I need advice.

[matt_fsr]

I drive about the same amount as you and my petrol 1.6 Focus gets about 38mpg. I can get into the low 40s if I'm ultra conservative. Diesel would easily get you into the 40s.
A bonus is that being a Ford, there's a huge market for parts out there.

Depends on which diesel engine you get in the Focus's.

There's the old, 1.8TDi Engine, seemingly very reliable but gets ~40Mpg ish.

The TDCi engine gets something closer to 48Mpg, because its much more modern and common-rail, but from what a lot of Motors people know of it, seems to be much more prone to failures after ~100K miles.

Ford parts? They're so cheap its laughable. Ford dealer wanted £80 for 1 new indicator stalk for our Mk2 Mondeo. £6.50 on ebay got me both stalks, fitted them myself. They're like big Meccano kits, Fords.

 

[DM]

and when you love them enough to put up with the increased cost in ownership.

Mate at work is having a bit of a mid life crisis, wants to get something fun to drive. But he's used to driving cheap cars, and is currently baulking at the costs and having second thoughts.

No point setting yourself up for expensive bills unless you really desire that sort of car.

Nothing wrong with a mid life crisis i have one of those every month