RE: Ford Fiesta ST

[A Scotsman]

Fiesta racing has always been good fun and a cost effective entry point for drivers young and not so young.. However - whereas you can buy a race prepared XR2 for anything from £3k to £5k a race prepared ST will cost you around £15k.. That said there are rumoured to be at least half a dozen or so entering the 2008 Fiesta Championship..

Meantime in Scotland the Scottish XR2 Championship seems to be going from strength to strength with anywhere between 15 and nearly 20 cars turning up on the grid.. This is real racing at it's best with no drivers aids, single tyre type and no heater to keep the windscreen clear on damp Knockhill days.

My son spent the last two years racing these wee beasties.. Take a look here http://www.andrew-winchester.com/html/media.php and watch some of his videos.. My personal favourite is the one on 20th Aug 06 but they all show what huge fun and indeed how competitive XR2 racing can be.. It will I think take a long time and a big drop in the cost before the STs achieve the same level of fun..

We're racing in the Scottish Mini-Cooper Cup in 08... They've got ABS and a heater... He'll thinks he's in racing heaven !!

[RubenRocket]

I have one for over two years now as a company car / more practical runabout alternative to my Elise and for that purpose it is o.k., but it is not good as it could have been. The main dissapointments imho are lots of ineffective wheelspin in lower gears and lots of bodyroll because of the high weight and soft suspension (which might of course be sorted with a set of proper shocks, but I'm not going to bother).

Before the ST I had an 106 GTI for this purpose and imho this was a MUCH better car for much less money, because everything was much more in balance: power delivery, handling, braking... It just made much more sense as a 'package'. Despite it's shortcomings I still think the ST is the best hot hatch on sale today in terms of value for money though (the others are just way too expensive for small font wheel drive cars, which is still what they are), but if the 106 was still on sale today I would still pick that any time...

By the way I also think that hot hatches are much more fun when they look completely discrete, no shouty colors, no stripes, I even have all the badges taken off. It's just nice to be able to surprise from time to time

Edited by RubenRocket on Friday 28th December 08:28

[DoddsyR26]

I paid £13500 for my 182 nearly 3 yrs ago brand new with metallic cup suspension and spoiler packs and 6 cd ..supergard etc and it was a fantastic car.Did everything great and very well equipped. where else do u get xenons, half leather suede,climate,cruise/trip, 180bhp 34mpg and handling to go with it for the money???.I recently traded up to the Megane R26 but if it wasn't for that being about i'd have been stuck for what to replace it with this side of 20k.The Fiesta didn't even come close when looking for a hot hatch in the clio class.It came down to the 206 180 and the clio in the end.

[Welshbeef]

For that sort of £ you could buy a Seat Ibiza Curpa TDI 160 which is equally as fast as the 182 to 60 and faster at every interval & about 20mpg better off cheaper to insure and cheaper to VED

[RichyBoy]

biglepton said:

Welshbeef said:

RichyBoy said:

Think I would have a new panda 100hp for half the money, similar performance and more fun.

And where do you buy a brand new Pansda 100HP for £6.5k?? Drive the deals best ever was £9k and thats £2k odd off list price - me thinks you have having a giraffe.

Nowhere I would think. The best price I can find is £8395.

http://www.fiatsupasaver.com/ItemDetail.aspx?mID=2...

Okay not half the money but still a darn site cheaper and more fun to drive.

[DoddsyR26]

Seat Ibiza Cupra TDi is £15500 without metallic etc and is nowhere as well equipped and don't handle nearly as well. I had one as a courtesy car for the day and the torque impressed me and for £500 can get it remapped by Revo but the rest of it left me cold.0-60 on the Cupra is 7.6, 182 is 7.1... 0-100 cupra 21.65... 182 -16.85 so the clio will outperform a cupra in every way apart from economy and VED.. depends what u want.

Edited by DoddsyR26 on Friday 28th December 10:01

Edited by DoddsyR26 on Friday 28th December 10:14

[Welshbeef]

DoddsyR26 said:

Seat Ibiza Cupra TDi is £15500 without metallic etc and is nowhere as well equipped and don't handle nearly as well. I had one as a courtesy car for the day and the torque impressed me and for £500 can get it remapped by Revo but the rest of it left me cold.

Edited by DoddsyR26 on Friday 28th December 10:01

Drivethedeal makes it MUCH cheaper than that + what numpty buys brand new cars unless of course there are some people who dont care about losing shedloads in depreciation the moment they drive it off the forecourt

[AARONM3]

Although obviously the article has to quote the list price I think you'd be hard pushed to find anyone who actually pays that much for an ST. Just under £11k seems to be the going rate which puts it up against different, more luke-warm territory.

I'm an ST owner (there, I've said it!) and for the price we paid no other new car really delivered the complete package. Personally I've been more than happy with it both on road and a brief foray onto track at Brunters. Downsides I would say are pretty poor fuel consumption due to 5th being too short, a clutch that takes a bit of getting used to (unless mine's just a bit sharp?!) and it is looking a bit dated.

[Welshbeef]

AARONM3 said:

Although obviously the article has to quote the list price I think you'd be hard pushed to find anyone who actually pays that much for an ST. Just under £11k seems to be the going rate which puts it up against different, more luke-warm territory.

I'm an ST owner (there, I've said it!) and for the price we paid no other new car really delivered the complete package. Personally I've been more than happy with it both on road and a brief foray onto track at Brunters. Downsides I would say are pretty poor fuel consumption due to 5th being too short, a clutch that takes a bit of getting used to (unless mine's just a bit sharp?!) and it is looking a bit dated.

Ok so 11k - well look at Autotrader you can buy an Astra VXR with 45k on it for that money and there are Focus ST's at that price too.

Or look at the Seat Ibiza Cupra 1.8T 150bhp which can be easily chipped up if your into that whereas a N/A cannot be cheaply upped in power

[RubenRocket]

AARONM3 said:

a clutch that takes a bit of getting used to (unless mine's just a bit sharp?!)

Nope, same here

[benwiz6]

I plumped for a Fiesta ST over a year ago and I agree that in factory spec it's not quite as quick as it should be. However, mine has been endlessly reliable and the interior feels miles better (to me) than the 172/182 which was the obvious competition.

Yes it is a bit of a pain to have to change down to keep up with turbodiesel family hatchbacks and the centre of gravity is a bit high but it's a perfectly nice place to sit in 99% of the time and you can fit 5 adults without anyone getting DVT. If only it had a little more power and a little less thirst (27mpg in the real world; the 38mpg in the spec is a joke) then it would be perfect for me.

[pbirkett]

Welshbeef said:

For that sort of £ you could buy a Seat Ibiza Curpa TDI 160 which is equally as fast as the 182 to 60 and faster at every interval & about 20mpg better off cheaper to insure and cheaper to VED

Boils down to whether you want a german diesel hot hatch or a french screamer though really.

I've never driven the actual TDI models but from my experience of owning the Fabia vRS and driving and passengering in chipped VAG TDI's, as well as my test drive of the 1.8T Cupra, I think I can say that the clio was a much more entertaining car to drive. Probably no quicker, but IS a lot more entertaining.

[shibby!]

Was not impressed with the Fiesta AT ALL!!!!!

Actually pretty dissapointed, so it was not bought!


The Clio is a much better car.


I would not be banging on about the Ford build quality either, my mate bought one and is really annoyed as parts in the engine bay have started to rust, its only 2 months old!!!!!

Nick

[DoddsyR26]

Hot diesels feel quicker cos of the big slug of torque and they can surprise u if ur not in the right gear and I do appreciate how far diesels have come in recent years just for me petrol cars for proper driving cars... Back to the fiesta ST I have never driven one so can't really comment but have read they handle well and the exhaust note sounds sporty enough and i'm sure they're good to drive...and can't really be compared with the current crop of 200bhp superminis such as the VXR/197/cooper S as they cost a few grand more.. so how do they compare with the SRi corsa, Ibiza FR,CZT,etc

[Welshbeef]

DoddsyR26 said:

Hot diesels feel quicker cos of the big slug of torque and they can surprise u if ur not in the right gear and I do appreciate how far diesels have come in recent years just for me petrol cars for proper driving cars... Back to the fiesta ST I have never driven one so can't really comment but have read they handle well and the exhaust note sounds sporty enough and i'm sure they're good to drive...and can't really be compared with the current crop of 200bhp superminis such as the VXR/197/cooper S as they cost a few grand more.. so how do they compare with the SRi corsa, Ibiza FR,CZT,etc

But this is the point the Fiesta ST is a warm hatch with barely 150bhp the Fabia vRS is going to be very similar performance (outright) and quicker in real life, the Ibiza Cupra tdi will be quicker in all instances, the Fiat Grande Punto 1.9 TDI is cheaper & quicker in all instances.

Also for the £13k list pice you can buy a nice M5 E39 ... not really a hard choice is it and remember that in 3 years time that ST will be worth no more than £6k at best the M5 will be worth similar money to its current value so therefore unless you think its repairs will cost more than £7k the M5 is the better choice & given that the OP stated a 28mpg combined the M5 is 22mpg combined so not much in it.

[exgtt]

pbirkett said:

I looked at one of these before I ended up with a Clio 182.

The latter was cheaper, handled better, looked better, was lighter, had a better engine, was more powerful and considerably faster.

A no-brainer. The Fiesta has a wheezy 2.0 litre from a Mondeo, and looks a van.

Sorry, I'm not a fan. Plus only 148 bhp in something not far shy of 1200 kg is not exactly exciting.

Agree,

I always have them stuck to my back bumper with the herbert driving thinking he has a fast car.

I slow down just to p**s em off, not much to gain by racing one of these...

[AARONM3]

As an aside from this banter over what else to buy... does anyone know if are the revisions referred to in the article are tweaks to the current ST or just info on the ST compared to normal Fiestas?

[PhantomPH]

I used to have a late '89 XR2i (way back in the day) and it seemed like a really fast car at the time. I could give my mate in his 1.6 MR2 Mk1 a bloody good run for his money. We had a lot of fun in those days. I remember the torque-steer and the gearstick 'wibbling' under acceleration. It was a properly quick little car in the early 90's.

Somehow regardless of how good it is, I cannot imagine the new ST giving that 'raw' feeling of cars back then. Modern safety and luxury will prevent that.

Christ, I remember when I told people it was a 'fuel-injected 1.6', they were actually impressed.

[okgo]

patmy said:

I've got a ST chose it over the clio 182 because for the same money as a used clio you get 3 year warrenty, the fiesta is alot better bult than a Renault, AND i have no terouble keeping up with my mates 182 on the twisty's!

He wasnt trying lol

Not a shite car, but really luke warm.

I tore one a new hole with a golf tdi hire car..

And as pbirkett says I would have the clio every day,i would also have the new clio every day.

[patmy]

If i was paying the full 13.5K for a fiesta then maybe i'd consider a frog but the reality is that if you pay more than 11.5K for a fiesta your a mug, think its a great car for what you pay, and I would like to see renault make a car as good for the same money and one that wont cost a fortune to fix when the warranty runs out.