Hi.. I`m looking into trading in my old escort for another car. I`m on quite a tight budget so looking at cars marked up for about £3000 no more. Seems I`m looking at 6 - 7 year old astras or focus for around that mark. But I have seen a 2004 54 HYUNDAI ACCENT 5door hatch for £3000. It looks in mint condition with only 20,000 miles. Gonna look into the mileage but just wondered your opinion would be on this. Am I better off looking at a ford or vauxhall ? O is it worth going for a hyundai. I am not really a car person . Just want something to get me from a - b. Was wondering are Hyundais just as reliable as other makes and also are the parts more or less expensive?
but it is horrifically overpriced, a year old at 3 grand would be about right, not 5 years old. Only buy it if you like it and expect to use it till it falls apart. You could do far better.
For the last ten years, the Focus has topped the sales charts. That might be dismissed as fashion or sales hype if it had happened for one year, or maybe two, but ten?
The fact that so many have been sold gives you loads of choice. View as many as you can, and be fussy. Research trim levels and engine types to get what really suits you. Make certain you get one with the extras you will benefit from. For example, if you regularly park outside, a heated front screen is a worthwhile fitment. If you spend a lot of time in the car, aircon is a must.
The Focus comes out top of many independent surveys for reliability. Any decent garage, or mobile outfit, will be able to service it. Basic service parts are cheap, although some other parts prices seem to have crept up recently. Cambelt changes are every 10 years/100K miles, rather than the 36-40K intervals of others.
A six year old one, or come to that a tidy ten year old one, will be light years ahead of your Escort in every way.
As much as I like them, clearly they are not perfect. One issue they have is with steaming up in wet weather. Post-'01 cars have some mods that make things a bit better, but the A/C does help.
The thing is, if it goes wrong it's unlikely to stop you using the car anyway, is it?
some cars need air con mainly (I believe) due to windscreen angles, I would not buy a focus without air con. I have driven a non air con focus in summer and it was awful, in addition of course aircon helps to keep the car dry and mist free.
I bought one new in December 1998, and it's had nothing go wrong with=20 it yet (although I suspect it needs new ignition leads, as i've got a=20 slight judder / misfire on accelerating now).
I think the total outlay includes 2 sets of wiper blades, 4 tyres over=20 the years, and a set of brake pads and discs on the front.
The general "comfort" levels are, to be fair, pretty crap - and i'm=20 not sure if the one you're looking at has aircon, but mine hasn't, and=20 it can mist up to dangerous levels in the damp. I've never been able=20 to get to the damn pollen filter to sort the problem out though :-}
One common problem, at least on my variant, was the manual window=20 winders - they'd go stiff and strip the winding mech every few years=20 (I had one replaced about 3 years ago and it's starting to get stiff=20 again, and the nearside has been crap for about the same length of=20 time). It looks like they're b*stards to get to, as they use a circlip=20 you can't get to under the base of the handle before you can the door=20 panel off to get to the mech.
Ride and handling wise, think "wouldn't pull the skin off a rice=20 pudding" (at least the 1.3L variant) - and the suspension is pretty=20 ropey.
But to repeat, it's knocking on 11 years old now, and it's only let me=20 down once when - having known the battery was goosed for about 2=20 years, I kept putting off getting it replaced. I can't really blame=20 the car for that one !
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