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I have a mate who is heavy into the concours scene and has a mint mk2 escort, he refuses to drive it in the rain, what was amusing is that his car had to go for an MOT, he says it had only done 500 miles that year and when the MOT was underway it started to rain
He was at the place for 4 hours afterwards waiting for the roads to dry before he came home
PAUL WELL DONE MATE I PAID MY DEPOSIT FEW WEEKS AGO IN THE SAME COLOUR I COLLECT MINE SEPTEMBER YES IN GREEN AND HEY GUESS WHAT IM JUST TURNED 40 I MUST BE HAVING MID LIFE CRISSIS TOOWHO GIVES A DAMN MATEPERHAPS A RS FOCUS MEET
PAUL WELL DONE MATE I PAID MY DEPOSIT FEW WEEKS AGO IN THE SAME COLOUR I COLLECT MINE SEPTEMBER
Good luck with that date! I ordered mine beginning of Feb and have just received confirmation of projected build date of October. Originally told May!
Don't believe anything you are told by the dealers.
Yes I saw the exact spec that I ordered a few weeks ago, it had just arrived at the dealership. It was awesome and had so much presence, I don't care how long it takes to arrive it will be worth the wait.
Where did you get your car from Holliways?
Mathew (Owners son & MD) is running around in a Green one. I work just round the corner from their Aycliffe branch.
Fell out with them when I had my original Mk1 Focus RS.
The company fell out with them too when we cladded their brand new showroom. They still owe us Thousands of pounds which they refuse to pay.
I think they are all as bad as each other. If anyone knows of a decent Ford dealership in the North East please let me know. It certainly won't be going back in for servicing!
Porsche always give good service as do BMW in my experience. Audi is so-so, VW is awful.
Ford are awful, i'd never take anything to a Ford dealer. I used to work indirectly for Ford UK cust services division, take it from me you really want to avoid them once you've bought the car get it looked after elsewhere.
Off topic but our local Vx dealer took the biscuit.
Car (under warranty) engine went to safe mode on a Saturday afternoon - we limped to the dealer at 2krpm max.
Took a lot to persuade them we needed help urgently (it was near closing time) - including pointing out my 8 month pregnant wife who was with me.
Told us not to try and drive the car but didn't have a courtesy car and the manager (a director of the car group) couldn't be bothered to come out and try and help us.
Told us to hire a car - we had to phone around ourselves and find one - they said that's fine.
Had the car for four days telling us to extend the car hire each day.
Damaged the paintwork and tried to get away with it.
Took the car back for paintwork and grudgingly gave us a courtesy car.
Fixed the car then refused to pay for the car hire.
Eventually paid less than half the hire charge claiming they had a very low limit (and didn't tell us) and don't pay for the first days rental anyway. This is a dealer with a LOT of cars - surely there was one available?
Emailed me a very snotty and patronising reply to my complaint.
So if anyone lives in Cornwall NEVER EVER use Ward Vauxhall. Use Maynes - who are a lot better.
Location: not on Scoobynet much since it went soooooo slooooow :(
Posts: 9,829
I think it all depends where you live and on each dealer/marque.
When we had our BMW they were OK when fitting the new engine (that expired on a 2 year old car), but they were worse than ****e when fixing other things - once had me sat around for two hours to fix an ABS issue and when they finally bothered to come talk to me they hadn't fixed it, they had just been finding out what the issue was - I was fuming :angry:
Honda are OK for our Civic, but they don't really care that much when you have to wait around.
Ford - our local dealers are average, but the one just over the hill from me where I bought my ST are very good - family run firm, into racing stock and saloon cars, and also do Ford approved mods etc. I don't use them for servicing as I use a specialist, but for everything else they are good. We also bought a Fiesta for the mother in law in 2007 from Skipton Ford and they were excellent!!
So in my recent experience, BMW crap, Honda average and Ford very good.
It's almost worth considering dealers over the actual car at times.
That's why I'll not buy another Renault. Or Skoda.
I think it's a factor that Autocar, EVO et al should consider when comparing cars in a group test. A Clio might be 0.5sec faster around the track than say a Fiesta ST but the fact that the courtesy car from Renault, if they give you one as the dealer only has 2, is 30sec slower means the Fiesta wins!
mal k I ordered it from west yorkshire springfield garage and upto yet the people who have ordered them have receievd them just 3 weeks behind schedule although they are expecting to catch up by end of july one guy i know ordered his and was due it 3rd week in may he collected it last weekend
although i am not in any hurry anyway as i sold the scoob and the moneys jiust sat in the bank
paul did you get x luxury pack 1 on it i havent gone for the 2 luxury pack though as its only sat nav and reverse sensors
Ford seem to have some of the best chassis engineers in the car industry - 300 useable bhp through the front wheels is nothing short of a miracle.
Steve - I have always thought the same. They rave about the Clio yet the service and reliability are dire. It really makes a difference in ownership. I remember Harry (Evo) had real problems with Audi when he had his RS6 too - rather annoying.
I always do main dealer servicing (now days) - I tried to get an issue sorted at a non dealer and it took them 4 days to get a simple part and they gave me a wreck of a courtesy car. Dealers charge more but they have most parts in stock and lend you a car that won't kill you.
So far:
VW (Central London)- bit patchy but not bad
Vx Bristol - okay
Vx Truro - DIRE
Vx Redruth - not bad
Suzuki/Mitsi nr Truro - extremely good (but pricey)
BMW nr Falmouth - pretty good
Then many more for test drives - Ford always terrible, Mitsi pretty good, Honda very patchy, VW okay (apart from the TERRIBLE one in Bath).
Location: not on Scoobynet much since it went soooooo slooooow :(
Posts: 9,829
It will be worth it Paul, as Matt says Ford really know how to throw a chassis together - just been out for a 30 mile spirited drive in my ST which is similar power and it was a real hoot - they are mucho fun, so the RS should be excellent.
Just take it easy, I've heard more reports they are VERY tail happy, similar to how the 205 GTI's were!!
Hence VW nicking Ford's Focus chassis designer for the mk5 Golf - hey presto the Golf went from wobbly tub of geriatric porridge to sharp handling hot hatch (in GTi form).
The ST170 is still the best handling FWD car I've driven - newer ST is very sweet but not quite as sharp - sounds (and goes) a lot better though.
Ford used to be ridiculed as standing for "Fix Or Repair Daily" but it sounds like they finally got it right with the Focus!
I've also been looking at the Focus RS and thinking it looks like a great car - I'd go for it in white given the choice, but what always puts me off about Fords is the interior - I think if they stopped using cheap plastics, put something better in and raised the price just slightly it would be a much better looking car both inside and out then.
Is the RS dash and interior any different to the standard plastics used in the Focus ST?
Every new Ford model since the MkI focus has been class-leading in the handling and ride.
Now the looks and interiors are coming upto scratch too they're getting even better as all-round cars but still suffer from dire lack of quality in places that let them down badly. Example - look at the back of a new Mondeo - the lower lip/splitter thing - it's the cheapest, nastiest looking piece of grey plastic moulding this side of an 80's Nova.
and when the MOT was underway it started to rain 
