Emotionally entangled with a car...

[BEANFro Elite]

I'm unaware of how many people on here are emotionally entagled with their car, I obviously, have been blindly in love with my lovely Ford Focus but as you may have gotten a sense of how many problems I've had with the bloody thing recently and I've just had enough of it now.

In all, since owning the car it, developed a power-steering rack leak, a broken suspension coil and now a broken air con system.

The air con system decided to pack it in at the height of this summer so as you can imagine, it was the last straw that broke the camel's back which is a shame really as I still love my car to bits even though right now I don't think I can carry on throw money at it.


So now I'm looking at getting a 4-5 year old Ford Focus 1.6 Diesel TDi Ghia and am now looking at buying from a dealer rather than a private seller, my budget is around £4,000 - £5,000.

I've noticed for example, on Autotrader some cars that are (rather obviously) ex-rental/hire cars, (1 previous owner, but in many cases well over 100,000 miles).

I've heard lots of people say to avoid these cars, even though, surly these particular cars would have been imaculately looked after so despite having had lots of 'spiritual' owners, would be in as good if not, better nick as a car with 2-3 actual previous owners and a third (on average) the mileage?

[kalniel]

Ex-fleet cars are a bit of a mixed bag - on one hand they have been thrashed, maltreated and all this. On the other they will likely have a full service history and original manufacturer repairs.

Sometimes that brings it's own benefits - in my case it means I qualify for a bunch of audi incentives such as free MOT and cheap servicing etc. But I wouldn't buy a car I didn't think could stand up to the thrashing.

Don't forget to look at car supermarkets- you're in the right price category and the sheer choice means you'll get to pick whatever history you like more or less.

[MSIC]

It's awful when such a relationship ends, i'm sorry for your loss.

I once fell for my neighbours GTO, even having a drive once. It went on to have an FTO some months later but I was able to show through DNA that it wasnt mine.

[razer121]

not to sound rude but FORD you know what that stands for right? "Fixed Or Repaired Daily"

[wilsonian]

Why not have a look at a VAG car instead (Skoda, Audo, VW, Seat) - perhaps the Octavia or Passat? All VAG diesels are tough engines with very good support and output

[BEANFro Elite]

Its worth pointing out that my car is 11 years, it has never broken down on me since I've had it, but I'm just simply not prepared to throw anymore money at it in the name of repairs, and VWs are incredibly expensive for me to insure for some reason...

But I really love my motor, even my missus says sometimes it feels like I'm cheating on her, lol but alas, I'm still in love with the Ford Focus model, especially the new shapes [ drools ].

[Tumble]

The ones with starship mileage on them will most likely be ex-fleet cars that have spent their lives blatting up and down the motorways - motorway miles, although faster are less stressful on the car. I *think* hire companies are obliged to renew their fleets when they reach 14k miles or 2 years old or something. That may just be an Avis policy though - I've only hired one car, and it was from Avis, although the wife's Focus had a "mileage limit 14,000" sticker on the clocks when we bought it...

[Guy]

not to sound rude but FORD you know what that stands for right? "Fixed Or Repaired Daily"

Useful post there!

If that was the case then the 2 different fords I have had would have been broken all the time, but oh look, neither of them let me down ONCE.