Don't want this to sound negative as I think it's a great little car, just a list of the things that are a slight irritation.

In no particular order these are the things I've found so far.

• Auto wipers are a bit erratic, sometimes they get it right and at other times in similar conditions they just seem to be random. They are not very good at all if it's dark and there are no street lights or oncoming car headlights.
• The rear wiper is a bit weedy and doesn't sweep much of the rear screen, very light and plasticky. The rear screen also gets much dirtier than my MK7.5 did. Whole rear of the car is much dirtier in general.
• The 12V Power socket stays on when the ignition is switched off and also comes back on if you switch the sync 3 screen on. Annoying as I have my Dash Cam plugged in there and have to remember to turn it off at the end  every journey. Powering on with the sync 3 screen is also daft, all I want to do is sit in my car eating my lunch whilst listening to the radio and I have to turn off the dashcam everytime.
• The exterior plastic trim, roof aerial and door rubber seals  don't feel as good quality as the MK7.5  get the feeling they will fade/mark up quickly, only time will tell.
• The Sync 3 system locks up occasionally, usually when I'm setting a journey into the sat nav although it has occurred just randomly. Can get out of it with a soft reset but it's time consuming and a distraction if driving.
• Rear washers sometimes leak fluid along the top hinge section when you raise the door, which then runs down and sometimes drips into the boot, if you don't wipe it off quickly it stains the boot mat.
• Gearbox is a little imprecise, I'm never 100% certain if I'm going to get 4th or 6th when I'm changing down from 5th, likewise 2nd to 3rd I often get 5th.
• The Reversing camera screen is too bright at night under most conditions and you can't adjust it. Wishing I had gone for the comfort pack and just rear sensors instead of the camera as I rarely look at it now.
• Slight rattle from passenger side door when it's cold but haven't been able to detect where it's coming from.
• Engine bay seems to get very dirty at the front end with some mud splashes/water  on some of the rubber pipes and turbo heat shield and airbox. And I'm not plowing through large puddles at any speed just normal driving on the motorways and A roads in this recent wet weather.. I check my oil and fluids every Sunday and am finding I'm having to wipe off the muck in these areas every time.
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The only part of your list me and the Mrs have noticed on an 18 and 69 plate are the auto wipers can be a bit erratic during first use of the car for the day, especially when it is dark.

Her 18 plate has Satnav issues which we know about but none of the other issues you have, have been noticed.

The performance of the auto wiper system is dependant on the quality of the wiper blades.

And Ford's wiper blades are ****.

 

I think Michael and Martin were meaning the reliability of operation of the auto wipe, rather than the effectiveness of the actual wipe? I got fed up with second guessing the system and switched auto wipe to the intermittent setting which is at least consistent, and just use the wiper stalk in the "traditional" way.

On the rest of the list:

Back end gets very dirty very quickly on the sort of roads I use, overwhelming the wiper so I have to rely on door mirrors - though you can't see much through the rear window anyway. Hard to say if it's any worse than earlier model, though.

Not used the 12v socket so can't comment.

Trim seems at least pretty much on a par with earlier versions, to me.

Sync 3 - similar issues to Martin

Not had the rear washer dribble.

Similar niggle with the gearshift - service have looked at it twice but found no fault. They did say other customers have made similar comments, though. To me, it does the job but there's no great pleasure in using it.

Camera brightness fine on mine, but quickly rendered useless after a drive on dirty roads.

Not got the rattles (yet - fingers crossed).

Not got the engine bay issue despite driving on a lot of dirty roads, as I say. 

 

Totally agree about the auto wipers. The only other car I had them on was a T reg Peugeot 206, I liked that car apart from the wipers being the L/H drive swiping way, and they were crap then. I had hoped some 20 years later the technology would have improved but alas no. Also agree about the rear wiper.

I plug my dashcam into the power socket and I do wish it’d go off when you turn the ignition off so I don’t have to unplug it. Yes I know I could tap it into the fuse box and I tried to do that but I couldn’t get a comfortable position in the footwell and I was struggling to get a fuse out. I was getting angry so I decided I’d better stop in case I broke something expensive.

Also agree with the reversing camera screen. At night it’s far too bright and needs to be adjustable. Not sure what Ford are thinking there.

 

9 hours ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

I got fed up with second guessing the system and switched auto wipe to the intermittent setting which is at least consistent, and just use the wiper stalk in the "traditional" way

Yep coming to the conclusion I'll be doing that too, especially in these dark winter journeys where it seems to rely on external light to detect the rain. Will try auto again in the summer.

4 hours ago, ElliotReid said:

I do wish it’d go off when you turn the ignition off so I don’t have to unplug it. Yes I know I could tap it into the fuse box

Yeah I considered getting one hard wired in but it's a lease car so I don't want the hassle of getting it all taken out again before it goes back. No idea how much juice my Nextbase camera uses for the Hour or so it gets left on, but the bigger Issue is recording over any potentially useful road footage with 1 Hour plus of my works car park if I forget to switch it off.

My MK7.5 Fiesta was fine, don't understand why they changed the operation of the 12V socket, or they could have given you an option to stay on for x number of minutes or Off with the ignition.

9 hours ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Not got the rattles (yet - fingers crossed)

It's not a major one just a slight chattering sound like two bits of cheap plastic rubbing together and so far it's only if the temperature is under about 5 Degrees C. Once the heater has warmed up the car it goes away. Thanfully this MK8 heater  warms up really quickly, much more so than my MK7.5.

 

9 hours ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Back end gets very dirty very quickly on the sort of roads I use, overwhelming the wiper so I have to rely on door mirrors - though you can't see much through the rear window anyway. Hard to say if it's any worse than earlier model, though.

Much worse than my MK7.5 plus the area swept by the wiper is much smaller on the MK8. Combine that with the  rear privacy glass (never understood the need for that, would have taken it off it was an option) just makes everything darker and with the auto dimming rear view  mirror I can barely see anything out the rear on these dark dirty winter mornings.

 

9 hours ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Not got the engine bay issue despite driving on a lot of dirty roads, as I say. 

Strange, I thought it my be the openess of the ST-Line X front grill, but I see you have the same model.

5 hours ago, Blatto said:

Strange, I thought it my be the openess of the ST-Line X front grill, but I see you have the same model.

Hmmm......I wonder if you find yourself stuck behind other vehicles more often than I do, say on dual carriageways or M-ways? Don't often get into heavy traffic where I drive, so most of the cr*p gets sucked onto the back, rather than blown into the front.

12 hours ago, DaveT70 said:

The performance of the auto wiper system is dependant on the quality of the wiper blades.

And Ford's wiper blades are ****.

 

No problem with the blades on the car, it is when the wipers decide to wipe and when not to at times.

For people who mention the rear camera is too bright - what is your display mode set to in the settings? Mine is set to auto and I can actually see the camera dimming sometimes in the dark and haven’t felt it was ever too bright

Auto makes feck all difference on mine.

I have my screen on auto and my camera is ok, but I don't think there's necessarily a connection though? I thought the screen display mode just set the Sync to day view, night view, or in auto, automatically switching between the two depending on light?

I have mine on auto and the rear camera is  way too bright to be useful in most night time conditions. I did try taking a picture of it but my phone auto adjusted for the brightness and didn't show how it really looks. I'm sure there's some manual exposure setting in my phone camera but I couldn't find it .

 

 

I’m glad I don’t have the auto wipers on mine, they’re always naff! The auto lights are nice though. Had no issues with SYNC, the reverse camera or the rear wiper. All seem fine to me there, although I do find the car can appear straight on the camera when parking but actually be on the wonk! I also found the gearshift a bit weird at first, the IB5 on my old Focus felt much nicer but I’ve learnt ways around it and now have no issues.

In fairness, the auto wipers just take a bit of getting used to how they want to work. They only seem a bit erratic on first starting when it is dark. They do settle down during the journey.

I can put up with this considering everything else the StLX has to offer.

Great little cars.