Buying a focus

Hi All,

I am seriously considering buying a Focus having driven Peugeots for the
last, well, donkey's years.

I am thinking of an '07 Zetec Climate, they can be picked up for around
£9,500. I know not a lot about cars, having had them handed to me on a
plate through various companies.

Someone has told me to avoid the Zetec engine as if anything goes wrong
with them the entire engine has to be replaced, as it is a sealed unit.
Surely this must be wrong?

I would also appreciate any advice on buying a second-hand Focus, best
model types, what to look for, reliability of Zetec over the 1400 LX, etc.

TIA,

Neil.

"Springy" <Idonot.wanto.RemoveThis@getspammed.com> wrote in message
news:G1xJi.52866$rr5.9142@newsfe1-win.ntli.net...
> Hi All,
>
> I am seriously considering buying a Focus having driven Peugeots for the
> last, well, donkey's years.
>
> I am thinking of an '07 Zetec Climate, they can be picked up for around
> £9,500. I know not a lot about cars, having had them handed to me on a
> plate through various companies.
>
> Someone has told me to avoid the Zetec engine as if anything goes wrong
> with them the entire engine has to be replaced, as it is a sealed unit.
> Surely this must be wrong?
>
> I would also appreciate any advice on buying a second-hand Focus, best
> model types, what to look for, reliability of Zetec over the 1400 LX,
> etc.

Not strictly true - there is, or perhaps was, a possible condition on them
whereby a Bit was actually machined in situ in such a way that it could not
be accessed if it failed, but it has been so long so I heard about it I cant
recall what it actually was

In general I find the Zetec engines to be fairly robust and reliable, and
pretty easy to fix if they do go wrong.