Pulaski

That's not good. I had a car like that once, where everything fell apart at once.

The non-franchise garage I used to take my 1984 Sierra to told me that it need major repairs to/ replacement of: the radiator, suspension, steering, and a couple of other not-insignificant things. That was for a car that, on a good day, might have been worth £1,500 in good nick.

I traded it privately for an Alfa 164, with someone who was getting a company car and was going to use my old banger for a couple of weeks until his company car arrived. I paid £2,600 for the Alfa, and it came with receipts from about six months earlier, which I verified, for over £3,000, mostly for an engine rebuild. The work had been done by a well known Alfa dealer that also ran a BTC racing team. That was the nicest car I have owned so far at least, and I regret selling it.

I'm a big fan of Fords, but I think you might find the Fiesta disappointing. If I needed something in that price range, and I do occasionally look, just to keep an eye on the market, I'd look for a Mustang GT, as new as you can afford, but they're fairly bullet proof - and readily available with manual transmission.

cheradenine

Yeah it sucks, it had one owner who took great care of it. Had every service and minor repair filed away. Gunna miss the whine of the supercharger for sure!

What is worse is im having too look at all these boring cars now, the only quality being the majority I'm scouting for are manuals.

I wish I was in my older brothers position, he's about to sell his Ford Focus RS for 25 grand back home and buy some fancy bmw. He put a lot of time into that car, raised the horses to 500.

Speaking of ford RS the new one is having head gasket failure like crazy, some as early as 30,000 miles!

Pulaski

The first motor in my Accord lasted 296,000 miles. It's done 41,000 miles so far on the replacement motor - but is still on its original clutch! Also the shocks and springs, and the exhaust system (except the cat) are original, as is the steering mechanism, and the gearbox.

cheradenine

Thats crazy! But cars seem to be different here compared to Europe. Honda are regarded as being very reliable (never heard that back home) and Volkswagen in euroupe are regarded as good quality cars yet here I've been told to steer clear.
One friend told me they're made by GM or something here so the quality isn't the same as over the pond.

I think some clutches lifespan are based on the person driving, I had a rover 25 when I was younger. Drove it rather aggressively and the clutch died at around 50,000 miles ha ha.

BenK91

I have a friend back home in the UK with a MK3 Focus RS, it’s done 18,000 miles and the engines already gone bang. It goes back to Ford next week!

As Pulaski said, the fiesta’s are a little disappointing as my sister found out when her Cooper S’ clutch went bang after 35,000 and that was the final straw for her. She narrowed it down an Audi S3 and a Fiat 500 Abarth, she went for the latter and loved it.

You can’t go wrong with a mustang though and there seems to be bargains to be had! Certainly seems like a good time to buy depending on where you are with the colder months coming in.

cheradenine

I think I understand what you mean but if you read that back it sounds like she had a fiesta with a cooper s clutch in it


the clutch in my cooper is still original and being a 2003 that's a long life span.


Did your friend tell you what the problem was with his RS


would love a mustang, especially the new model. everyone seems to get the soft top though which doesn't look as good in my opinion but that's just my opinion.


i'm just looking at a cheap, reliable car that works when you twist the key.
America is a crummy place to live without a motor I have learned since my car broke down. currently carpooling with friends and it makes the day so much longer. Im getting up at 6 and arriving home by 7:30


oh just for a laugh I thought i'd tell you guys, was my turn to drive the beast that is the carpool car the other day. Honda civic hybrid, 0-60 in an hour, handles like a boat. had a fancy McLaren in front of us, not sure which one but it looked fast and expensive. He's doing about 65mph we pull up along side him, somehow push the mighty civic hybrid up to 80 and bam! done him. left for eco dust

BenK91

Ha! Apologies, typing on my iPhone is never fun.

The Focus RS developed a crack either in the head or bottom end that basically allowed coolant to leak into everywhere, including the oil.

Apparently even though Ford are well aware of the issues they weren’t exactly easy to deal with so he’s said the minute the car is returned to him he’ll be selling it.

Also interestingly, they have so many issues with the engines needing to be replaced he’s been waiting 5+ weeks for his car to be taken in as they simply don’t have enough replacement engines for the volume of cars that are being returned to them! Crazy!

ottotheboar

A few years ago when the pound was a lot better against the euro and the Ferrari Testarossa prices dipped in Italy I kicked around the idea of bringing one over. I saw many had new clutches and a friend who works on them told me 12,000 miles on hard driving will knock out a Testarossa clutch.

johnwoo

Around here you'd be lucky to get up to 25mph on the commute to and from work. Civic or Lamborghini.

Awesome Welles

I'm baffled by this. Why would you NOT replace the clutch when it has that kind of mileage on it, when you have pulled the motor? Just seems crazy to put an old consumable item like that back in behind a fresh engine. Just seems so counter-intuitive.

BenK91

I’d assume while the engine was out the clutch was inspected, the transmission itself and all the running gear. If it’s not showing signs of obvious wear then I wouldn’t bother replacing it either.

I’m tight though.

Pulaski

This was what happened/ so am I.

I actually had a couple of conversations with the service rep about it, and while he said they usually recommended replacing the clutch, it was in pretty good shape and agreed that it didn't need to be replaced. It has now done another 41,000 miles and shows no imminent signs of failing.

Awesome Welles

Highly impressive that the friction surface, pressure plate and thrust race have all lasted 340,000 miles. Have you contacted Guinness Book Of Records about this?

I'm all for saving a buck or two if possible, but I don't think I'd have had the stones to put a clutch with 300,000 miles on it back in, even if the wear surfaces were good. Having to pull the trans out again, to replace $200 worth of bits a second time would have put me right off that idea.

I had a C5 Corvette a few years ago, that really needed a Trans-Go shift kit to liven up the transmission. I did it myself (pulling the transaxle out of a C5 is a tricky task to do at home). I replaced all of the wear items, actuators etc., because I couldn't have stomached having to go through all that more than once.

Pulaski

Honestly, you make a totally logical argument, and much of my decision was out of sheer curiosity as to how much longer a clutch could possibly last. If the service rep had reported that the clutch was badly worn, I trust him enough that I would have agreed to replace it, but he said it looked OK, and more than two years later he was obviously correct. When it hit 100,000 miles I started worrying about the clutch failing, but by the time it 200,000 miles I had given up worrying. Now I am just wondering how much longer is possible?

That said, we bought another Accord back in May of this year, and during the "presentation" by the finance guy about all the additional warranties and service plans we could purchase, while discussing one of the options he told us that as we were buying a car with a manual transmission the clutch would probably last upto around 60,000 miles! When I told him that we already had an accord with 325,000 miles on the clutch his face was a picture; he moved swiftly on to the next warranty option.

dc koop

After owning three Fords I found out what Ford stands for... Fix Or Repair Daily