406's have the most extra's

[Welly]

My Dad has recently bought an 08' Focus "Titanium" (top of the range apparently).

I had a sit in it the other day - I say sit 'in' it I mean sit 'on' the rock-hard seat and he did that typical man thing of generally running through the extra features without trying to show off about it (which usually fails/makes it worse).

Anyway he proudly announced the factory fitted self-dimming mirror, then the single-shot Sony CD, then the..... well there wasn't anymore stuff, not even Digital Climate (that's extra Dollar) no heated seats (extra) etc etc.

I commented how I'd read that the Focus was nearly 6 foot wide and he complained that it 'only just' goes through the garage door opening and wished it had 'folding mirrors'

It got me to thinking on my way home with my seat heater on, comfortabe, and not being blinded by the car behind about how well equiped the old 6 is and how you'd be pushed to find a modern equivalent.

Even the interior of the focus was a bit clinical and wipe-downy not like the 406 which is soft and inviting.

Just my thoughts,

Carry on.....

[DaiRees]

Yup, my thoughts exactly! That's one of the reasons why I'm finding it so difficult to find a car I'd replace mine with

My father in law took delivery of a brand new Fucus Titanium last week too, and I was thinking exactly the same thing (although my FIL makes no bones about reeling off the spec list and trying to score points ). There's one or two things it's got that we haven't got (errrm traction control, MP3 CD player, pimp tints.... that's it I reckon), but there's loads of stuff we have that they don't .

[Doggy]

Couldn't agree with you more. The 406 was the only 'conventional' estate I could find with enough space, a reasonable selection of goodies, including my essentails, cruise control & armrests
Can't stand 'sit up & beg' style cars like the 307, MPV's etc.

[Welly]

pimp tints

Ahh Dai, I forgot - I looked in the rear view mirror and could see precisely f*ck all because of the dealer pimp glass and my Dad commented that because the Focus only has one reversing light it's a bit 'challenging' reversing at this time of year

Nice one

Oh and he's thrown in his old car mats from about 1987 and instantly devalued the interior

All this when, at the moment, he could have pushed for a set of factory mats for free oh actually he was rather proud that he managed to 'push' the salesman into free Road Tax (well done Daddy ). Apparently, after my Dad left the showroom, they shut early for the day

[/doesn't concur with Father very much]

[mjb]

One thing fords have is that heated front windscreen. Dunno if I could live with the wavy lines myself, but if you can get used to it, it's got to be a sweet feature...

Actually I got a ride in a Focus ST the other day, and was quite impressed with it. Lacking in features but the comfort level even of the "sports" interior was way above an Audi in exec trim. Quite happy that it didn't feel too quick though but it did have a LOT more grip than mine

[steve_earwig]

I would never have another Frod (unless it was very cheap/free with a bag of dog biscuits )

My Scrapio had the heated screen, if you look very closely you can see it (rather like looking at a tv screen you can see it's made out of dots) - it's not like looking through net curtains! It's actually not a bad idea really and it's one of the things I liked about the car (the other was, erm, oh, err, ahhh, I'm sure there was something...)

[Welly]

My Ford Onion 1.6i ghia had the heated screen and to be fair it's a good feature although did anyone ever notice the wavy lines got more visible when you switched the thing on (I suppose the little wavy wires expand).

No-one else seems to do heated screens do they? I wonder if Ford got the patent or whatever?

[steve_earwig]

Ford were first, then the Ford owned brands, a couple of years ago, the 25 year patent ran out and many makes have them now, but usually as an option.

From here.

[TooT]

When it came to replacing my 406 it tuck some doing to find a car that came close to the spec my 406 exec had.

I had come use to the creature comforts the 6 had and that it's replacement HAD to have them.

Well my Megane has got everything the 6 had apart from heated seats which i miss big time now its winter

[mjb]

Well my Megane has got everything the 6 had apart from

...reliability, being a Renault

[TooT]

[steve_earwig]

Yeah, I'm sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo glad these here Peugeots never got wrong

[teamster1975]

Yeah, I'm sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo glad these here Peugeots never got wrong

Oh yes, me too!

[STALLED]

Well it seems like I have a 406 "Slapper" spec with not much in it. No climate, no trip computer - I get the feeling that it's a cross between a LX spec and an Exec (cause I have the rear sun blind and box)...I wish my car had a heated screen though - In summer or when it rains, the condensation on the window gets really bad - to the point you have to use the wipers, this is cause of the bloody humid/muggy weather we experience!

As for Ford's - I could drive a XR6 Turbo....then again you wouldn't know what one of those are!

[steve_earwig]

Now we do

Ah, but could you afford to drive one?