From my experience they handle fine in the wet.
Your Focus is likely to be FAR more reliable than a VTR or VTS though.
Saxo VTR
- Thread starter Tom|Nbk
- Start date
Your Focus is likely to be FAR more reliable than a VTR or VTS though.
Which has pretty much sealed the deal as I can't afford big repair bills one of the reasons I got the Foci. Ahh well
I can't see how the handling of a VTR as standard gets near the focus. We had a VTR Mk2 from new and it was a pile of doo. It was nice to throw around in the dry but the build quality is woefull. I really would not want to be in any form of accident in one either.
I dont have huge feet at all but the brake and accelerator and way to close together. Dont even get me started on the list of electrical gremlins we had over 3 years. Power steering turning itself off and on as you drove along, get in the car shut the door and the stereo would come on without putting the key in the ignition etc etc. The brakes were pap too. I didnt realise how bad til we test drove other cars.
Pushing a simliar Focus round a corner I've always felt much more in control and safer. Just personal choice and feeling. When they were new they never had much of a stigma about them because kids weren't spending 9k on a car and fitting huge exhausts and awful body kits.
Stick with what you have, dont down grade.
Didnt Citroen offer a years free insurance on VTR's to anyone 18+? so loads of young lads bought them and started modding them pretty much from new.
This is the type of thread i hate, i had my heart set on a VTR but now after reading the replies in this thread I'm not so sure 
.
Strangely enough Ive also been considering the Focus as i took my lessons in a 1.8 turbo diesel Focus. My budget is 3k max so i don't think I'd get much Focus for my money tbh. I wont be doing any commuting at all, so it will be purely for social and pleasure. So a Focus seemed a bit overkill for my needs, especially with it being my first car.
Oh well back to the drawing board
(not just off the replies in here btw, i seem to read this everywhere i look).
. Strangely enough Ive also been considering the Focus as i took my lessons in a 1.8 turbo diesel Focus. My budget is 3k max so i don't think I'd get much Focus for my money tbh. I wont be doing any commuting at all, so it will be purely for social and pleasure. So a Focus seemed a bit overkill for my needs, especially with it being my first car.
Oh well back to the drawing board
(not just off the replies in here btw, i seem to read this everywhere i look).This is the type of thread i hate, i had my heart set on a VTR but now after reading the replies in this thread I'm not so sure
Strangely enough Ive also been considering the Focus as i took my lessons in a 1.8 turbo diesel Focus. My budget is 3k max so i don't think I'd get much Focus for my money tbh. I wont be doing any commuting at all, so it will be purely for social and pleasure. So a Focus seemed a bit overkill for my needs, especially with it being my first car.
Oh well back to the drawing board
You'll get a nice VTR for 3k, PLENTY of low mileage examples out there they can't give them away. But from my understanding they are very costly to insure if your 17-21 purely from the image they have built up over the years with "boy racers".
As said in this thread its pretty unlikely a well looked after VTR wouldn't last any less than any other looked after car but a Focus would be more reliable and you could easily pick one up for 3k
Check this one out.
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/244619.htm
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![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
There is absolutely nothing wrong with the handling of the Focus - it is a class leading car in terms of driver involvement with a fantastic chassis. That you've not noticed this means that you are not the sort of driver who'd appreciate the way a VTR handles either.
Fox is right....Focus probably isn't as small and nimble as a Saxo, but even my little 1.6 is a good fun car to chuck around, with the added bonus of being comfortable and quiet. You've made the right choice in sticking with it 
By the way Tom, are you paying for your membership to FFOC? I did join up, but I cant access msot of the board without paying a fee
By the way Tom, are you paying for your membership to FFOC? I did join up, but I cant access msot of the board without paying a fee
My other half has a VTR. I've never driven it (why would I, I've got a DC5 for fun and games), but when I'm passenger it seems chuckable and nippy. They are easy to meaintain if you fancy working on it yourself. It keeps coming up with strange noises though! The interior is no where near as good as that of a Focus.
Every car can have it's faults, doesn't mean they affect all of them. I had a VTS for 3+yrs and had no problems with the gearbox and it got thrashed quite hard at times, whereas i had a Fiesta Turbo before that and it went through 3 water pumps, 2 fuel pumps, a steering rack, suspension and full exhaust in the 2 yrs i had it from new (a mate had a car from the same year and never had a fault!).
I had a VTR for 2years and it was a great little car.
Don't get me wrong the build quality is poor and if you crash above 20mph you are dead.
But at the end of the day it was a fun car to have at the time.
Just a shame about the 'chav' image.
Don't get me wrong the build quality is poor and if you crash above 20mph you are dead.
But at the end of the day it was a fun car to have at the time.
Just a shame about the 'chav' image.
[TW]Fox;10212240 said:
Um no, not that I haven't noticed yes the Focus does handle nicely when I think about it but when I haven't drove hardly anything different It's hard to judge, I just presumed the VTS/VTR would handle better from comments I have read on here!
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Fox is right....Focus probably isn't as small and nimble as a Saxo, but even my little 1.6 is a good fun car to chuck around, with the added bonus of being comfortable and quiet. You've made the right choice in sticking with it
By the way Tom, are you paying for your membership to FFOC? I did join up, but I cant access msot of the board without paying a fee
Yea you need to pay the fee. It's worth it imo and you get a membership pack with the added benefit of the membership discounts I've saved nearly as much as the fee!
Soldato
- Joined
- 18 Apr 2003
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- 2,684
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- England
I find the vts fund to drive & at 6ft tall I cant see the speedo unless I lye back, which is just as well LOL.
Great handling even with the stock setup.
The vts has a passenger airbag & oil temp/volume guage
Great handling even with the stock setup.
The vts has a passenger airbag & oil temp/volume guage
I find the vts fund to drive & at 6ft tall I cant see the speedo unless I lye back, which is just as well LOL.
Great handling even with the stock setup.
The vts has a passenger airbag & oil temp/volume guage
Ah. Im 6ft 1 and even the Focus is a squeeze at times
Associate
- Joined
- 28 Jan 2005
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- 1,842
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- Lymington
I've got a VTR as my first car, I'd highly recommend one. They are nippy for a first car compared to the 1.0l/1.2l/1.4l most people learn in and they handle very well from what I have experienced. I am not afraid to push them round tight corners at speed because I know its not gonna slip off. They do have a chav image but as I said in another VTR thread its actually the 1.1 forte cars with a bodykit and a phat barry exhaust not a proper VTR/VTS.