New Member / Me And My Zetec S

[Nay ZS]

Hi all,

I've been reading this forum for a few weeks now. Im a very busy man so have been slow to register.

I'd just like to say that i've found some of the topics on here very helpful.

Picked up my car in January after trading in my 1.6 clio dynamique S.

It was 6 months old when I got it with just 3000 on the clock. ( Ex ford demo car)

Its fitted with:

Street pack

Quick Clear Windscreen

bluetooth (but no USB)

Side skirts and alloy pedals

Good Points:

Got to say, I love the look of the car with the 17 alloys and the body kit.

I find the power delivery is really quite smooth and really pushes on once the revs head for 4000 or so.

This smooth delivery and sound allows you to use the power very easily. I love booting it onto motorway sliproads.

I do a lot of motorway driving I find the car much quiter and refined than the Clio. Revs are lower and the engine is quiter.

Tyre noise isn't a problem as I have the stereo on quite a lot.

I love the bluetooth voice control and find it very easy and fun to use in my long daily commute.

The stabilty control is very good at its job. It brought the car back into line when a women very nearly pulled into the side of me on the motorway a few weeks back. I threw it round a mini roundabout the other day and the back end barely moved out of line.

The traction control I find is reasonably good. An example being when the road has patchy slush and snow on it. It allowed me to keep forward momentum without having to feather the throttle. It was also very smooth in its operation as the car moved on and off the patches of snow and slush.

Grip levels are excellent and it's great round our country roads with virtually no body roll.

The mpg is fantastic. I had 52 mpg coming on a 25 mile motorway trip the other day. In fairness this was because of the heavy traffic keeping us at a steady 50.

My general mpg is around 40 - 47 on most journeys. Even in town its very easy to drive the car in 5th a 30 and get 40 + mpg.

I have just a couple of niggles but no car is perfect.

The stereo:

I find it very good with it 6 Speakers and it offers very good bass up to a point. I can't take it any louder than 20 without the bass cutting out. I understand this is to protect the Speakers ? Im looking to get it upgraded with the sub and speaker kit ford can do but im still unsure.

Also is it easy to get the update to allow bluetooth steaming ?

The wheels :

I wash my car every week but hate how the alloys ( 17 inch) stain brown after just 300 miles.

Fair enough if I didn't wash them for weeks on end but thats not the case.

Ive been through some very large potholes recently and am now worried about the wheels. All looks ok but I may get them checked out. Again thanks to you guys for making me aware of this.

The tank size:

My clio had a 55 litre tank and managed over 400 miles at around 36 mpg.

The fiesta refuel light comes on after 300 miles or so. I wish it was bigger.

The brakes:

The clio had very strong brakes and also came with discs all around.

If you really slam the fiesta brakes on they just aren't good enough.

The drums on the back are dissapointing looks wise.

Was it a cost issue why they didn't put discs on the back too ?

Snow performance isn't the best with my car really struggling in the very deep compacted stuff in January.

The only way I could get off my road was with the traction control off and people pushing me. In fairness though it was really really deep.

Im over the moon with this car in so many ways and look forward to contributing to the forum.

[Gazjs]

Welcome to FOC.

I am sure its not only your wheels that stain at this time of year, its murder keeping anything clean

[Nay ZS]

Thanks.

Its shocking isn't it! Mines filthy after just a couple of days in this weather. It looks as black as a dirty diesel van at the moment despite being waxed at the weekend !

[AndrewL]

Welcome to the forum! :)

Excellent first post, I agree with more or less every point that you've made.

Especially the braking performance/look of the drums and the stereo clipping. I have also noticed this problem and also the fact that certain frequencies coming through the Speakers make parts of the dashboard rattle quite badly - worst offenders are the passenger door card and the tray on the top of the dash in the center.

Finally - mk7's on compacted snow are absolute cack! I don't know whether it's the size of the wheels or the tyres or what but my current car is the worst I've ever had on snow.

[la3195]

welcome :)

great post, its a great car to drive but like you've said the breaks need improving!

[Maffoo]

Nice review but it's missing pictures of the car in question ;)

[thesilverfox]

Wait, the Z-S has drums at the back?!

[Rogue_Shadow]

Wait, the Z-S has drums at the back?!

aye be true :)

[thesilverfox]

aye be true :)

I'm shocked that in 2010, they still use drums - on the 'performance' range of Fiestas.

[Rogue_Shadow]

Fronts are disc and the rears and drums

Im not too fussed tbh

Anything stops faster than a Saxo 1.1. :D

[AndrewL]

Fronts are disc and the rears and drums

Im not too fussed tbh

Anything stops faster than a Saxo 1.1. :D

Haha, I had a 1.1 106 when I was 17 (and gods gift to driving!) I remember one time barelling down the motorway 'quite quickly' and the car infront of me stopped dead... as soon as I braked the wheels locked up and then I skidded for what felt like about 20 seconds until coming to a halt about a meter away from the very nice Audi infront. Scary stuff... terrible brakes.

[Nay ZS]

Nice review but it's missing pictures of the car in question ;)

I've got one or two photos that im hoping to upload at the weekend.

[aph1101]

Hello and welcome to the FOC...Glad you're enjoying the car and that was a great first post by the way :D

[Nay ZS]

Hello and welcome to the FOC...Glad you're enjoying the car and that was a great first post by the way :D

Hi thanks. Ive finally added a photo from the day I picked up the car. We had major problems with snow in January with 30 cms of snow falling and sticking around for a long time.

[vinnyvangough]

Hi and welcome

[Flic]

Hi thanks. Ive finally added a photo from the day I picked up the car. We had major problems with snow in January with 30 cms of snow falling and sticking around for a long time.

I don't envy you having to pick it up in the snow. It was bad enough driving in it when I'd had the car 9 months.

Welcome anyways, great choice of colour :D