New Member

[CMH96]

Hi,

My names Callum and I am a new member.

I currently own a Ford Focus ST Line 140ps, influenced by my dads Ford ownership from the Focus ST 170, Focus ST-2 (225) which he had for a good 12 years with no problems and his current Focus ST-3 (250).

Although I wish i could have bought the full ST, insurance in Bradford prohibits me from going anywhere near a car above a 1.6 until I'm 25.

I like to play around with my cars and I am thinking about remapping to stage 2 in the very near future, has anyone got any opinions on remapping the Focus ST Line 140ps?

From looking around and asking a few mechanic friends, there isn't much information on it yet.

[Nick Y]

Hi Callum. Welcome to the FOC forums. 
Firstly, nice motor. 
Secondly, you could try somewhere like PumaSpeed in Wakefield as they do a lot of Ford remaps, upgrades etc to improve bhp. 

Insurance wise, I feel your pain. I'm 34 and still struggle to get insurance for performance cars despite driving for 15 years and having no accidents or points in that space of time (not able to drive during some of that time though due to ill health). Some insurance companies won't allow any mods at all to be fitted and some will allow them but charge a hefty amount for them. 

[CMH96]

Thank you Nick. I have a had a look at PumaSpeed but didn't know they had a base in Wakefield. Just waiting for them to get back to me with any information on it now. 

Yeah, I understand with the insurance. It can be a nightmare. Especially with anything aftermarket. I have been looking at Mountune as I have heard good things, especially in relation to insurance and warranty. 

I definitely need to research more before I jump into it. Thank you for the advice and hopefully I will hear back from PumaSpeed soon.

[thatfiestaguy]

2 hours ago, CMH96 said:

Hi,

My names Callum and I am a new member.

I currently own a Ford Focus ST Line 140ps, influenced by my dads Ford ownership from the Focus ST 170, Focus ST-2 (225) which he had for a good 12 years with no problems and his current Focus ST-3 (250).

Although I wish i could have bought the full ST, insurance in Bradford prohibits me from going anywhere near a car above a 1.6 until I'm 25.

I like to play around with my cars and I am thinking about remapping to stage 2 in the very near future, has anyone got any opinions on remapping the Focus ST Line 140ps?

From looking around and asking a few mechanic friends, there isn't much information on it yet.

I feel your pain.

In 2013 when I had a 2002 Renault clio 1.2, aged 18, I paid £1,100 to insure it, FC, the car was worth £1,100.... that was actually very cheap, however it was on a multi car policy and I did complete pass plus.

In 2015, I bought a Ford Fiesta Edge TDCI 2011 with a 1.4 Diesel engine producing 68BHP, initially that cost me about £1,200 to insure, the following year it went down to about £1150.

In September 2016 I bought a Mercedes Benz C220 Saloon, 2.1 SE Executive Model, initially that cost me £1,650 to insure, then it went down this year to a little less, but not much, around £1,500.

Now, aged 23, I have just bought a 2017 plate Ford Focus ST-2 247BHP Petrol which I am picking up tomorrow evening after work, quotes online show a price of between £880 and £950 to insure, with 5.5 years driving and 6 years no claims, this is despite the fact my MB is 168BHP and the Focus ST is 247BHP, yet still costs less to insure, I'm assuming it's to due with insurance group, MB is group 39E and ST-2 is group 33E.

Oddly my insurers, rather than reducing my premium, are charging me an extra £59 to change my car on the policy, so I don't have to change halfway through the year and lose out on this year's NCD/NCB, however come February 2019 it will reduce massively, by around £600-£700 to the £800-£900 mark.

By contrast, my dad who is currently 58 years old, and has been driving for the last 39 years, pays £400 to insure both my old 2011 Fiesta and a 2004 Nissan X trail.

Just shows what years of driving does, he's been involved in several accidents, and had to claim on insurance, but none were his fault, one incident involved a Fire engine running on a shout, but it was deemed to be LFB's fault and their insurers paid out for the damage to dad's car (they  had the choice of a head on with oncoming traffic, or hit the back end of our car with both of us in it).

None of the above quotes are for black boxes, aka telematics, I hate those things and would rather pay the extra to avoid having one fitted.

[Nick Y]

Yep, Puma Speed are based in Wakey, not far from J41 of the M1. 
I've been looking into them too to add upgrades to my 2017 Fiesta ST-Line 140 but they might not be Ford warranty friendly (unlike Mountune). A friend of mine has used them a few times for upgrades to her fiestas and she keeps going back so they must be good.

Insurance premiums for males under 25 are extremely high.
Your postcode and area play a large part in insurance prices, as does the type of vehicle and the likelyhood of it being stolen to either joyride round the streets, be stripped for parts or exported. Heavily modified vehicles attract unwanted attention so attract higher premiums, especially with young drivers who don't fully understand car control etc. 

Will, I'm guessing that was just the admin fee. I've had that problem a few times when changing vehicles mid-policy. I also avoid telematics boxes purely because I like getting upto speed quickly rather than dawdling at a set of lights, a junction or when joining a motorway. You won't find me racing round the streets either acting like a complete numpty or trying to show off to mates on a retail park somewhere.
Yikes, I wouldn't have wanted to have been in that situation with the LFB truck. That must've been scary. 

[CMH96]

5 minutes ago, thatfiestaguy said:

I feel your pain.

In 2013 when I had a 2002 Renault clio 1.2, aged 18, I paid £1,100 to insure it, FC, the car was worth £1,100.... that was actually very cheap, however it was on a multi car policy and I did complete pass plus.

In 2015, I bought a Ford Fiesta Edge TDCI 2011 with a 1.4 Diesel engine producing 68BHP, initially that cost me about £1,200 to insure, the following year it went down to about £1150.

In September 2016 I bought a Mercedes Benz C220 Saloon, 2.1 SE Executive Model, initially that cost me £1,650 to insure, then it went down this year to a little less, but not much, around £1,500.

Now, aged 23, I have just bought a 2017 plate Ford Focus ST-2 247BHP Petrol which I am picking up tomorrow evening after work, quotes online show a price of between £880 and £950 to insure, with 5.5 years driving and 6 years no claims, this is despite the fact my MB is 168BHP and the Focus ST is 247BHP, yet still costs less to insure, I'm assuming it's to due with insurance group, MB is group 39E and ST-2 is group 33E.

Oddly my insurers, rather than reducing my premium, are charging me an extra £59 to change my car on the policy, so I don't have to change halfway through the year and lose out on this year's NCD/NCB, however come February 2019 it will reduce massively, by around £600-£700 to the £800-£900 mark.

By contrast, my dad who is currently 58 years old, and has been driving for the last 39 years, pays £400 to insure both my old 2011 Fiesta and a 2004 Nissan X trail.

Just shows what years of driving does, he's been involved in several accidents, and had to claim on insurance, but none were his fault, one incident involved a Fire engine running on a shout, but it was deemed to be LFB's fault and their insurers paid out for the damage to dad's car (they  had the choice of a head on with oncoming traffic, or hit the back end of our car with both of us in it).

None of the above quotes are for black boxes, aka telematics, I hate those things and would rather pay the extra to avoid having one fitted.

Nice one man. Hope you enjoy the ST just as much as I did driving my dads (before they hiked up the temp cover insurance). 

I have roughly the same driving experience, but my previous job included a company car (1.6 Vauxhall Astra) of which I had no choice. This impacted my no claims as during the time of employment I wasn't under any other policy. In hindsight, it would have been worth having private cover to save money in the future. 

I started with a beaten up 52 plate 1.2 Vauxhall Corsa, which the insurance was surprisingly low for my age, experience and living in the beautiful City of Bradford. I did however have a black box through Co-Operative car insurance. At first I was doubtful of the claims that your insurance price would actually go down depending on how you drive, but in less than 3 months they dropped it from around £1100 to £750. Although with this I didn't manage to get a year no claims before the car took its exit. 

Finally the 100k plus miles managed to catch up to Corsa and I upgraded to a pre-owned 13 Plate 1.2 Corsa Limited Edition (which is still in the family). I wanted to get away from the black box too and was willing to pay more. Think I managed to get a price of £1400, which again for my age and area, I couldn't complain, seeing as though most of my mates were paying £2k+. 

From there I changed job to a field based role where I had the joys of a Vauxhall Mokka until I got the Astra. Being 21 I thought I'd made it. Not having to pay for insurance, good deal on personal milage and other benefits. Whilst I was at this job I was heavily contemplating buying a Ford Fiesta RS Turbo as a sort of weekend car. Something to play about with and have fun with and also would have helped with my no claims bonus. Whilst having experience on a company policy did help a bit (travelling 700-800 miles a week), I can't help but think having the no claims would have helped much more.

Now here I am with a 18 Plate Ford Focus ST Line 140ps. A car I could finally purchase through my own thoughts and experience. I'm managing to keep the quotes sub £1000. 

Hopefully with the right insurance and no more anomalies, I can continue to increase power and mend the hole in my pocket that its cost to drive over the past 4 years.

[thatfiestaguy]

10 minutes ago, Nick Y said:

Yep, Puma Speed are based in Wakey, not far from J41 of the M1. 
I've been looking into them too to add upgrades to my 2017 Fiesta ST-Line 140 but they might not be Ford warranty friendly (unlike Mountune). A friend of mine has used them a few times for upgrades to her fiestas and she keeps going back so they must be good.

Insurance premiums for males under 25 are extremely high.
Your postcode and area play a large part in insurance prices, as does the type of vehicle and the likelyhood of it being stolen to either joyride round the streets, be stripped for parts or exported. Heavily modified vehicles attract unwanted attention so attract higher premiums, especially with young drivers who don't fully understand car control etc. 

Will, I'm guessing that was just the admin fee. I've had that problem a few times when changing vehicles mid-policy. I also avoid telematics boxes purely because I like getting upto speed quickly rather than dawdling at a set of lights, a junction or when joining a motorway. You won't find me racing round the streets either acting like a complete numpty or trying to show off to mates on a retail park somewhere.
Yikes, I wouldn't have wanted to have been in that situation with the LFB truck. That must've been scary. 

It wasn't as bad as expected, they tried to go around us but then saw oncoming traffic so moved back over, there was a huge gouge in the offside front and passenger's doors, the rear tail light was smashed to bits, and the rear right corner of the rear bumper was damaged and buckled.

More the shock if anything, than the impact itself, to their credit, they stopped their truck after the collision, left the blues on to prevent a secondary accident, jumped out and ran up to us and asked if we were ok, to which we were.

The second engine then continued on past them to the call.

This was late 2014, if i recall the cost of repairing it was around £1,400.... oddly it wasn't declared a write off, as the car was only worth around £2,000 at the time, and now it's worth around £1500, some insurers declare write offs at 70-80% of vehicle value.

 

[dezwez]

8 hours ago, CMH96 said:

Hi,

My names Callum and I am a new member.

I currently own a Ford Focus ST Line 140ps, influenced by my dads Ford ownership from the Focus ST 170, Focus ST-2 (225) which he had for a good 12 years with no problems and his current Focus ST-3 (250).

Although I wish i could have bought the full ST, insurance in Bradford prohibits me from going anywhere near a car above a 1.6 until I'm 25.

I like to play around with my cars and I am thinking about remapping to stage 2 in the very near future, has anyone got any opinions on remapping the Focus ST Line 140ps?

From looking around and asking a few mechanic friends, there isn't much information on it yet.

Hi Welcome