How Could Ford Improve The Fiesta?

[Willy]

Exactly. Side lights should be left on if parked on the road if speed is 40 mph and above.

[laumk7]

Exactly. Side lights should be left on if parked on the road if speed is 40 mph and above.

But my car complains if I leave side lights on and I don't want to drain battery hence desire for specific parking lights - like the mk3 Mondeo had (don't know about mk4 features)

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[Mellieha]

P.S. Should have mentioned on my initial post: Aware of 'Red'/'Black' editions @140PS. (Many thanks 'Willy'). Also Mountune 135 but......Our last three cars have all been red so a bit fed-up of red at moment! Personally don't like black, each to his/her own, also these 'editions' are a bit too 1980's racer-ish for a old-ish 50-something Silver Surfer type! although they are certainly effective. 25 years younger.... aahhhhhhh and would have possibly had one for sure!

[NH10GEL]

But my car complains if I leave side lights on and I don't want to drain battery hence desire for specific parking lights - like the mk3 Mondeo had (don't know about mk4 features)

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To comply with legislation all 4 side lights, side markers and number plate lights need to be illuminated when parked on roads with speed limits of 40 mph or more. Therefore specific parking lights alone would not be compliant.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1989/1796/regulation/24/made

[b1g_dav3]

LED/Xenon headlights, LED rear lights, 6 speed gearbox's for diesel and petrol's (the Focus has these, and it is actually retrofittable on the 1.6 diesel so does fit...), windscreen washer sensor, a radio system that doesn't have 500 buttons to it, boot lighting, some of the Focus toys such as auto-braking, auto parking, etc, ambient lighting in Zetec S models, auto-locking on the doors would be nice too.

[KenP]

Put a light in the back like most cars have

Bit more soundproofing so you can't hear road noise.

And as said above,ST with 5 door as the focus has.

Mine has a light in the back, although I changed the bulb for an LED because it was too dim,

Would have gone for the ST if there was a 5 door (there is in the US)

[B13]

° Better brakes. Esp. on the S models, etc (swapping the drum brakes at the rear for discs would be a good idea too)

° Overhead light in the loadbay area (I own the van variant and the single, tiny, dim light at the rear is woefully inadequate!!)

° Better headlights (the standard bulbs are USELESS and downright bloomin' dangerous IMHO, so I swapped them out)

° Better sound deadening

° A tiny hatch in the panel by the rear light cluster, so that you don't have to take half the car interior apart to change a light bulb...

° Better protected front spoiler (mine is quite badly scraped, buggrit!!)

° For the van variant, a reversing camera set up would be MOST handy, because although I almost always reverse park into spaces, when I can't, reversing what is essentially a small panel van out of a parking space is a nightmare coz you can't see any vehicles approaching...

Oh, and most importantly, ditch the ruddy USELESS tyre inflator kit and give us back a spare flippin' wheel!!!!!

[laumk7]

Oh, and most importantly, ditch the ruddy USELESS tyre inflator kit and give us back a spare flippin' wheel!!!!!

A spare tyre is already an option at buyer stage for the car, I dunno about the van variant but it's an option I for one ticked ;)

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[MattDRX]

Option to keep it on Overboost, Make the interior less Cheap Chinese Toy like, get better at fixing rattles, make sync respond in under 1 second would be pretty good rather than the current 3 such as when ending a call. Cruise Control as standard, it costs pennies, Xenon lights because they are all the rage right now. option to permanently leave on "Sport mode" or leave ESP off, same for leaving Stop/start off if wanted. all simple things they overlooked to rush the car out and bribe top gear to rave about it.

5 door ST probably wouldn't work either, the ST seats are too big and chunky it might be quite hard to get in the back, they are not standard on the US models and could be a reason why.

[MarksST]

You really don't like the fiesta do you?

When have you managed to run out of overboost? The timer resets every time you are on full throttle, so unless your on an autobahn it won't come off overboost due to timing out.

Do people feel the need to turn the esp off all the time? Think I've only pressed it a couple of times, it's on by default so it's ready when needed.

[Clarky2013]

For the ST

1. Xenon Lights

2. Another choice of alloys

3. LED's all round (interior and exterior)

4. Exterior gloss black plastics

5. Bigger and better brakes

6. More colour options

7. Heated Steering Wheel

8. Black headlights as standard (like all the press release ST's had)

9. Get rid of the crappy Bridgestones and fit PS3's as standard!

ST4 anyone

[B13]

A spare tyre is already an option at buyer stage for the car, I dunno about the van variant but it's an option I for one ticked ;)

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Just checked the van variant's brochure, and you're right: the spare wheel is an option, but for the vans, only for the ECOnectic, not the Sport. Probably because the lower spec models have 14" steel wheels, whereas the Sport variant (mine!) has 16" alloys. (Damn funny/stupid thing having a Sport variant van!!)

I can get hold of a 15" steel spare wheel kit, but it will sit slightly proud of the loadbay floor because it's full size. A space saver would be preferable, but I cannot find one for love nor money (I refuse to use eBay, having been badly scammed once)

So if anyone knows where I can get a new spacesaver wheel, let me know!

:)

[MattDRX]

OB has a cooldown of 35seconds and not unlimited, otherwise it wouldn't be called overboost it would just be boost, same as the Focus, you watch the boost on the gauge on them not run as high, 21PSI on OB when you come off it, it stays at 18-19PSI until the cooldown timer is finished.

I'd love to keep the ESP off, it goes round corners so much better without it, I don't need a computer to tell me if the wheels are slipping, why put this Torque vectoring thing on the car when you've restricted it in the first place?!

I get you love you ST Mark, but you need to get the point of this thread is to be critical and expand on what you don't like and not to police it, as I've said before it's just a Fiesta and by no means the greatest hatch ever made, compared to other Fiestas, yes it's far superior to any made to date ( close to old RST though ) get behind an Impreza STI Hatch or even something silly like an old R5GTT or even the Clio 1*2's and that's what hatches should be like to live with, none of this toned down safety malark with the manufacturer taking shortcuts to save a few £ here and there.

If I didn't do 20K a year and need at least 40MPG and a warranty No I wouldn't be in this car.

[Philf1]

eBay hehe

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[Clarky2013]

Also need to remember if the 'improvements' we have listed here were added, then the fiesta wouldnt be so cheap and may put people off

(By cheap I mean you can pick up a new st3 from DTD for little over 16k)

I think Ford got the ST just right for the price. Yes there are options I would like that Ford dont offer, but for the money I think its spot on. (Apart from those awful Bridgestones lol)

[MarksST]

How have you come off overboost though? You would need to be on WOT for ( depending on who you believe) 8-15 secs, to do that your either banging on the rev limiter in a lower gear or doing 140mph.

Boost isn't constant, it will peak at lets say 21 psi at 5000rpm then the boost will fall (same as torque will)

With overboost, foot down in 3rd you'll have overboost, lift the throttle to change gear and and put your foot down again you have overboost.

All these driver aids that get in the way are there because of EU rules, not everyone is as talented a driver so these aids step in when needed, which is usually when you do something stupid. Seen someone moan that the ST isn't as good as his old ST170 because the esp cuts in when he tries to left foot brake on roundabouts ffs.

I like the ST don't love it though, I loved my S2 RS turbo, which had no driver aids and I feel was more enjoyable to drive, felt faster too, I'm not going to remove the power steering on the ST though. Cars are a lot safer these days, things like ESC have played a part in this, they have given you an off button which is simple to use.

Unfortunately ford aren't in that good a shape financially so tend not to take many risks any more, they need to do what fiat, mini even vauxhall do with the adam and allow more customisation.

I would have liked to be able to option full leather, gloss black plastics, and black headlights. Wasn't a deal breaker and neither was any of the things people have listed most of which can be done yourself.

[laumk7]

So if anyone knows where I can get a new spacesaver wheel, let me know!

:)

*cough*

http://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/64841-ford-fusion-fiesta-space-saver-spare-wheel/#entry435845

;)

(Reminds me I must get photos up)

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[Willy]

5 door ST now thats a deal breaker :p

[MattDRX]

The Fiesta peaks at 21PSI for 15 seconds, once it's over it's gone for 35 seconds that's what I'm saying, it's an EU emissions thing I would imagine, that's why the power output is 180 in the EU and 200 in the US ( how with having 93 super super max octane fuel out there I don't know how ) it would just be good to have it going at max boost all the time, on top gear for instance it got destroyed by the Pug and Clio for this very reason, I've tracked against these two cars and the difference isn't night and day like the TV show portrayed, the Clio trashed the lot of them which in reality it doesn't actually do by 10's of meters in a 1/4 mile. 20BHP is a huge difference to drop to some technical rubbish.

An even textured interior would be nicer too, too many different materials used, and I'd of dropped the silver dial surround for the ST and gone all black or something, and drop the blue trip etc colour and gone with Red, same as Honda did with the CTR's make it look meaner at night time, too many colours going on.

[NH10GEL]

The Fiesta peaks at 21PSI for 15 seconds, once it's over it's gone for 35 seconds that's what I'm saying, it's an EU emissions thing I would imagine, that's why the power output is 180 in the EU and 200 in the US ( how with having 93 super super max octane fuel out there I don't know how )...............

The EU and USA Fiesta ST engines are the same as each other.

The reason why the output power is specified as 200bhp in the USA and 180bhp here is that EU regulations compel manufacturers to state the maximum continuous output power.

In the USA they can get away with quoting the max output power even if it is only temporary.

North America calculates the octane rating of fuel in a different way to Europe.

USA 93 octane is equivalent to European 98 octane.

http://www.pencilgeek.org/2009/05/octane-rating-conversions.html

[DaveTheDog]

Include an adjustable centre arm rest, its not even the same height as the door arm rest and its too far back, slap some leather on it for TX drivers.

Re design rear headrests, you have to raise them to stop them digging in the back of your neck/shoulders then shove em back down again when not in use for rearward visibility.
Reduce the amount of buttons on the radio, way too confusing.

Increase the size and positioning of the multi information screen and make it touch sensitive.

Include foot rest for long journey comfort when in "cruise".

Ditch the interior smooth shiny plastics, it scratches far too easily and looks cheap/naff.

Add some funky/striking LED brake/turn indicators and DRL's, take a leaf out of Audi's/Seat's book.

Shorten the gear ratios in the 1.0 Ecoboost engines, even at the expense of economy to improve driving pleasure.

[MarksST]

slap some leather on it for TX drivers.

Like this

Re design rear headrests, you have to raise them to stop them digging in the back of your neck/shoulders then shove em back down again when not in use for rearward visibility.

They are designed to be uncomfortable when down so that the rear passengers lift them up so they work as intended, it is annoying having to put them back down though.

Increase the size and positioning of the multi information screen and make it touch sensitive.

Touch screens are awful in cars, can never see them cleary due to fingerprints or reflections. Have driven a 208, clio and a few others with them and they've all been the same.

[DieselPig]

2.0 litre diesel with 4x4 :D

[jduck1979]

Maybe throw-in a couple of extra power outlets (aka !Removed! lighter sockets)......... let's face it, you tend to need them these days...

1 to charge your phone

1 to maybe power a SatNav (other than the factory fitted thing)

1 to power a dashcam to catch out "crash for cash" scammers

.... and maybe another if you've got a passenger that needs to charge their phone too.

Can of course get gadgets to plug into the !Removed! lighter for when you need to power more than one gadget at the same time, but that's 1 more trailing wire nicely placed to get in the way of the gear lever + the reviews for them on amazon seems to suggest they have a tendency to self-destruct.

[Phil 87]

or LED headlamps.

Yes, those could be even better than xenons. I don't know anything about LED headlights but does anyone know if they have been factory fitted to any road cars yet? It would be good if all lights can be LEDs so we can do away with unreliable and power hungry bulbs for good.