Help, Sell or Not to Sell?

It's an Escort, therefore you should sell it and buy something decent. Focuses rust too... I'd swap it for a Citroen ZX - they're cheap, they handle, they're galvanised.

There's no way that an Escort is worth £1850.

Take a 1 off that and you're in the right ball-park.

May have to work in another country from next November, so was considering just keeping it until then... I'm not a good 'un for decision-making on complex matters such as this ;-)

SteveH ( snipped-for-privacy@italiancar.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Be fair. He did say "Asking price".

Exactly ;-) Keeping in mind you never get what you ask, usually.

There's P reg escorts kicking about, but who knows what maintenance and cash has been spent to keep them on the road. I'm tempted to just keep it for the next year, but am tempted by a boring bland reliable 1999 corolla, 69k miles. I want reliable basically.

Robert ( snipped-for-privacy@toomuchspam.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Indeed. But asking twice what's realistic isn't going to get the phone ringing, is it?

Nobody is ever "tempted" by a Corolla. It's against the fundamental laws of nature. People buy Corollas because they need transport and are'nt tempted by anything else.

You're used to boring & bland already.

I've been to a few auctions since I bought it, and people still pay up to £1800 for escorts. What it's *worth* and what people actually pay are different matters. I now know the car isn't that great, and so want to sell it, but some other poor bugger may think "lot of gear in 'ere for the price, nae rust, sounds fine, i'll take it!"

I feel rather unready to line the pockets of the Ford Parts department by buying a focus; are they worth buying?

Seen a T reg 56k miler, a/c, good condition, £1600. Seemed reasonable to me, also a 1.6 which i've driven before, wasn't too shabby at all.

They're not as good as the hype. Ride quality is odd, handling is strangely rubbery, they're starting to rust. I wouldn't.

The Mk6 Escort was a design that had been around since around 1990 - Ford had a decade to get it right.

I'll keep it for a year, then get rid of it I think. I'm not going to use it all that much, and to be honest a better car out on the road round these parts is just going to attract keying or the usual crap.

Why the hell does honest-john (aye, honest my rear end) list more faults for the focus than the Escort? The mark6 wasn't *that* 'good' was it?!

And had less on it to go wrong. End of lines are normally the most reliable. Plus he sees way more focus's than escorts.

you're taking the piss...a scrotes nothing special but if he just wants a-b transport why buy something that could me a potential money pit,,,

I inherited an AX from basically new - it was very reliable no complaints mainly because I looked after it. However, I certainly wouldn't risk buying a used one - every citroen with a few miles on the clock feels like a ratly old shed....

to be fair they're an OK drive and I have to say I've never seen a rusty focus....Ka's and Fiesta's yes..I've seen some horrors....

Modern cars tend to rust where you can't see it - most manufacturers have cottoned onto the idea of protecting visible panels these days.

big dom ( snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I think it's just detail stuff through rubbing trim, rather than structural. Yet.

Rear arches seem to be starting to fall off Galaxies.

The ride quality is only odd because when they go over bumps they don't thump like VWs do....

Handling is widely rated as the best in class, by pretty much everyone apart from the Ford hating Steve H.

The Ghias rust around the chrome number paint plinth because it rubs the paint off.

I know lots of S and T reg Focuses (Focii) with zero rust.

Focus came out in '98.

Escort Mk6 came out in 95 and was a test-bed for the vastly superior in every way Focus.

Buy a Focus.

Or anyone else who hasn't been taken in by the hype and can make their own decisions based on driving them.

I know lots of early and mid 90s Alfas and Fiats that have neither broken down nor rusted, but it doesn't stop people calling them unreliabe rot-boxes.....

Ford still have an issue with rust protection - MkII Mondeos are now starting to fall apart, Adrian has noticed it on the Galaxy, the Ka is known for it, the last shape Fiesta is also known for it, so there's no reason to suspect the Focus is any different.

That's not entirely true, is it?

The Mk6 was little more than a properly developed MkV, launched in