Is a 1.4 diesel engine good enough?

For usual driving, for going 5 to 10 km distances daily, maybe once a year a 300 to 400km highway etc. And is it better to get a diesel or gasoline car for such use?

Is Ford fuel efficient enough, or are there better cars for cheap?

I would say only doing 5-10 km a day, roughly 3-6 miles, no, probably better with petrol, you will hardly notice a difference in running costs doing such low miles anyway.

For going only 5 to 10km a day a normal fuel car will be better than diesel, because diesel needs more km to warm up or else doing only such short trips at a time will stress and wear out the diesel engine much earlier. A 1.4l fuel engine can do that 5-10km daily very well but the ride on the highway won't be a relaxed ride, when driving on the highway is only once a year for 300-400km, it should be managable.

the ford ecoboost engines are fuel efficient but they need to come appart on a regular base for a cleaning, or else there will be missfierings. The toyota prius hybrid is very fuel efficient, they are available new for under $30k but when doing only so little like 5-10km a day, the fuel saving with a hybrid car won't be that much to justify the higher price for the hybrid car, a normal fuel car should be ok, a small toyota yaris for example, starting at $15k http://www.toyota.com/yaris/