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Car #1
Make
Model
Variant
Engine
Car #2
Make
Model
Variant
Engine

compare selected cars
1998. - 2001.
C - Small family car
sedan, 4 door
front
Badges
Production
Vehicle class
Body style
Wheel drive
Safety
2001. - 2003.
C - Small family car
sedan, 4 door
front

Marketing

Dimensons & Outlines

4362 mm
1702 mm
1430 mm
490 liters
490 liters
55 liters
Length
Width
Height
Boot (min)
Boot (max)
Fuel tank
4365 mm
1705 mm
1410 mm
416 liters
416 liters
55 liters
1998 Ford Focus
2001 Mazda 323

Engine

Petrol
4 - Inline, 4 valves per cylinder
Nat. Asp.
1988 cc
130 hp
178 Nm
Engine
Fuel
Configuration
Aspiration
Displacement
Power
Torque
Petrol
4 - Inline, 4 valves per cylinder
Nat. Asp.
1598 cc
100 hp
145 Nm

Performance (manual gearbox)

manual gearbox - 5 gears
1160 kg
9.3 s
201 km/h
11.7 l/100km
6.9 l/100km
8.6 l/100km
205 g/km
Gearbox type
Vehicle weight
Acc. 0-100
Top speed
Cons. (urban)
Cons. (highway)
Cons. (average)
CO2 emissions
manual gearbox - 5 gears
1070 kg
11.9 s
177 km/h
9.5 l/100km
6.3 l/100km
7.5 l/100km
179 g/km

Performance (automatic gearbox)

 
kg
s
km/h
l/100km
l/100km
l/100km
g/km
Gearbox type
Vehicle weight
Acc. 0-100
Top speed
Cons. (urban)
Cons. (highway)
Cons. (average)
CO2 emissions
automatic - 4 gears
1100 kg
14.2 s
170 km/h
11.3 l/100km
7.1 l/100km
8.6 l/100km
g/km

Expenses

800 EUR
Price from
1000 EUR

Virtual Adviser's™ opinion

Overview

Well, these are two pretty similar cars we have here! It's only details that could potentially make the difference. Considering they both belong to the small family car segment and utilize the same 4-door sedan body style and the front wheel drive system, it all comes up to the specific petrol engine choice they offer. The first one has a Ford-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 130hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 100hp engine designed by Mazda.

Safety

The fact that the Ford got tested by the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP), while the other contender didn't, offers a slight advantage, as the 4-star rating is better than none. Still, apart from the official crash test results there are other things we need to be aware of. Both vehicles belong to the small family car segment, which is generally classifying them somewhere in the middle safety-wise, still it doesn't help us solve our dilemma, does it? Furthermore, when it comes to weight, a factor that most people underestimate, the American car offers a marginal difference of 8% more metal.

Reliability

I don't like generalizing things when it comes to reliability, although it does seem that both brands display similar results in faults and breakdowns, when all the models are taken into account. These are the results of an independent reasearch, while our visitors describe reliability of Ford, as well as Mazda, with the same average rating of 4.4 out of 5. Independent research findings rank Focus as average reliability-wise, and 323 is more or less at the same level.Above it all, drivers of cars with the same engine as the American car rank it on average as 5.0, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 4.0 out of 5.

Performance & Fuel economy

Ford is undoubtly more agile, reaching 100km/h in 2.6 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 201 kilometers per hour, 24km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy the winner has to be the Japanese car, averaging around 7.5 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (38 mpg), in combined cycle. We can't ignore that 15% difference compared to the American car.


Verdict

Ford appears just a bit more reliable, although the difference is truly marginal. The most important thing when deciding between any two vehicles should always be safety, both passive and active. In my opinion, everything taken into account, the American car beats the other contender by far, making it the best choice without even considering other things. It all continues in the same direction, with Ford being considerably quicker, thus putting more smile on driver's face. It does come at a cost though, and that's the fuel consumption... It's not difficult to say then that if I'd need to make a choice, it would definitely be the Ford. In any case that's my personal view, built upon all the data available to me. What should decide here though is the way you feel about the two vehicles, and I hope you'll find my guidelines useful in the process. In case you have two minutes to spare I invite you to define your needs, desires and budget and see which car would be chosen by the virtual adviser, among more than 12.000 different ones in our database.

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