Remember the first-generation Ford Focus? Of course you do, some of our readers even have owned ones. But depending of your place of residence, your Focuses might be quite different.
Here, then, is the kind of Focus of which our roads are practically crammed full, and which you never see on American roads. A manual turbodiesel wagon version, straight from Germany, currently residing in Phoenix according to the Craigslist ad. I have no explanation why it is in there, except maybe for the Phoenix Foundation. Yeah, if you’re playing the MacGyver drinking game, you may take a sip right now.
Look at all the cargoability offered by the spacious and clean trunk. This is where you put all the junkyard parts trying to get the Focus look a little more American – even though swapping the headlights and the front grille go a long way.
The seller claims the Focus currently has an AZ salvage title, not because of any accident but as it’s an European vehicle. There might have to be some ugly improvements made to be able to title it in a normal, non-salvage vehicle, as he hints.
Looking at the front doors, I think I’m seeing some paint repairs already done to them. These cars were and are notorious for rusting in northern climates, necessitating some recalls to swap the doors to less rusty ones at a couple years old.
But inside, there are tidy seats and a 5-speed row-your-own. And these were never a bad steer.
Euro cluster, which reads about 235k. That’ll correspond to 146k miles.
And under the hood, the 90-horsepower 1.8-litre turbodiesel, which the dealer claims to get 50+ MPG.
Under all the plastic cladding, the engine displays its Endura nickname.
That, then, brings us to the question: would you endure all the possible pain and hassle of registering this 4000-dollar German Focus Wagon in the States? Keep in mind these are about a quarter of the price everywhere they were sold new – but still, importing one yourself would take a little bit of money on top and you would have to wait ten years to be able to do that legally, if I’m not mistaken. By then, 99% of all Focus Wagons ever produced might have ended up in the junkyard, so any survivers could be worth more than this…
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