[yamin]

Greetings.

My wife is interested in a ZX3 for a fun/commuter car. She has found a 2000 Red ZX3 5 speed with 93K kms on it for $ 6,900 at a dealer. It has a CAI, exhaust, and projector headlights (with original parts). It has black steel rims with wheel covers. It has the power group and sunroof.

This seems like a reasonable price? (they dropped the price by $ 1,000 from 7,900) It has had new wires, plugs, fluids, brakes, injector flush done by this dealer since the trade in last month. Is there any need for an extended warranty? Anything we should be looking for? It seems to run very smooth.

Thanks for any advice. My wife likes the handling and appearance but is concerned about the reliability as she will probably put on around 40K kms a year.

Peter

[ANTHONYD]

yamin,Apr 29 2005, 08:57 AM Wrote:Greetings.

My wife is interested in a ZX3 for a fun/commuter car. She has found a 2000 Red ZX3 5 speed with 93K kms on it for $ 6,900 at a dealer. It has a CAI, exhaust, and projector headlights (with original parts). It has black steel rims with wheel covers. It has the power group and sunroof.

This seems like a reasonable price? (they dropped the price by $ 1,000 from 7,900) It has had new wires, plugs, fluids, brakes, injector flush done by this dealer since the trade in last month. Is there any need for an extended warranty? Anything we should be looking for? It seems to run very smooth.

Thanks for any advice. My wife likes the handling and appearance but is concerned about the reliability as she will probably put on around 40K kms a year.

Peter
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If it has a CAI installed, chances are the car has been "driven" take it for a good test drive and listen for any unusual rattles and skweaks. Especially in the hat / trunk area. Also look for any hack mods ie wireing behind the stereo etc...

I say this because I have a friend that bought a Civic (I don;t hold it against him) that was pre-owned by soem guy who had it modded all to crap. The trunk rattled over every bump (presumably from a tooth chattering stereo) the engine was all painted, flaked and crappy. And the tranny stripped out about 15k down the road. Apparently his car was abused in the past. (do you think?)

I'm just saying that chances are...if the guy had the know-how to put a CAI on, chances are there were other things at some point.

And the price seems low.... Are these cars really worht that little these days???? :blink: :huh: :blink:

[NOS2Go4Me]

Hi! Welcome to FocusCanada!

I'd say an extended warranty on AT LEAST the powertrain is advisable if the car is a 2000. The fact it has an intake, exhaust, and probably a few other bolt-ons doesn't make it a bad purchase, but it does make getting a warranty a smart choice yet again.

The mileage is reasonable, really. I would personally ask for a full drivetrain and steering gear inspection before signing anything. Have them check the clutch, shift linkages, etc. As for the steering gear, have the steering linkages inspected, ball joints, so on and so forth.

I'm mentioning all of this because it's in your best interest to be prepared. :)

Once again, welcome :)

Oh, and Sangria Red is a pimp colour. It raises the coolness factor of any Focus 5X over. :D

[Flofocus]

Anthony, yes, thats the average price for a 00 zx3 with that many KM's.

yamin, make sure the recalls are done. the 00-& 01 were plagued with them, not necessarily a bad thing, just new parts on the car. :)

I would also at the very least get the powertrain warranty.

Just so you know, I have the same year car with a little more KM's on it. The car recently had a turbo charger intsalled and the clutch seems to be holding up really well. This is good news for you. :lol: :P

[MAlby7]

2000 = recall year.

[ANTHONYD]

Yeah.

See if you can obtain the V.I.N. number and input into that site... I'm not sure what it was (maybe someone can link it here for me) that tells you all the recalls have been done.

[yamin]

Thanks for the info.

the car has had 2 owners and the last owner who did the mods was supposedly a women who works at toronto motorsports park and apparently looked after the car very well. It is very clean - no ratlles, vibrations, etc.

we had planned on going to a Ford dealer and checking on all the recall info and getting anything done that had not been but it probably is up-to-date.

what was the factory warranty on this car? the extended warranty for the egr of 2 yr/40K probably wouldn't apply to this car but the front coil springs would

who is good for an aftermarket warranty? the cost of the one the dealer is offering seems high

thanks again,

peter

[ZTWsquared]

yamin,Apr 29 2005, 12:57 PM Wrote:It has black steel rims with wheel covers.

Welcome ... having had six Foci, I can recommend the car - although frankly the '00 model is the "least" recommended.

If it's a Ford dealer who's got this car, it's a good sign - they generally back their used vehicles to a higher standard than, say ... the typical used car dealer - although I don't believe this one is eligible for a Ford ESP extended warranty.

If they're offering an extended warranty do some research into the warranty company itself, and get the dealer's commitment to back the warranty if the warranty company goes out of business, which happens.

Also ... some three door hatches sold in Quebec were different from the rest of the country - the seats and interior were different (from the base sedan, I believe), it did not have alloy wheels and a few other things were "decontented" ... in fact, I don't think it even had the "ZX3" name. It did, however, have the zetec engine at a lower MSRP than the ZX3s the rest of the country got.

Good luck with your purchase.

[NOS2Go4Me]

ZTWsquared,Apr 29 2005, 09:54 AM Wrote:

yamin,Apr 29 2005, 12:57 PM Wrote:It has black steel rims with wheel covers.

Welcome ... having had six Foci, I can recommend the car - although frankly the '00 model is the "least" recommended.

If it's a Ford dealer who's got this car, it's a good sign - they generally back their used vehicles to a higher standard than, say ... the typical used car dealer - although I don't believe this one is eligible for a Ford ESP extended warranty.

If they're offering an extended warranty do some research into the warranty company itself, and get the dealer's commitment to back the warranty if the warranty company goes out of business, which happens.

Also ... some three door hatches sold in Quebec were different from the rest of the country - the seats and interior were different (from the base sedan, I believe), it did not have alloy wheels and a few other things were "decontented" ... in fact, I don't think it even had the "ZX3" name. It did, however, have the zetec engine at a lower MSRP than the ZX3s the rest of the country got.

Good luck with your purchase.
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I had just a year's ESP on the powertrain. Never had to use it once with over 20,000KMs on the car in the first year.

Also, ensure it's a Zetec and not the SPI if it's a "decontented" ZX3. The SPI is a "fun" motor, but it's not as fun or as mod-friendly as the Zetec. I seem to recall hearing on here that some of the ZX3s sold in QC had the SPI in them :huh: