Eric Bloodaxe

I find the back end of the Fiesta just sucks up road dirt, while the rest stays fairly clean, so I often finding myself giving it a good wash from the rear doors back, and leave the rest.

Didn't spot this thread before. My second car was a 1966 Mk1 1500 deluxe which had done 60,000 miles when I got it. It seemed like a rocketship compared to the 850 Mini I had before! It suffered the usual tin worm - strut tops, rear spring hangers, but a bit of pre-mot welding kept it at bay. I made a few mods - Lotus quarter bumpers and 5 1/2J wheels with what seemed enormous 165 tyres, Spax suspension, and a diy Stromberg carb conversion. Surprisingly it went very well, I put about another 40,000 miles on it and sold it to a mate with well over 100k on the clock. Sadly he wrapped it round a tree shortly afterwards!😀 My abiding memory though is spending most of an evening searching the passenger footwell for my date's contact lens which she had dropped down there. I had other plans for that evening!

I think the short answer would be if you want an ST, trade in your current vehicle for one! Anything is possible, but you're looking at engine, gearbox, brake and suspension mods plus the associated engine management electrics etc. Then the insurance complications of a heavily modified vehicle, so not really a realistic or economic proposition imho.

Just checking the brochure, it seems as expected the instruments can be configured in different ways/background colours, including black which I prefer. The test car was set to a blue background which I thought was less than clear.

I was surprised this morning that the Puma seemed no harder to slot through parked cars etc, than my Fiesta does, so I checked the dimensions when I got the chance. Taking dimensions from the relevant Ford brochures, for the ST-Line X model in all cases, the dimensions (mm) for length/width including mirrors/width excluding mirrors are: Fiesta: 4065/1941/1735 Puma: 4207/1930/1805 Focus: 4387/1979/1825 So the Puma is slightly nearer the Fiesta in length, slightly nearer the Focus on width (mirrors excluded). Crucially though (to my mind) the width over mirrors is actually marginally narrower than the Fiesta, which explains why it was just as easy to thread through a narrow gap as the Fiesta, while giving that little bit of interior width that I was looking for. Presumably this is due to the body profile and positioning/shape of the mirrors. I'm not the greatest at parking but had no difficulty squeezing the Puma back into a rather tight space when I got back to the dealership. Certainly to me it felt more like a slightly bigger Fiesta than a slightly smaller Focus, if that makes sense! And of course it has the slightly higher seating position that my Mrs will appreciate. I'm not a fan personally of high seating positions, but I found I could drop the drivers seat enough to feel okay with it. I'm not a great SUV/crossover/whatever they are fan as a rule, but I think Ford have got a lot of things right with this one.

Had a brief (30 mins) test drive in the new Puma this morning and thought I'd post a few impressions, in case others may be interested. Reasons for my interest: - Find the Fiesta a bit tight for space in some ways, but don't want to go back up to a Focus-size car if I can avoid it, the Puma is about half way between the two - my Mrs has medical issues which mean a bit higher access would be helpful - Intrigued as to how the mild hybrid operates - an ST version is rumoured, which hopefully will be a bit easier going than the Fiesta ST The test vehicle was an ST-Line X First Edition 125ps mHEV in mystic red. From the outside: still don't think it's a "looker", but definitely better in the metal and I think it will be quite sensitive to colour Interior: all would be familiar to a Fiesta Mk 8 or Focus Mk 4 owner. Fit and finish seemed ok, the odd softer feeling surface but the hard scratchy door pulls remain. Very much preferred the darker blue shade used on Sync (3.4?), and pleased you can display date/time on an otherwise blank screen, which my Fiesta (Sync 3.0) won't. Instruments: TFT instruments on this version, found them a bit hard to read tbh, though the big digital speedo was clear enough. On first impression, to me, not as clear as the conventional display in the Fiesta/Focus or the equivalent TFT set up in VW/Audi/BMW etc, though I will reserve final judgement as I wanted to spend the time driving, not configuring the displays. Driving: well, as I expected, it's like a slightly higher Fiesta with 100-odd kg more weight, so a bit more comfortable ride-wise, but not as nippy feeling in the corners. The various modes allow different weights to steering, but I left it in normal and it was fine. Clutch on the test car felt quite heavy, but smooth and progressive, and gearchange felt tighter and more "mechanical" than my Fiesta. The mHEV system is supposed to boost bottom end torque but can't say I noticed anything, the gauge showing energy flows is quite entertaining though. Certainly no need to fear anything feeling "different" from your normal petrol or diesel. Performance overall felt pretty pedestrian to me, though it kept up with 70 mph traffic on a dual carriageway perfectly well. I mentioned the performance when I got back, and asked if the modes would have made a difference, but the sales guy said he'd tried it all ways and it didn't seem to make much difference. I didn't bother checking out the boot etc as there's loads online about the clever box feature found in the mHEV versions. The i/c only versions can have a spare, and the sales guy said he'd been told they were already making some changes to permit a spare on mHEV also. So, as expected, didn't come away feeling "wow, gotta have it" but I did think it was a very competent, comfortable and easy to drive car and I can see a lot of people liking it. The dealer reckoned the ST version was a virtual certainty for later in the year, so I will certainly be taking a look at that.

That's right. It's best to try and keep the dealer onside if you can, perhaps raising it with the service manager or dealer principal if not happy with response at the service desk. You could ask for a drive in their demo car and let them try and prove yours is normal. If no progress, you could involve Ford customer services.

Clutch doesn't sound right, mine is very smooth, I'd have that checked out under warranty. Revs momentarily rising on upchanges has been widely reported and is apparently "normal". I wouldn't even have noticed it on mine until I saw it on here, looked at the rev counter when changing up, and noticed it briefly flicked up. If yours is very noticeable, or revs take a long time to drop, that doesn't sound quite the same though.

Yes, good point. We often blame the manufacturer for things we don't like (and I'm no exception), when in reality it's something mandated by the legislators. With the current drive on emissions I can't see the ability to turn off start stop being available for much longer.

Mountune do the one below which should fit your diffuser (out of stock just at the mo, I believe) https://www.mountunestore.com/collections/mk7-fiesta-1-0t/products/fiesta-ecoboost-cat-back-exhaust Other members have used the actual ST back box (with an adaptor, as pipe diameters differ). Milltek, Scorpion, Powerflow all have something available. Quite a few threads on this on the "Ford Project and Build Threads" forum on this site, which is worth browsing through.

Yes, on a strict time basis you would be on about 66% I suppose. It's a pity I didn't find this in the settings menu until I'd had the car for a while, or I would have monitored it from delivery, though as I said earlier, mine is just about spot on for 2 years/730 days from date of PDI, though that could just be a coincidence. Booked my service this morning for 24 Feb - it should be just about zero by then if it is just on a time basis.

We've gone a long way off the OP here - may be we should continue if necessary on one of the threads that actually mention EV's!😀

Lol that's what I was trying to say - I guess my post could be read either way!😀

Until I came to this bit I thought you'd turned into a tree hugger!😀 But I agree - if you're going to have anything over an Mhev it might as well be as you describe, in effect an electric car with range extender doing no more than charge the battery, and always working at its optimum efficiency when it does need to run. Seems rather illogical to have a hybrid which can run on electrical power and then to be carrying the weight/complication of a mechanical transmission.I believe the Transit PHEV operates this way.

I seem to recall someone on here posting up a pic of one they'd spotted on a '67 plate, they were certainly about in first half of 2018.