‘I’m enormously indebted to it’
Theo’s tribute to his favourite car in the world
If a car needs to break down to be interesting, this must be the dullest on the planet. But if you appreciate one that soldiers stoically on for year after year, and doesn’t cost a penny more to run than is absolutely necessary, they don’t come better than this old Focus. I’m enormously indebted to it. I’ve lost track of the number of nights I’ve slept in it, crossed the Highlands in it, carted rubbish to the dump in it, filled it with friends and hiking gear and headed for the hills in it… and gone to work in it for three years.
It’s been in the family since 2009, and most of its 170,000 miles are my own. Last year I clocked 5000 miles in six weeks without missing a beat. It’s easy to live with, well built, comfy and spacious, with a boot that’s bigger than a Volvo V40 estate – as I once found when struggling to transfer furniture from the boot of the Focus into the Volvo.
But its main party piece is its ludicrous, 57mpg efficiency. My best result was 62mpg on mountain roads. Sixty-flippin-two in a big old estate!
Sadly its judgement day finally approacheth. Most of its bushes are knackered so it’s munching tyres and quaking like a chilly fish on the motorway. And the boot is letting in water, the power steering fluid needs topping regularly, the exhaust is blowing… it’s all beginning to add up.
And then there’s the rust. While some people buy a new car every three years, I just renew the gaffer tape holding the doors together.