33 minutes ago, agraham said:

... my granny made them last longer by warming them in the oven!

Just had a thought that maybe there was a reason that in the 'olden days' folk never lived as long as they do now 

Good job they wernt chinese copies they go bang without warming them up 😇

Do we need an off track section haha

Your Granny, Stephen  ?  I used to do that, warm them up,  mostly before dry batteries became sealed - showing my age now.    Also used to remove the carbon rod and scoop the bitumen and acid paste from the zinc case and make fireworks by filling with gunpowder. Yes they did explode!

13 minutes ago, Magenta said:

Your Granny, Stephen  ? ...

'My Granny' never came into it, (it was me that warmed the batteries!). I fear I have been the victim of a mis-quote! 

 I reckon they will have to close the order book on the Fiesta soon if they are closing the plant mid 2023. I have been waiting for mine for 7 months now and still no sign of it being built. Even if it gets built in the next month that will be 8 months from order to build. Going on that  one ordered now wouldn't be built until July 2023.

8 month jeeeeezus i'd have sacked it off and bought something else, an abysmal way to run a company.

29 minutes ago, Jimpster said:

8 month jeeeeezus i'd have sacked it off and bought something else,

Not a lot of difference for other makes either. Some brands are building batches of popular specs for dealer stock, e.g. Golf Life, but otherwise I've been quoted 12 months (or more) for factory orders by BMW, Audi, VW and Hyundai.

A lot of us were waiting 6 months plus for Fiestas when the Mk 8 first launched.

37 minutes ago, Jimpster said:

8 month jeeeeezus i'd have sacked it off and bought something else, an abysmal way to run a company.

Yep, like a Rolls Royce, you'd have to wait over a year for one, and that's folk with unlimited funds LOL

2 hours ago, jsk said:

 I reckon they will have to close the order book on the Fiesta soon if they are closing the plant mid 2023. I have been waiting for mine for 7 months now and still no sign of it being built. Even if it gets built in the next month that will be 8 months from order to build. Going on that  one ordered now wouldn't be built until July 2023.

According to some press reports today Ford are claiming that orders placed as of now will be delivered by April 2023. 

As mentioned already in this thread, you have to wonder why they ever bothered with the facelift. They've given themselves the logistical problem of having to supply different sets of front-end body parts as spares for some years. Presumably this decision to stop production next year must have been a very recent one.

1 hour ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

According to some press reports today Ford are claiming that orders placed as of now will be delivered by April 2023. 

As mentioned already in this thread, you have to wonder why they ever bothered with the facelift. They've given themselves the logistical problem of having to supply different sets of front-end body parts as spares for some years. Presumably this decision to stop production next year must have been a very recent one.

Is that an early April Fool....🤣

3 hours ago, Jimpster said:

8 month jeeeeezus i'd have sacked it off and bought something else, an abysmal way to run a company.

Waited 14 months for mine, delivered in July this year. Some folk on here have only waited a mere 10 months or so....

On the theme of substituting the Puma for the Fiesta, I had a test drive of a 125 MHEV Puma early in 2020. I was intending to follow up by trying the 155 but some virus or other put a stop to that for a while.

Anyway, this thread got me thinking about it when coincidentally an email.popped into my inbox from my local Ford dealer inviting me to take a 24 hour test in an "electrified" vehicle, so booked for the 155 MHEV Puma which qualified**- interested to see how I get on. 

(**I did try the argument that a Puma ST has a battery and wiring so is electrified but they weren't having that!😀)

Edit: it was 2020 not 2022 - this autocorrect/predictive text or whatever had struck again!😠

 

Edited November 3, 20223 yr by Eric Bloodaxe
Corrected year

22 hours ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

On the theme of substituting the Puma for the Fiesta, I had a test drive of a 125 MHEV Puma early in 2020. I was intending to follow up by trying the 155 but some virus or other put a stop to that for a while.

Anyway, this thread got me thinking about it when coincidentally an email.popped into my inbox from my local Ford dealer inviting me to take a 24 hour test in an "electrified" vehicle, so booked for the 155 MHEV Puma which qualified**- interested to see how I get on. 

(**I did try the argument that a Puma ST has a battery and wiring so is electrified but they weren't having that!😀)

Edit: it was 2020 not 2022 - this autocorrect/predictive text or whatever had struck again!😠

 

I saw that on their FB page about 24hr test drive.  I really like the Puma, and it has a better spec than the Fiesta (all be it more expensive) I pondered it when Fiesta delivery date kept being pushed back but I didn't need that size of car.  Let us know what you think of it 

 

2 hours ago, Bashful said:

  I really like the Puma, and it has a better spec than the Fiesta (all be it more expensive) I pondered it when Fiesta delivery date kept being pushed back but I didn't need that size of car.  Let us know what you think of it 

Will do! When I had a first drive in a Puma a couple of years back, my thoughts were that it wasn't quite as good a drive as a Fiesta (though very good by crossover/SUV standards), but had greater practicality and, being a bit higher, slightly easier ingress. 

The launch cars were all 125ps which I did feel not was quite enough in the Puma, given its extra weight over the Fiesta.

What emphasis one puts on these things, along with whether you like the looks and don't mind stumping up the extra cash is, as ever, down to personal priorities/preference.

The test car next week is the 155ps, so I'll see if that makes a difference for me.

All getting a bit academic now, at least for those buying new, but I'll quiz my dealer on the Fiesta ordering situation while I'm there.

 

On 11/4/2022 at 7:08 PM, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Will do! When I had a first drive in a Puma a couple of years back, my thoughts were that it wasn't quite as good a drive as a Fiesta (though very good by crossover/SUV standards), but had greater practicality and, being a bit higher, slightly easier ingress. 

Well, I had the "24 hour" test drive this morning but I'd had quite enough after 3 or so!

As mentioned earlier, my objective was really to see if the 155 suited the Puma better, which I felt it did, otherwise my previous comments stand.

The demo car, which was only a couple of months old, had a very disappointing number of rattles and bangs. It sounded as if the passenger door was open and rattling and I even stopped to check twice, but it wasn't. Very high level of road noise and quite a lot of engine noise also.

Having a chat with the dealer, they were very angry about Ford's decision to axe the Fiesta which has been their bread and butter both new and used. Their clientele is mostly local, private buyers, who have dealt with them for years and will quite probably now migrate to the likes of Kia and Hyundai. Not the sort of people who are going to be buying £32k+ electric SUV-type vehicles which it seems is what Ford are interested in building in future.

They did confirm that that, as far as they know, the 155 will not now reappear in the Fiesta before it's demise.

 

 

 

 

*Awaits all the Puma owners defending them*  

Glad you've mentioned the extra engine noise on the 155 though...means I'm not going mad after all.  

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

*Awaits all the Puma owners defending them*  

Glad you've mentioned the extra engine noise on the 155 though...means I'm not going mad after all.  

I don't think anyone needs to defend them. As always, I made it clear in my comments it's all down to personal preference and if we all liked the same thing it would be a very boring world. And sales of Marmite would rocket!😀

I'm not sure the engine noise on the 155 is definitive proof of the absence of madness, though........

Test drive the Puma ST, it is a completely different beast.... 😈

On 11/9/2022 at 1:29 PM, TomsFocus said:

extra engine noise on the 155 though...

When I went for the Puma drive the other day, I didn't go in my own car, but took the bus (bus stop conveniently right outside my drive and dealer forecourt at the other end) and there's seldom anywhere to park at car dealers, plus, being an oldie, it's free!

Anyway, wondered if I'd maybe exaggerated it with not driving my own car immediately afterwards, but no. When I drove the Fiesta this morning to go for the Toyota test drive I mentioned on another thread, I was almost taken aback by how quiet (and smooth) the Fiesta engine seemed.

So far I've only driven an MHEV in the Puma (both 125 and 155) but if it's anything like that in the Focus, I can fully appreciate why you've mentioned it several times!

56 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

So far I've only driven an MHEV in the Puma (both 125 and 155) but if it's anything like that in the Focus, I can fully appreciate why you've mentioned it several times!

I have seen it reported that the switch from wet belt to cam chains on the mHEV versions has led to increased engine noise compared to the wet belt version. I'm learning on my new 125 mHEV Fiesta to try to keep the engine revs at 2000 rpm or higher when the engine seems to smooth out.

As an aside I've come to the Fiesta from a 200bhp 3 litre V6 Mondeo and it's interesting that the mHEV Fiest is geared very similarly to the Mondeo (about 29mph/1000rpm in sixth) and the intermediate ratios also seem similar. In the Mondeo with its huge torque band you could potter around in any gear at about 1000rpm but I suppose that as 2000rpm in a three pot is the same number of bangs as a V6 at 1000rpm it makes sense to use a lower gear in the mHEV to get a smoother engine note.

1 hour ago, agraham said:

I'm learning on my new 125 mHEV Fiesta to try to keep the engine revs at 2000 rpm or higher when the engine seems to smooth out.

I don't generally let the revs drop below 2,000 (unless coasting etc) in my old type ecoboost anyway, and certainly give demo cars plenty (for research purposes, of course😀) so it certainly wasn't a case of labouring at low revs in too high a gear. 

9 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

...and certainly give demo cars plenty (for research purposes, of course...

Yes, it's well known that demo cars, along with rentals are amongst the fastest on the road LOL  

30 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

Yes, it's well known that demo cars, along with rentals are amongst the fastest on the road LOL  

Don't forget the brand new ones are fastest before the customer gets it. 

I had to go to a ford dealership for another reason, and I asked on of the sale person why is ford stopping the manufacture of the Fiesta, and he said he dose not understand it or Fords thinking behind the move.

I like my Fiesta but not totally in love with it.

Terry.  

52 minutes ago, Retired Terry said:

I had to go to a ford dealership for another reason, and I asked on of the sale person why is ford stopping the manufacture of the Fiesta, and he said he dose not understand it or Fords thinking behind the move.

Plenty of reasons as already discussed on this thread - regulations like GSR 2 and Euro 7, routing what chips are available towards more profitable models, etc. 

The odd thing is timing  - if they were going to give it the chop now, rather than at the end of its natural cycle, why bother with the facelift? 

The significant thing is there is no equivalent EV replacement (whatever they call it) on even the distant horizon - just SUV/Crossover type vehicles of Puma size and above.

VW group meanwhile are already working on ID 1 and 2 (and Seat and Skoda variants), Renault are gearing up for a new electric 5, Stellantis group have several small EVs already (Corsa, 208, Fiat 500, etc).

This could spell the end for smaller Ford dealerships who have lost the affordable models which appealed to many private buyers. I can see them switching franchise if possible or just folding or being taken over by the big groups.

37 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

The odd thing is timing  - if they were going to give it the chop now, rather than at the end of its natural cycle, why bother with the facelift?

I think the original plan was to shelve it in 2025 and build/run the new EV line in Cologne in parallel with the Fiesta line. I assume that for cost/practicality/who knows what reasons they now want to turn the Cologne site over to EVs as soon as they can.