RE: Farewell Ford Fiesta ST!
Discussion
LuS1fer said:
s m said:
I'll be interested to see if they offer ... 3 rear belts.
They already have 3 rear belts.On the new one with a possible sunroof I was thinking. I do enjoy having a sunroof and use it lots in the week on my existing cars - along with the aircon at other times
You'd hope they will continue but manufacturers tend to do some strange option exclusions.
I've just seen their ad on Facebook.
Don't like the styling.
Don't like the tablet on the dash.
Don't like the auto stop start (a deal killer on any car)
But it looks like the only free colour is red and all the "Premium" and "Excvlusive" colours look as dull as dishwater, certainly nothing i would pay extra for, except maybe the deep impact blue.
Peugeot, Citroen, Nissan et al all do far better colours.
Don't like the styling.
Don't like the tablet on the dash.
Don't like the auto stop start (a deal killer on any car)
But it looks like the only free colour is red and all the "Premium" and "Excvlusive" colours look as dull as dishwater, certainly nothing i would pay extra for, except maybe the deep impact blue.
Peugeot, Citroen, Nissan et al all do far better colours.
GibsonSG said:
Dale487 said:
Sounds like a great car for the NC500 - I've really fancied doing the NC500, but I don't think I can convince my wife it's a holiday. How long did the NC500 take you?
I did it over four days - drove up from Malvern to Inverness (stayed at Culloden House), then cross country to Applecross Pass and up to Kinlochbervie (special place for us as our first daughter was conceived there!), Kinlochbervie back to Inverness via the north road and Wick (stayed at Rocpool, Inverness) and then final day was Inverness to Malvern. Pretty much followed the route used by Evo in their COTY feature.It was our 25th anniversary - the ST was my gift to her for that occasion so the trip was to get it settled into (a hard) life with us. I recommend it, but perhaps take an extra day or so. Mind you, we usually drive down to Italy in the summer so big daily miles are not an issue for us or the kids, although we left the brats behind for the NC500.
Edited by GibsonSG on Friday 23 June 19:06
So, that's a full 7 days including the drive up from Manchester.
Kawasicki said:
Be careful what you ask for.
The agility and sharp steering of the current car are intrinsically bound to the less than plush ride.
If everyone moans about the ride, management will listen, and push the suspension tune in the comfy cruiser direction. Then everyone will drive the car and say it rides better, but it lost that feisty edge. Boring.
Maybe.
However, Lotus, Peugeot in the 90's (306GTi6, 106GTI) and even Ford in the mid 00's (Mondeo ST, Focus ST170) prove that you don't have to have ridiculously stiff springs and dampers made from granite to make a car handle.The agility and sharp steering of the current car are intrinsically bound to the less than plush ride.
If everyone moans about the ride, management will listen, and push the suspension tune in the comfy cruiser direction. Then everyone will drive the car and say it rides better, but it lost that feisty edge. Boring.
Maybe.
Granted, I still love driving my mate's Fiesta ST200-it's a Scrappy Doo of a little thing, always begging to be hoofed about. It really is a super little car apart from the harsh ride-definitely a classic in waiting for 20 years time IMO. Look at the 205GTI...
GibsonSG said:
Dale487 said:
Sounds like a great car for the NC500 - I've really fancied doing the NC500, but I don't think I can convince my wife it's a holiday. How long did the NC500 take you?
I did it over four days - drove up from Malvern to Inverness (stayed at Culloden House), then cross country to Applecross Pass and up to Kinlochbervie (special place for us as our first daughter was conceived there!), Kinlochbervie back to Inverness via the north road and Wick (stayed at Rocpool, Inverness) and then final day was Inverness to Malvern. Pretty much followed the route used by Evo in their COTY feature.It was our 25th anniversary - the ST was my gift to her for that occasion so the trip was to get it settled into (a hard) life with us. I recommend it, but perhaps take an extra day or so. Mind you, we usually drive down to Italy in the summer so big daily miles are not an issue for us or the kids, although we left the brats behind for the NC500.
Edited by GibsonSG on Friday 23 June 19:06
So, that's a full 7 days including the drive up from Manchester.
blade7 said:
£15k ?
I paid less for my 16 plate ST2 with style pack when new. For the money there is nothing close (imho). I'm not sure what I will replace it with, hopefully Ford don't dumb down the next version in response to the whinging about the ride of the current one - I don't find it that bad.I've owned many, many hot hatches over the years and, as someone else said, the Fiesta - along with mk5 Golf and Visa GTI - stands out as just bloody good fun to drive.
s m said:
Is that the TrustFord deal on 0%?
Its Trust aye but I've got family who work for them so I get incredibly good deals if it time it right. Only issue is that to get the best deal you cant be too picky so rather than the sprirt blue ST-3 I wanted, i'm getting a dog dick red ST-2. Still, beggars cant be choosers and I am getting it for peanuts! We have both the ST and Peugeot 208 GTi in our family and for me having driven both, its the 208 that gets my vote. On real British roads, not super smooth test tracks the Peugeot's suspension is more compliant and easier to live with and I prefer the interior as well.
Of course its very close and the performance is virtually identical but these things are always subjective.
Good car though.....
Of course its very close and the performance is virtually identical but these things are always subjective.
Good car though.....
bobbo89 said:
s m said:
Is that the TrustFord deal on 0%?
Its Trust aye but I've got family who work for them so I get incredibly good deals if it time it right. Only issue is that to get the best deal you cant be too picky so rather than the sprirt blue ST-3 I wanted, i'm getting a dog dick red ST-2. Still, beggars cant be choosers and I am getting it for peanuts! 2172cc said:
We have both the ST and Peugeot 208 GTi in our family and for me having driven both, its the 208 that gets my vote. On real British roads, not super smooth test tracks the Peugeot's suspension is more compliant and easier to live with and I prefer the interior as well.
Of course its very close and the performance is virtually identical but these things are always subjective.
Good car though.....
We used to have 208's as pool cars at work before we turned to Hyundai and I could never get on with the driving position and tiny steering wheel, it all felt a bit awkward! Of course its very close and the performance is virtually identical but these things are always subjective.
Good car though.....
s m said:
bobbo89 said:
s m said:
Is that the TrustFord deal on 0%?
Its Trust aye but I've got family who work for them so I get incredibly good deals if it time it right. Only issue is that to get the best deal you cant be too picky so rather than the sprirt blue ST-3 I wanted, i'm getting a dog dick red ST-2. Still, beggars cant be choosers and I am getting it for peanuts! I'd just need enough of a trade in to pay the finance off on my current one.
I picked up a brand new ST-3 with rear park sensors 3 weeks ago and paid £16.6K. I had the Mountune 215 pack fitted last week too.
In response to some of what's been said on this thread so far:
In comparison to a RenaultSport Clio Cup Mk3, the Fiesta doesn't feel quite as focussed or manic, and maybe not quite so exciting when pushing on. But then that's one of the reasons I traded mine in. The Clio was probably a bit too 'all or nothing'. It was, as a driver's car and something to hammer around a track, absolutely brilliant. I did a track day at Bedford Autodrome a couple of months ago and the car could only be described as fantastic. But as something to use every day it became a little bit tiresome. There was no halfway house. Sitting at 70 mph on a motorway with the engine buzzing away and your ears bleeding due to it only having 5 gears and odd gearing, combined with 32 mpg if you drove like a saint, and much less if you didn't, along with higher running costs and the comparative lack of any equipment meant it just wasn't for me after an ownership period of 2 months. The Clio is useable as an everyday car but you've got to be realistic about the compromise. The steering and brakes never did quite feels the same again after 170 miles around the Bedford GP track.
The ride on the Fiesta is on the firm side but it's a long way from being nasty and unusable as some say. It's infinitely better than the 2015 F56 Cooper SD I had for a couple of years on 18" wheels and run flat tyres which smashed its way along the road, and no worse than the Clio Cup. In fact I'd say it's no worse than any hot hatch I've had.
The seats gave me lower back ache on the 3 hour return journey I had on collecting the car. There lumbar support appears to be lacking and there's no adjustability for lower back support either, but I'm hoping they'll break in and get more comfortable with age. I'm 6ft and 12.5 stone, so not exactly fat.
As far as fuel use goes, a gentle 120 mile motorway trip to get the Mountune kit done saw 44 mpg average, sticking to sensible speeds and without accelerating hard much. I've seen around 5-10% decrease in mpg since the Mountune. I'm averaging around 41 mpg on my 20 mile commute which is usually fairly fast flowing. The car's only done 1.5K miles so in time it'll loosen up and increase I'm sure.
The dash resembles the cockpit of a commercial airliner due to the number of buttons it has. I wouldn't say it's not classy, as others have said, more just that it's a bit fiddly to get to grips with. Instead of i-drive or whatever, where you'd normally access menus to control things, you're more likely to use a button on the dash to get what you want rather than a menu.
The build seems decent so far, with the usual cheaper plastics in areas you'd find cheaper plastics in more premium cars too, and on the whole it feels solid and premium enough.
Check your tyre pressures if you're buying new - the set up is a bit different with the front at 36 and the rear at 27. I found mine to be inflated incorrectly.
Just a word of warning with insurance, if you're planning on getting the Mountune done, it might be worth insuring the car as a Mountune in the first instance. I had a nightmare of a time with Hastings as took a policy out before having the kit installed. I rang to tell them of the change only for them to tell me they don't insure modified cars/remaps. This, despite being sat on their website and Go Compare, which recognised the Mountune as a stand alone model. The problem turned out to be them using scores of underwriters and the one who'd underwritten my policy didn't allow for modification. So as said, insure it as Mountune in the first instance. After an hour on the phone and much swearing, it became easier to cancel my existing policy and take out a new one with them!
Ironically, the insurance cost came down post Mountune too!
In response to some of what's been said on this thread so far:
In comparison to a RenaultSport Clio Cup Mk3, the Fiesta doesn't feel quite as focussed or manic, and maybe not quite so exciting when pushing on. But then that's one of the reasons I traded mine in. The Clio was probably a bit too 'all or nothing'. It was, as a driver's car and something to hammer around a track, absolutely brilliant. I did a track day at Bedford Autodrome a couple of months ago and the car could only be described as fantastic. But as something to use every day it became a little bit tiresome. There was no halfway house. Sitting at 70 mph on a motorway with the engine buzzing away and your ears bleeding due to it only having 5 gears and odd gearing, combined with 32 mpg if you drove like a saint, and much less if you didn't, along with higher running costs and the comparative lack of any equipment meant it just wasn't for me after an ownership period of 2 months. The Clio is useable as an everyday car but you've got to be realistic about the compromise. The steering and brakes never did quite feels the same again after 170 miles around the Bedford GP track.
The ride on the Fiesta is on the firm side but it's a long way from being nasty and unusable as some say. It's infinitely better than the 2015 F56 Cooper SD I had for a couple of years on 18" wheels and run flat tyres which smashed its way along the road, and no worse than the Clio Cup. In fact I'd say it's no worse than any hot hatch I've had.
The seats gave me lower back ache on the 3 hour return journey I had on collecting the car. There lumbar support appears to be lacking and there's no adjustability for lower back support either, but I'm hoping they'll break in and get more comfortable with age. I'm 6ft and 12.5 stone, so not exactly fat.
As far as fuel use goes, a gentle 120 mile motorway trip to get the Mountune kit done saw 44 mpg average, sticking to sensible speeds and without accelerating hard much. I've seen around 5-10% decrease in mpg since the Mountune. I'm averaging around 41 mpg on my 20 mile commute which is usually fairly fast flowing. The car's only done 1.5K miles so in time it'll loosen up and increase I'm sure.
The dash resembles the cockpit of a commercial airliner due to the number of buttons it has. I wouldn't say it's not classy, as others have said, more just that it's a bit fiddly to get to grips with. Instead of i-drive or whatever, where you'd normally access menus to control things, you're more likely to use a button on the dash to get what you want rather than a menu.
The build seems decent so far, with the usual cheaper plastics in areas you'd find cheaper plastics in more premium cars too, and on the whole it feels solid and premium enough.
Check your tyre pressures if you're buying new - the set up is a bit different with the front at 36 and the rear at 27. I found mine to be inflated incorrectly.
Just a word of warning with insurance, if you're planning on getting the Mountune done, it might be worth insuring the car as a Mountune in the first instance. I had a nightmare of a time with Hastings as took a policy out before having the kit installed. I rang to tell them of the change only for them to tell me they don't insure modified cars/remaps. This, despite being sat on their website and Go Compare, which recognised the Mountune as a stand alone model. The problem turned out to be them using scores of underwriters and the one who'd underwritten my policy didn't allow for modification. So as said, insure it as Mountune in the first instance. After an hour on the phone and much swearing, it became easier to cancel my existing policy and take out a new one with them!
Ironically, the insurance cost came down post Mountune too!
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