They do drink fuel, even my 1.6 likes a sip
I personally don't find my Focus comftorble on a long journey, but I hope that ST170 seats will fix that.
They are prone to rattles, usually without a doubt the heatshield of some sort.
Also the IMRC can play up and click allot, not sure if its that expensive to replace?
I seem to go through lambda sensors quite abit, and it's a common problem on the ST170 too!
Also you can get vibrations and sticking in the accelerator pedel, usually a new cable fixes this.
Never noticed much rust on a Focus, early ones sometimes but very rarley go on the back arch, all focuses have a slight but of rust under the wing mirror...


This is due to the wing mirror rubbing the paint off in the corner.
Also same thing happens on early Focuses with the chrome tailgate handle, not too much of an issue on later ones.
I've seen front wings rust too but it's very rare so I can only assume it's aftermarket parts?

My 1.6 is pleanty fun to drive once high in the revs, not the fastest by any means but I can actually get it to about 127mph on the clocks when I visit my long private road.
It does drink fuel, for one reason, it has no low down torque. That means you end up driving it 2500-3500rpm, where as the 1.8 and 2.0 have much more low down torque so you can drive sub 2500rpm.
If your used to an escort GTi which iirc has 115bhp? Why not get a 1.8 Focus?

Bailes.