Well....as I hope to drive over to Spain, staying en route with French friends who live outside Nantes, spend time in the Picos de Europa and dump the car on mountain roads & tracks used by manic granjeros I don’t want something too precious.
A Focus Active Estate seems to fit the bill. Insignificant increase in ride height, but that model has lots of toys fitted as standard. The 1.5 150 engine, Ruby Red. A 12/24 month old model should have depreciated significantly, but I quite fancy spending the intervening months before I travel driving around in a small hatch which I can then get rid of at short notice.
Surprisingly my pal in the trade, the past 18 years as workshop manager in some large main dealers, now heading up a large indie, has warned me off the 1.0 3cyl Ford engine. Apparently it doesn’t like being thrashed, which is what I did with my rental ones. It’s known in his trade as the ‘chocolate engine’. I was looking for a cheap high mileage ST Line Fiesta. In their favour he does say that new replacement engines from Ford are cheap, circa £1200. He’s fitted quite a few.
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