Focus and as a result will offer worse MPG and possible more engine problems as a result?
Other ideas I've had is to look into a run out old shape Kia Rio, but how bad are they to drive compared to a four year old Focus? Looking at Motorpoint there is some interesting options but ease of repair when it becomes an old banger is also a consideration.
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