Hugh

Background - last July I replaced my 13 reg Ford Focus 1.0L Ecotec Titanium Estate with a Skoda Kodiaq, and gave the Focus to my son (made his life easier, and he was a named driver on it).

Since then, he has moved to Oxfordshire with his partner, and they bought a narrowboat, and having the car has been useful - two weeks ago, it packed up on him completely, and when a local garage looked at it, they said the heating matrix was shot, and the engine was completely borked (cracked valve and warped something or other). They said a replacement engine (if new) was over £7k, and the heating matrix another £1k, plus around £2k of labour - the car is only worth £5-6k, so seemed like a write-off.

I rang the garage we bought it from, and asked for some advice - they recommended take it to a local Ford Service Dealer (in Oxon, obvs.), and if we paid £100, the Service Dealer would give it a proper review.

My lad got it taken in last week, and it's now back on the road at no cost to him (except for £170 for a new clutch, which they recommended fitting, as it was 80% worn, but there would be no labour costs, as they removed the engine, etc. to replace it), and didn't charge the £100, either.

Because we had always had it serviced at a Ford Service Centre (mainly because they gave us free annual breakdown cover, picked up/dropped off the car, and gave us a courtesy car), and there was a history of this fault in other Focus', they did the £10k job free of charge.

Result!!!