Don't Buy A Fiesta!

[Rachel Darby]

ive had loads of problems with my alloys in the last 3 years, ive bought 2 new alloys aswell as havin the current 1s re-straightened about 3 or 4 times due to hitting pot holes etc, im not gonna pretend i drive like my nan coz i dont but sometimes you just cant avoid hitting them, i love my fiesta if im honest but i am finding it a little costly now, can any1 tell me whether its worth changing them for smaller alloys so they'll take the impact better ? ive been told i cant as it will effect how it drives ? is this true, as you can tell im not very knowledgeable :) , any help would b appreciated thanx

[akakray]

Got a bit bored after page 3.. My side of it..

I had a Kia Pro_Cee'd before this and ripped a tire off the rim on a huge pothole on the inside of a corner and couldn't see it until its too late - so things like this happen, sometimes it cant be avoided. The roads are not at the standard they should be, so saying that the alloys are the problem is nonsense, THE GOVERNMENT IS TO BLAME for not allowing councils to keep the roads to a satisfactory standard. If you have the Street Pack (like me) then you have to be aware that there is not much give in the sidewall at all and it has stiffer suspension, so any pothole, curb or stone could potentially damage your wheel. You are not driving a 4x4 with massive sidewalls on super soft suspension.

It seems that the number of people with problems with their alloys is far outstripped by the number of people who haven't.. Maybe some people just cant drive? :)

[Chrissyb]

Ford is known for reliability, and your recommending Renault?? Haha heres me thinking that buying a French car is buying problems!! Give me alloy issues than electrical problems any day!!

[rojariggs]

I've already posted some of this elsewhere in the forum but the points are just as valid here:

Any car with a tyre profile of less than 50 has more of a chance of getting a buckled wheel than a car with tyres with a larger side wall.

Becuase Fiestas (or any small car) need to retain a small overall wheel diameter it means that a Fiesta with 16" wheels will have a lower profile sidewall than a Mondeo with 16" wheels and in turn will have more chance of buckling a wheel than the Mondeo. While I'm not saying that there may or may not be an issue with a number of Fiesta wheels the lower profile necessary on smaller cars to retain the overall diameter probably has an effect here too.

For the record, in my car history (37 cars), I have had a number of different makes and model with buckled wheels. In all but one case, I bought the car with the wheel already buckled. Some of the cars in question were:

BMW 3-series 18" wheels (40 profile)

Renault Laguna 17" wheels (45 profile)

Renault Laguna Megane 17" wheels (45 profile)

Volvo S60 17" wheels (45 profile)

There is a poll in the Fiesta section of the forum where 58% of those asked have not had a problem with buckled wheels.

BTW, I've owned nine Fords (including my current Mk7 Fiesta), seven of which had/have alloys and have never had a buckled wheels...

[PumpkinSteve]

Not trying to downplay the issue but a lot of people don't realise that you are supposed to avoid potholes. I've been a passenger in cars and it's like they're trying to hit them, they have no clue.

[rojariggs]

Not trying to downplay the issue but a lot of people don't realise that you are supposed to avoid potholes. I've been a passenger in cars and it's like they're trying to hit them, they have no clue.

That is so true! I always glide around them - while watching the cars in front and behind bounce through them!

You might get away with it on steel wheels with big spongy tyres but low profile tyres on alloys you are quite right and there's a lot of people out there who should take more care.

I wonder how many people on here "inherited" their buckled wheel problems from previous owners?

[Nico.]

ford pointed out to me the other month i had a buckled alloy (my road before we had it covered in tarmac had 60 + potholes in less than 100 yards), but ouf of the 3 cars in the house, it got it last (jag xkr and merc ml) so i dont count them as too bad... and to be honest if its that big of a deal, after market alloys aint the hardest thing get your hands on

[adamc260]

So if you value your bank balance and sanity go and buy a Renault

I don't believe that sentence has ever been formed... EVER

[adamc260]

Not trying to downplay the issue but a lot of people don't realise that you are supposed to avoid potholes. I've been a passenger in cars and it's like they're trying to hit them, they have no clue.

The road to my work is AWFUL, I'm probably the only one who slows down and drives all over the road trying to avoid them (in a safe and controlled manner of course!)

[MartynS]

It's funny how you get used to where all the lower drains and general road imperfections lie, there's a stretch of road on my route to work where I drift from right by the curb to avoid a drop on the left wheel to the middle of the road to avoid something on the right. People behind must think I'm drunk, but it's amusing watching them then drive down both.

[adamc260]

It's funny how you get used to where all the lower drains and general road imperfections lie, there's a stretch of road on my route to work where I drift from right by the curb to avoid a drop on the left wheel to the middle of the road to avoid something on the right. People behind must think I'm drunk, but it's amusing watching them then drive down both.

It's also awful that we have to... the billions that are raised through road fund license and petrol clearly NEVER get put back into the roads but to subsidise everything else! Makes you wonder how countries that sap far less money from tax payers have such good roads?

As of about april 2010 there were apparently "31,035,791" cars

Assume as a VERY kind average thats £150 per vehicle for tax

4,655,368,650 raised in Road fund license (purely as a rough estimate)... I wonder if even 1% of that would get spent on the UK's roads.

[MarkyR]

It's up to the councils to fix the roads, and what with cut backs everywhere, I imagine they rather pay for the odd new alloy for the odd person who complains, rather then thousands some contractor will rip them off by! To fill in a few potholes.

But the majority of potholes are caused by the utilities company's, they dig the road up, do a naff cheap job of back filling it, no one from the council bothers to check the work, within a year you have pot holes.

It's a vicious cycle this country has got itself into, I think recently I heard every road is supposed to be resurfaced every 3 or 4 years, well major ones!! I'd be happy with every 6 years!

I am actually dreading the cold weather as I know they will create and make the current pot holes worst, then it won't be till the summer when they are repaired at the earliest. But with cut backs I can only see more and more of them being left untouched.

[Jack7]

I am one of the people you guys spoke of "inheriting" buckled alloys, luckily I got them replaced and the dealer paid for it, but the other 2 are going in to get refurbed and im going to get them checked to make sure they arent buckled as well.

& yeah totally agree with yous about the state of the roads, at the bottom of my street 3 drains were replaced and since then no word of a lie the patches of tar have buckled and been recovered at least 15 times. Everytime its patched up within a few days it cracks and you see chunks of the road all over the place and its yet another fresh pot hole.

Makes me glad im only paying £20 road tax now as clearly the money isnt going back into the roads anyhow! :P

[MartynS]

They should invent a scheme whereby for every £20 of road tax you pay they fix a bad bit of road of your choice!

[adamc260]

They should invent a scheme whereby for every £20 of road tax you pay they fix a bad bit of road of your choice!

The money just goes into the black hole and is never spent on anything road related. Just like all the money raised from petrol/diesel it just offsets other non motor related things. The government moan we all drive but would soon miss the revenue from fuel/road tax if we all really did take public transport.