Hello!

Last week I bought my first Ford - a 68 plate Fiesta. Since driving it around I’m really struggling to get a ‘smooth’ drive. It drives well in general but I find when I go to a higher gear (3rd or 4th, city driving) there’s a low-frequency, rumbling sound - as if I’m in the wrong gear - which does go away if I change down a gear.
 

I’m sure this is just driver error on my part but I feel 3rd gear at 30mph it should be able to handle. Has anyone had anything similar? Any tips? 

Depends on the engine really. The 1.25 needs to rev as it's a gutless little thing, designed by a motorcycle manufacturer. the 1.0 Ecoboost engines again need really to rev a bit otherwise they are off boost and feel like the tiny three cylinder engines they actually are. 3rd at 30 should be fine. Our 1.25 Zetec is fine at that, and it's the lowest 82 hp version. It will however struggle up hills unless you drop down. 

On 6/12/2021 at 1:09 PM, J_Lou94 said:

Hello!

Last week I bought my first Ford - a 68 plate Fiesta. Since driving it around I’m really struggling to get a ‘smooth’ drive. It drives well in general but I find when I go to a higher gear (3rd or 4th, city driving) there’s a low-frequency, rumbling sound - as if I’m in the wrong gear - which does go away if I change down a gear.
 

I’m sure this is just driver error on my part but I feel 3rd gear at 30mph it should be able to handle. Has anyone had anything similar? Any tips? 

I had a couple of 1L EcoBoost Focuses and a Fiesta. I'd say that the gear change indicator can often be a bit optimistic in trying to get the best MPG out of the engine. Sometimes you've just got to ignore it and do what feels right.

30mph always seemed to be around the point of changing from 2nd to 3rd, but only if accelerating. Like @Marky146 said, they are small engines that need to rev to produce pulling power.

@Marky146 @fa13sta Thank you both for your replies! That’s really helpful - I have the 1.0 Ecoboost and I previously had a bigger engine so that probably explains why im noticing the difference! I’ll definitely give it more revs and see how i go. It’s perfect on the motorway where I’m constantly building speed so sounds like you’re spot on. Thanks for the hint of ignoring the indicator too, I’ve definitely found that it wants to jump gears before the cars ready. 

Hoping I get used to it quickly 😁 thanks again