Spec me a replacement!!

matt100

matt100

matt100

Soldato
Joined
31 Jul 2004
Posts
13,791
Location
Surrey
I'm considering getting rid of my Focus ST ( :eek: :eek: )

I get a very generous car allowance (about £9k p/a for the record) which I am blowing on my ST currently and what with my mortgage just going up very nicely (came out of a 2 year fix, going into another but its still going up £150 a month) I'm thinking about ditching the focus and pocketing loads of the allowance, its the easiest pay rise I can get right now tbh.

I do about 30k a year, I'm thinking of going for something worth about £5 to £6k a year, I get a petrol card so fuel economy isn't an issue but filling up every 270 miles in the ST was quite irritating so I suppose range is the bigger issue, if it has a massive fuel tank and does 20mpg then fine, although I guess that would have a knock on effect with road tax.. you get the idea.

It has to be reliable to really 3 to 5 years old is about the max unless you can think of a decent reason why I should go older.

It would also have to be mint, I want to fool myself I'm the first owner :)

I also don't want to swap a finance payment for a servicing cost so M3s and imprezas etc are just out.. end of (and I know the budget precludes them but I thought it was worth saying).

Finally it has to be sporty, I can't bear normal seats they have to be sports seats/suspension.

I'm thinking of going back to a car I had a while back which was a Focus TDCI sport, they can easily be had for £5500 on a 2003 53 plate, group 7, £100 a year road tax, 400 miles on a tank and bluefinable to 150bhp without much trouble (I paid £16k for mine!!! ouch!) and got the right interior etc.

Suggest anything!!!!!
 
If you get 9k a year allowance why don't you lease a 2L TDI A6 for some reason these are very cheap to lease at around £260-300 a month. That would still leave you with over £5k from your allowance, I would assume they have a huge fuel tank aswell so probaly hit 600miles beteween fill ups. Racking up 30k a year in a 3 to 5 year old car is going to cost some hefty maintanence payments on just general wear and tear items

EDIT: the cost would be more for 30k a year in a A6 not sure how much though.
 
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I've just had to get rid of my ST220 becuase of a similar situation. (Though I'm self employed)

After some research, I opted for a Laguna 2.2dci. Lovely drive in my opinion, 150bhp and returns 40+mpg.

Not regretted it so far but I do miss my ST :(
 
Dangerous Dave said:
If you get 9k a year allowance why don't you lease a 2L TDI A6 for some reason these are very cheap to lease at around £260-300 a month. That would still leave you with over £5k from your allowance, I would assume they have a huge fuel tank aswell so probaly hit 600miles beteween fill ups. Racking up 30k a year in a 3 to 5 year old car is going to cost some hefty maintanence payments on just general wear and tear items

EDIT: the cost would be more for 30k a year in a A6 not sure how much though.
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tempting but tbh the lure of dropping to £100 a month is too much! dropping from £450 to £300 I would probably just keep the ST, at least I'm actually paying for it.

Also, 30k motorway miles on a 2003 car? I would have thought anything not french would have swallowed that easily?
 
matt100 said:
Also, 30k motorway miles on a 2003 car? I would have thought anything not french would have swallowed that easily?
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Anycar should do it easily however I mean just general wear and tear items a 2003 car is going to have around 50k on the clock so things like timing belts, brakes, bushes, exhausts and suspension and the like most cars start to need work around 50-60k on where generally speaking they get to 50k with little going wrong even the french ones.
 
Do you actually get the full 9k or is it taxed? Reason I ask is that I get 7.2k but it's taxed which leaves just over half to play around with.
 
A few more details on requirements would be useful.
For me, someone says sporty, reasonable running costs, I think MX5, but that would be completely useless if you need 4 seats.
So what other needs/wants do you have?
 
Mr_Sukebe said:
A few more details on requirements would be useful.
For me, someone says sporty, reasonable running costs, I think MX5, but that would be completely useless if you need 4 seats.
So what other needs/wants do you have?
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I have a wife and 2 kids, they very rarely get in my car as she has a mondeo but I would struggle to justify a car that made it impossible, plus I get as much petrol/diesel as I can drink FOC so going away for a few days is a job for my car (or at least it could be.. in practice we use hers as its bigger but mine has to be technically capable hence the focus ST with its pathetic boot).

Reallistically the requirements are to get me around, not be embarrasing if I have to take a customer anywhere and not break down regularly.

I drive from Southampton to London once or twice a week, potentially to stoke twice a week otherwise a round trip to the office in bournemouth 2 or 3 times a week.

Downsides to the ST are the fact it eats tyres even when you're taking it easy, it tramlines quite badly, it eats petrol and has a puny tank (like I said I get free petrols but come on.. going to stoke is a 2 fill up day ffs).

Upsides.. presence, noise, speed etc. Nothing I can't live without tbh.

Things I will miss are rear parking sensors, auto lights and auto wipers which irnoically are all things I didn't specify but came on a cancellation car.
 
matt100 said:
Downsides to the ST are the fact it eats tyres even when you're taking it easy, it tramlines quite badly, it eats petrol and has a puny tank (like I said I get free petrols but come on.. going to stoke is a 2 fill up day ffs).
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The tank is really pityful isnt it, im just about getting 350 on a run now,on the plus side i have about a million clubcard points.

Tyres arent too bad tbh, 15k for the fronts.

Id be looking at something like a leon TDI or a Octavia VRS/TDI.The focus TDI is a bit mundane tbh, im not overly impressed with the puny 1.6 diesel.

Edit oops, this is wohoo, posting on Tinders' laptop:p
 
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Tinders said:
The tank is really pityful isnt it, im just about getting 350 on a run now,on the plus side i have about a million clubcard points.

Tyres arent too bad tbh, 15k for the fronts.

Id be looking at something like a leon TDI or a Octavia VRS/TDI.The focus TDI is a bit mundane tbh, im not overly impressed with the puny 1.6 diesel.
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looking at last shape focuses now.. the tdci sport I had was a very limited run, full ST170 interior, ST170 front fogs, 17" alloys and the 1.8 115bhp tdci engine that can be bluefinned to 145bhp for about £400 :D

I spoke to a guy from ford today about the new tdci sport and he said "just ignore it, its an LX with alloys" lol..

I had an octavia VRS in a previous job.. might be worth a look again.
 
Tinders said:
Tyres arent too bad tbh, 15k for the fronts.
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I think 15k when doing mway miles is appauling!!!!

I used to cane the crap out of my octavia rs and I had the fronts changed just before I gave it back and that was 29k.

I even taught my wife how to wheelspin in it!!! :D
 
what about an ST220?

I could get a 4 year old one with less than 50k on the clock and fsh for about 6.5k

Given that petrol doesn't matter to me, what do we think about the other considerations? Insurance is about £480 pa which is £140 more than the tdci sport.

The tdci sport would also be out of warranty.

Are there any glaring issues with the ST220 at that age? I had an ST24 and it seemed pretty bomb proof, no cam belts etc.
 
matt100 said:
what about an ST220?

I could get a 4 year old one with less than 50k on the clock and fsh for about 6.5k
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Great cars but forget getting an 03 plate with less than 50k on it for £6.5k becuase it isnt going to happne, £6.5k gets you higher mileage ones.
 
yeah you're right I got my cars mixed up.. there's an 02 plate with 51k for £6995 on the trader site..

hmm... still, do you think it would offer problem free heavyish mileage usage?

Surely those engines are good for mega miles?
 
I'm swinging slowly towards an ST220.. a loan for £9-10k is still loads cheaper than my pcp on my £20k ST and I can get into a really good 220 then.

Insurance is mid way between the tdci sport and focus ST..

I'd just have a job on convincing the wife that a twin exhausted 3ltr mondeo with bright red leather is a downgrade from what I currently have :)

What age is the cut off for emmissions based tax calculation?
 
blimey, to be honest even I'm put off by £300 a year road tax... that's even more than the focus.

focus tdci sport is £115 a year...

and yes I know they are very very different cars but they're 2 cars I know and I know I would be happy with.... hmm decisions decisions..
 
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