Fiesta ST-Line 140, first impressions

[Blatto]

Just took delivery of my new Fiesta ST-Line 140, Nav & Auto Stop/Start - 3dr, thought I'd share my first impressions.

It's on a lease deal from Allen Ford for 3 years at £155/Mth with 1 month up front payment of £155

Delivered with 98 Miles on the clock. Had a minor dull patch (about 1cm square)  on paintwork near the headlight which delivery guy thought was glue from a sticker but it doesn't seem to come off.

Got him to record that on the delivery note. Have since discovered a fine scratch on the drivers side rear passenger window (are they some sort of plastic rather than glass?)

but other than that all looks excellent.

Just taken it out for the first trip about 3 miles of twisty uphill country lanes, followed by about 37 miles of A roads of which 5 were in town and about 5 on a dual carriageway (about 75mph).

Been taking it fairly gently, (not sure if you need to run modern engines in like we did many moons ago?) took it up to about 4500 for a couple of short bursts getting past a tractor and lorry but generally around 2000- 3000 rpm. I resest the trip computer and turned on the eco mode but didn't really follow the suggested gear change light. I've been driving an Automatic car for the past 7 years so I kept forgetting to change gear, drove about 3 miles in 4th gear at about 50mph before I realised I should've been in 5th.

Recorded a 47.6mpg Avg on a 40.6 mile trip at 15 degrees C, averaging 35mph. There were a couple of traffic holdups in the town and 2 sets of lights for road works in that jounery. Had the aircon on for last 15 mins of journey.

Seems pretty decent to me for a brand new engine, and I'm sure it would have been over 50mpg if I'd remembered to change gears more often.

Handling didn't really test it out much but seems excellent on the twisty bits, ride is firmer than I'm used to of late but by no means a bone shaker.

Performance, again I can't really comment too much as I'm taking it easy for a bit but the couple of times I did put my foot down to overtake it certainly feels more powerful than the 2 Litre Citroen I had before. Purrs along quite happily at 35mph in 5th gear too, last car I had that did that was a MK1 Golf Gti 1800 which would pull in 5th from about 25 mph.

Engine seems smooth and quiet (like the little 3 cylinder growl you get mid range) with most of the the noise being generated from road/tyres. I Suppose that's just the downside of lower profile tyres but it's still comfortably quiet at 75mph on the dual carriageway driving I did.

I'll try and add some more meaningful comments once I had a chance to run it in and have a play.

Note sure why the dash photos have come out that way, I took them the same way as the car shot but anyway just twist your head 90 degrees anti-clokwise if you are interested, can't be bothered to rotate them now :)

[AlexBartlam]

nice car i wish i waited now im paying 180 per month on a 2013 zetec s i love it to bits had it 4 months, whats your insurance and tax on it mines £93 PM and free tax 

[Dal.]

Looks like a cracking car - bet you're chuffed! 

[Blatto]

Thanks guys, yes very happy so far. Paying Zero road tax, normally would be £20 a year for the 140 bhp version but lease company are paying it for the 3 years so Zero.

Insurance I'm paying £235 a year, so about £20/mnth but I'm relatively old and have over 20 years no claims.

Just took it for another spin and gave it a quick boot to 4800 rpm, surprisingly quick, feels much faster than the 0-60 time would suggest :)

Can't work out this voice control thing, or the dab radio though,  managed to retune all my FM stations instead of adding dab ones.

[Pullock]

It looks lovely glad you like it, is it Magnetic? Looks very similar to mine which is Midnight Sky.

[GaryPL]

Congratulations on the new car. Love the colour :)

Don't bother with the DAB.  It's a really crap system on these Fiestas.  Mine drives me up the wall.  And the woman in the dashboard is rather particular.  I'm finding I don't like the voice control all that much, either.  The system on my '06 FIAT worked a lot better (albeit with the occasional thing it couldn't understand), which is odd considering that was a Windows system too.

[Blatto]

Yes it's Magnetic colour, had a choice of Red, White or Black or Magnetic, other colours were a premium, out of those I preferred the Magnetic .

Yeah I might give up on dab, it's not as good quality sound as FM anyway. I've got all the stations I listen to stored in the 10 FM presets, that'll do for me.

 

[Ffoxy]

I'm on my third EB Fiesta, quite honestly a very nice car for the niche and size.

Don't worry about running in, engineering tolerances, lubricants and assembly methods are far better these days than they were. Just use it, mine returns 44.7 average over my 3k miles to date and I "enjoy" the car 😉

Sent from my iPad using Ford OC mobile app

[steve1312]

nice looking car mate had mine two weeks on Saturday, as you can see from my profile picture its deep impact blue which I love but I nearly went for the same colour as you, mine is only the 125 bhp engine not really driven it too hard yet but its a lot better than the 100 bhp zetec I had before looking forward to given it some stick after a few more miles only got 300 on the clock so far.

[Blatto]

Thanks, I have seen them in the impact blue and that's a really nice colour for the Fiesta, I had a Toyota MR2 in a very similar blue many years ago.

I drove the 125 bhp version on a test drive and was suitably impressed at the pace. Got the 140 bhp version as it was £3 a month cheaper on the lease and only £20/Yr More on the Insurance for me. I did ask why the 140 version was cheaper and evidently it's because they can get a better return on them when they get sold on after the lease.

I'll be catching up with you on the mileage shortly just taken it out for a 30 mile drive in the dark to test out the lights (well that's my excuse anyway)

 

[steve1312]

I tried to change my engine to a 140 after I placed the order but was to late , only £300 more to buy with the 140 , salesman said I would not really notice the difference except if I was to drive it really hard but i am sure I will be happy with the 125, like you I have sat nav and I went for the privacy glass cruise control and convenience pack I also had the dealer fit the st rear diffuser and twin exhaust pipes , that I am really pleased with.

[Pullock]

1 hour ago, Blatto said:

Yes it's Magnetic colour, had a choice of Red, White or Black or Magnetic, other colours were a premium, out of those I preferred the Magnetic .

Yeah I might give up on dab, it's not as good quality sound as FM anyway. I've got all the stations I listen to stored in the 10 FM presets, that'll do for me.

 

Might just be the picture but magnetic's I've seen on the road seem to be a shade darker than that, either way it's a lovely colour :)

[Blatto]

Yeah it is a bit darker than the picture shows, think my camera tried to compensate for a large darkish lump in the middle of the frame.

 

[JoeZS19]

Currently got an st2 but having a go in the 140 st line next Saturday as my local dealer has got an event on. Ive had the 125 Zetec s in the past and it was a good car, different animal to the st but still fun. If I like the 140 I'm going to be swapping to one in December. Slightly softer ride and less likely to get stolen is what I'm after now

[Blatto]

Let's just hope the thieving bar stewards don't mistake the ST-Line for a real ST.

[Gaskell71]

No such luck, they're brainless idiots!!

[Blatto]

Had a brainless one round this way last year, had a spate of fuel thefts from cars.

Idiot finally got caught after he set himself on fire siphoning off petrol whilst smoking a Cigarette.  unfortunately he survived ....

[jbell]

1 hour ago, Gaskell71 said:

No such luck, they're brainless idiots!!

Taking off the st-line badge might be enough to confuse them?

[MarksST]

Doesn't matter what model it is, it's still at risk of being stolen. Yes you hear of more STs going missing but these are from the last couple of days.

 

 

[Bobbo -]

On 12/10/2016 at 9:14 PM, steve1312 said:

I tried to change my engine to a 140 after I placed the order but was to late , only £300 more to buy with the 140 , salesman said I would not really notice the difference except if I was to drive it really hard but i am sure I will be happy with the 125, like you I have sat nav and I went for the privacy glass cruise control and convenience pack I also had the dealer fit the st rear diffuser and twin exhaust pipes , that I am really pleased with.

How much did it cost you to have the rear diffuser and exhaust sorted by the dealer? Also which part of the exhaust did they change? just the back box?

[steve1312]

Hi Bobbo dealer charged me £250 to supply the two parts to the diffuser paint the bottom part fit it and the exhaust trim to the car ,the exhaust trim is a rip speed product from Halfords price £19.99 this I purchased and had it delivered to the dealer all they did was to cut off the tail pipe from the back box and welded the new twin pipe piece onto the back box , now I don't know if the price was due to me buying the car new from them or if its the sort off price most dealers would charge ( the salesman was very keen to see the transformation to the rear off the car )

[JoeZS19]

Doesn't matter what model it is, it's still at risk of being stolen. Yes you hear of more STs going missing but these are from the last couple of days.

 

 

Both in Essex which is well known for fords going missing! So glad I dont live there

[Blatto]

Just a quick update after just over 2 weeks living with the ST-Line 140.

Car's running perfectly, only Issue so far is the passenger side window reopens when it gets to the  top with one touch close. I know the fix for that has been posted here, just keep forgetting to try it out.

Covered about 560 miles so far. Mainly on a 30 mile round trip commute to work, and a few trips into town for shopping.

Been driving it fairly normally keeping up with the traffic on the commute about 75mph on Motorways. Averaging 51.7 mpg according to the onboard display. I'm pretty happy with that for a new engine. If I was to concentrate on economy driving style I thnk I could get that over 55mpg and close to 60 on a clear run.

The heater seems to take a long time to get going but is fine after about 5 miles or so,  I'm not too worried about that as I prefer about 15 degrees C for driving anyway. As long as it keeps the glass clear on a cold & wet day I'm happy.

Ford sync system voice control only seems to work for the phone and not for the radio, but I can live with just pressing a button to change stations.

I don't use the phone in the car anyway, I'm of the opinion that even hand free phone use is pretty dangerous and anyone using a phone without hands free or for texting should be locked up and the key thrown away.

Handling and performace have exceeded my expectations. Great little engine with plenty of torque for the size. If I'd test driven it without knowing the engine size I would have guessed it was at least a 1.6 Litre.

So  far very happy with the purchase (lease).  Will be interesting to see how the mpg pans out after it's run in a bit more.