CHRISTOPHER MCKITTERICK'S

2000 Ford Focus ZX3 Kona Edition

Goodbye, cute little monkey! Er, I mean Focus!

 

Cute, sporty, fun car at a bargain price!

Here was my eBay ad for this nice little car that has seen only 93,000 miles! This is the first modern car I have ever owned; I'm a classic-car guy and just couldn't get excited about new cars. But this one was so fun to drive and so practical with the hatchback and fold-down rear seats that we bought it on the night we saw it. Kij and I saw it while passing on our way home from dinner late one night and took it for a test-drive. It's a darn quick car that handles great and is fun to shift through the five gears, plus it's really charming. We pulled back into the dealer's lot after our quick spin through Lawrence, Kansas, and told him we had to have it! They stayed an hour past closing to sell us the car.

This is a great run-around car, easy to park, easy to get out to the mountains in, easy to pile stuff into. But now it's time to sell it to you, not because we don't love this car, but because Kij hurt her knee and needed an automatic transmission. We held onto it for a year after she got another car, but we already have several other vehicles and it's time to make room!

The photo below shows the car where it lives in Seattle (where Kij is right now). Isn't it lovely?

So here's the story on the special edition: Kona Mountain Bikes did a limited edition of the 2000 Ford Focus ZX3. There aren't a lot of them, and I get a lot of nice comments. The car works great for commuting as well as cross-country trips. We've taken it through the mountains in the winter, and it handled great up there, too.

It runs and drives wonderfully, and is a complete joy to take through curvy mountain roads. Mileage is about 93,000 with about 30,000 of that from cross-country trips. The previous owner was a corporate fleet where it was taken special care of and where it served for about 30,000 miles; a Missouri dealer seems to have it for about 3000 miles before we bought it. On gas it's very economical, getting 26 mpg in city driving and 35 mpg on the highway. Every time I go for a drive in this car it makes me smile. The new owner will too.

By the way, I have a website with a page for this Ford Focus Kona online.

Here our car displays its mechanical bits:


When we bought the car, we also bought the extended warranty and used it to the fullest extent. This ensured that it always was maintained as the manufacturer required, and also that we got any recall things replaced (the seat belts are newer than the car, for example). We had the oil changed every 3000 miles or 6 months, whichever was sooner, to keep the engine fresh. We also made sure to replace all the filters as needed, light bulbs, and so on. Over the past few months, we replaced one of the blinkers and one of the tail lights. The tires are pretty new, too. I think we have the paperwork for all this, and will include everything we can find.

The comfy gray-brown fabric upholstery doesn't show dirt.

This super-cute limited edition has special brown paint (called "Dirt Metallic" with clear-coat) and unique bike "tire tread" rubber side moldings to protect from parking-lot dings. The Kona package also had 16" premium alloy wheels, driving lights, and a CD player.

Here's a rear shot. That hatch is so useful!


Note: The car has Kansas plates (where I live), but it's in Seattle right now and will be in Seattle at the end of the auction. Just want to be clear!

Here's a shot of the beautiful dash and steering wheel. This interior is sporty and fun and in wonderful condition:


The car is a two-door hatchback with a fair amount of legroom in the back, and a 60/40 flip-down back seat that lets you haul a whole lot of stuff. With the seat folded down, you can fit two mountain bikes and a weekend's worth of gear into the back. We once carried a loveseat back there.


There's a shallow dent in the left-front quarter panel from parking on the Seattle streets. It doesn't show much unless you drive in mud. It didn't even damage the paint! We never got it repaired because we figured in Seattle it would just get dented again. There haven't been any actual accidents. Note the neat tread pattern of the side molding, as well as the excellent condition of the tires and wheels:


Here's the only other imperfection - a little parking-rash from when someone left some of their white paint on our bumper. The rest of the car is in really excellent condition!


Here's looking at the front seats from the passenger door (that's just some water on the doorsill from a quick rinse-down for the photos - the sills are in great shape):



The site ePinions.com lets people post comments about things like cars, and the users love the 2000 Ford Focus! Click here to read what they have to say (hint: this article's title is "Focus: Most Bang for the Buck").

Best price you'll find for such a nice car!

My reserve is super-low (less than trade-in value...)!

The NADA Price Guide says that this car retails for $4950 and that dealers give a trade-in value of $3650.

Kelly Blue Book shows this car going for $6295 at dealers (!!!), but more realistically says this car is worth $5085 in Excellent condition, $4625 in Good condition, and $4055 in Fair condition. This car's condition is Excellent in every way except for the small ding in the front driver's-side fender and some parking-rash on the front bumper.

But we're not asking anywhere near those prices! We just want our cute little car to have a nice home.

For your reference, here are the authoritative price guides online:

Kelly Blue Book

NADA Price Guide

Oh, one more thing: If you decide to hop up the GM 2.0L Zetec DOHC engine a little, I'm including a brand-new, fresh-air intake kit that's good for more horsepower plus more miles per gallon. The air filter is a permanent, washable unit - very convenient. At a performance shop, this kit costs about $170:


For you sport-compact racers out there: I have read that this engine block can survive up to 600 horsepower, and that it puts out 300 horses with a turbo blowing 20psi. This engine is used on all kinds of great machines from Bonneville land-speed racers to the Ariel Atom.

Summary

• Runs, drives, handles, and stops great! 
• Carries three of your friends comfortably - even 6-footers - and tons of gear.
• About 93,000 actual miles.
• Brand-new, super-duper-duty battery.
• New tires in 2004, with well over half the tread left.
• All original.
• Comes with new cold-air intake system.
• Cool options:
  • Unique bike-tire-tread design side moldings.
  • "Black Jac" roof-top luggage rack mount (no bicycle or bike rack included, but it's easy to drop one on the included rack mounts and head into the mountains).
  • Leather-wrapped soft-feel steering wheel.
  • 16" multi-spoke "silver sparkle" aluminum wheels.
  • Driving lights.
  • Air conditioning.
  • Power brakes and steering.
  • AM/FM plus CD player in stereo.
  • "High series" instrument cluster (instruments for everything, including tachometer).
  • Dual front air bags.
  • CARFAX also reports that this car has the ABS option - I wasn't aware of that!
• Some great features:
  • Independent short-long arm rear suspension. Because of the excellent tuned suspension, this car handles great. It's an American car that does well in racing against the high-performance Japanese cars!
  • Front and rear stabilizer bars also help keep you in control.
  • Cloth sport front bucket seats with height adjustment and a couple of other adjustments.
• Everything works great.
• Interior is in really nice condition.
• Exterior is great, too, except for the minor flaws shown above. No rust, not even near the little dent!
• CARFAX report included from when we bought the car, reporting no problems.
• Title in hand, ready to sign over to you!