Ford Focus 2016 manual as first car

Ask to see the bills and service record plus owner's handbook, duly stamped or the online version. Check the MOT history 'Check MOT' on the Government website - that will confirm the mileage per year after year three together with any work that was required. The Ecoboost engine does often get mentioned as being an issue so read up as much as you can seeing if this model is affected. At that age it could be going to be needing a new cambelt and water pump. Opinions differ on this with manufacturers saying anything from 10 years/100000 miles+, but ideally it is 50,00 miles/5 years so a fairly big expense.

Check the cost of your insurance as a first car, plus road tax and whether ULEZ charges apply. You can type the registration into RAC Value My Car, state you are purchasing add your email address and it will give you the original price, dealer price and private seller price.

As some others have mentioned already.

DO NOT BUY ANY FORD CAR WITH AN ECOBOOST ENGINE.

For exactly the reason other members have stated. It will cost you thousands to fix if the cambelt degrades & a hell of a lot of them do. Just forget about it.

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Thanks for your inputs guys. I asked my colleague who had got 2016 Ford Fiesta 1.0 ecoboost in April this year from local Ford dealership for £8k. He has not reported any issues so far and is quite happy with his car. Do these issues come only in a focus model?

I would look up the 1.0 Ecoboost engine, I have not had one, however they use a wet belt system and this causes some serious issues with the belt degrading and clogging the oil pickup where the engine gets starved of oil and then needs replacement.

For pricing Autotrader will give a rough estimate of the value, please use a online Car check(HPI) for £3-10 this will tell you if the car has had an accident, been stolen or is subject to finance.

If you do go for it, Have the cambelt changed and also get the sump pan removed and clear out the oil pickup tube etc..

Or at least make sure it's been serviced regularly and on schedule. Otherwise as noted above the oil pick up tube can clog with bits of cam belt, Thus starve the engine of oil which is pretty bad.

I'd change the oil more frequently too, Using the correct 5W20 oil.

Baring the ecoboom issue, They're pretty decent cars.

I've got a 13 plate Kuga, which is run on the same platform as the Focus. It's passed every MOT without a single advisory. Hence they're built quite well underneath. Mines got the 1.6 Ecoboost engine which has it's own engine issues. However mines got 68K miles on and it's been problem free so far. I do change my oil every 5-6K as I feel that's a good interval period for my style of driving. If you're doing lots of town driving then you might want to increase frequency as that's typically when most engine wear occurs. The stop/starting typically stresses the cambelt more too thus contaminating the oil even more etc..

The standard oil change interval is far too long unless motorway driving, You'll claw back some of the costs in having slightly better MPG and an healthier happier engine! I save costs by changing the oil myself.

First question would be what sort of driving are you doing? I had a focus as my first car, but as I was on the motorway a lot I got the 1.6 diesel instead.

Put the car’s parameters into autotrader to see what similar models are selling for. If it’s there or thereabouts then get a car history check done - they can be got online from about a fiver. That’ll tell you whether the car has ever been written off, has finance outstanding against it etc. 

If you’re happy with the car and are close to putting money down, you can then buy an inspection from a company like the AA or a local mechanic who can ascertain whether you’re buying a death trap or not - especially if you’re not mechanically minded enough to check a car over yourself. If a seller is unwilling to let this take place it would be a huge red flag for me. 

All those things are obviously optional but £6k is a lot of money and once you’ve paid your money to a private seller you’re essentially on your own so you want to mitigate as much of the risk as possible. 

Good service history vital.
Fuel consumption will be higher than advertised.
Engine is at 1/2 life, so should be OK if its been looked after. Its a 'big' car with a small engine, so don't expect fireworks, but its a nice enough place to sit.

I know a Ford Mechanic who has advised me to keep well away from Ford Ecoboost engine. I’m currently searching for a second hand car too. He advised me to go for VW for reliability. 

According to Ford, ecoboost ‘issue’ was fixed by 2014.
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I've owned a couple of focuses and currently have one now. Tbh, I wouldn't recommend them. All the one's I've owned seem to have had the same issue with a leaky radiator. Plus the ecoboost engine seems to have a few issues. Lucky I haven't had any yet