Opinions on focus RS. Running costs?
 

Hi guys, i now own a civic type R after my 3 impreza turbo's but a focus RS has cought my attention. Has anyone owned one off these cars who can tell me about the general running costs over a scoob and my type R.
.

Insurance
Servicing
Reliability
miles to tank
parts
etc etc

I find the civic generally alot cheaper to run than my old impreza turbo
Posting on here as the civic site is ****e!

chears guys

I went looking for one when I was 23 - had a claim on my insurance and 4 years no claims. I was looking at an array of things, but the Leon Cupra R, Civic Type R and Focus RS were all on my list. The leon and Focus were £7?? but the Civic was £1150 I think to insure. All could do 30mpg when being sensible.......don't know about servicing though.

At the time they were almost new and dealers were reluctant to let me out in a FRS, in fact 3 dealers wouldn't let me out! One invited me to buy it, then test drive it? :wonder:

I went for an M3 in the end........

try pm ing Scoobyboy1, he has or had one!!

I have one for sale at the moment!!!!:thumb:
Ford : 280BHP FORD FOCUS RS

Insurance: Im 24 with 0 ncb as all my previous cars I was insured on my parents insurance, so never built up my own no claims!!!! anyway I pay £800 with elephant.co.uk with all mods declared, first year ive ever been on my own insurance policy!!!!!

Servicing! Had my Focus RS serviced at my local RS specialist(PJ Motorsports) and it cost me £169 all in (plugs, fluids, full check up)

Reliability: Only thing to have broken in the year Ive owned the car was the HT leads had slightly perrished in one of the leads and it made the car run a bit lumpy, So I had to buy a uprated set for about £40(in blue of course)

miles to tank: Petrol wise I get about 270-280miles to a tank of petrol £40 fills the tank and thats with all the mods I have on my car!!!! recently drove from Birmingham to Cheshire, Runcorn, Liverpool and back to Birmingham and still had a quarter of a tank of petrol when I got home!!!!:D

parts: Never really have had to replace anything apart from the HT leads, but I ended up buying aftermarket set, But have heard that some parts for the Focus RS can be quite expensive, I think a set of standard front brake discs are around £350, but like most dealers you going to pay through the nose if you getting geniune Ford parts.


Hope thats answered your questions, I would definatly recommend a Focus RS, its one of the best cars ive owned and very easy and cheap to tune, there's a lad not far from me who had a standard Focus RS a few weeks ago and then added a Stainless steal manifold(£250 second hand) and had the car mapped using DreamScience(£499) and got on a recent rolling road day 260bhp 330lb/ft, im guessing a decat and a decent exhaust system on his car and he would be pushing some good figures without breaking the bank!!!!!

Only downsides I can think off is its FWD and anything other then dry roads you will just light up the tyres, I struggle for grip on dry roads, and the torquesteer on bumpy roads are a nightmare and there's been a few times that its nearly caught me out and ive nearly sideswiped a slow moving car ive been trying to overtake!!! Also other downside is that the standard Ford paint in worse then Subaru and they are known to stonechip very bad on front bumpers, bonnet and a rear wheel arches, and scratches are a very common thing!!! :brickwall

I had one for 2 years, from new.

The only major problem I had was water ingress into the front passenger footwell. It was sorted (in the end) but is something to look out for.

Running costs are as stated above. About 280 miles per tank. I had Blufin fitted to mine, and I'd reccomend it as a very good upgrade.

Parts can be quite expensive, especially in the Brake department. £274 for the anti-squeel front brake pads. Of which I still have boxed up, as I bought my Impreza before I fitted them, and are still for sale at a very good price, if you want them :D . However the stopping ability of the FRS is in another league to the Impreza. the FRS stops........... very quickly. An Enzo Ferrari stops only 0.1 sec earlier from 100mph.

Torque steer can be an issue on the FRS. Some cars a better than others. Mine was pretty good actually. Easily driven at full power one handed on most A and B roads. However, on very camber ridden roads, it can pull quite a bit. The way round it is using the next gear up and using the Torque to overtake, rather than the power from the next cog down.

Cornering in the FRS is just amazing. The amount of grip it generates is quite something, even in the wet. Do a `Youtube` search, as there is a clip of a guy in a FRS beating 4wd Impreza's "IN THE WET"

Would I have another one? Yes. Quite wish I'd never got rid of it TBH.

Shame they never gave it 4WD and a bit more power, as it would have been a truly awsome car.

Good luck with your search, and test drive a few in order to get a good one.

PS. Mine was number 4496. Just in case that's the one your looking at.