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Originally Posted by RED XR8
Hi everyone,
I'm just wondering what you all think of the Focus Zetec. With the price of fuel now, I'm tossing up between putting our '03 BA Fairmont Ghia on gas or perhaps getting my wife to drive a '06 Focus Zetec auto. The down size in room wouldn't bother me as we have another BA if we need to carry anything big. I read on the Ford site that they average about 8lt/100. Is this optomistic or accurate? Also how do they go? We haven't owned a 4 cylinder car for a few years now ( last one was a manual also ) My wife is by no means a fast driver, but I think she would get annoyed if they were really slow. One more thing, they seem to have a lot of stuff in them for the price, is the stereo mp3 compatable and do they need anything done to them to make them any better?
Thanks,
Greg.
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Buy a 4 cylinder car if you want one - and the Focus is a good choice in the category - but if you are buying to save money on fuel, given the difference in consumption you'll have to drive quite a few kms to break even for the cost of buying and selling, the potentially higher servicing costs for Focus (European parts vs taxi parts etc), and the depreciation of your Ghia which is only realised when you sell it.
I have a BA Fairmont 4.0 and a LR Focus Zetec 2.0 manual. I average about 8.5l / 100 kms in the Focus and 13 l / 100 kms in the Fairmont. If you're looking at an auto Focus, you'll need to factor in a difference of only about 3l / 100 km. If petrol is at $1.50 / l, you'd save $450 on petrol in 10,000kms. My LR Focus needs 95 RON fuel - not sure if the more recent ones do - so that would more than wipe out the difference and probably makes the Focus more expensive to run.
The main fuel economy difference you'll find is in short suburban stop start motoring. On the highway at constant cruising speeds you'll find the difference between the Fairmont and the Focus negligable. So if it is for a lot of short trips in traffic, you'll notice more of a saving.
I think the Focus has a bigger boot than the BA, so you don't need to worry about downsizing from a load carrying capacity either.
Good luck.
MK