ah sorry cant think of any large dealers that way, was gonna suggest my local one has a selection of colours but im in sussex lol

Listen to all the off topic nonsense on this thread! Couldn't believe it when I came on and saw 43 new posts...

Tyson - for what its worth, if I bought mine again then I'd definitely get white with full blue stripes, it just looks awesome in the metal and you don't see too many white ones on the road. Failing that, I'd recommend red, its the best colour to go for if you don't want any stripes and looks good with them too.

An extended test drive will be difficult to get, I'm 26 and all I got was a 15 minute accompanied drive around a pre-determined route. Don't take this the wrong way but dealers generally won't be too keen on letting "youngsters" out on their own for a half/whole day in the car... Best bet is to go to a few local dealers so you can drive different cars on different routes. When I drove the demo car at my local dealer it had 3k+ miles on it so was nice and loose.

As far as the power is concerned, the redline is at 6,250 and peak power comes in about 6,000rpm so you do have to rev it to get it going. Peak torque is about 4,000rpm so also quite high, but there's adequate acceleration from about 2,500rpm in pretty much any gear. Having taken it on track, the performance is massively impressive provided you keep it above 5,000rpm. Its refined when you're just pottering about town though, you never find yourself in the wrong gear and getting overtaken by buses, cyclists, grannys in Nissans, etc.

As for the inevitable Clio comparisons... The Clio is easily the quicker, more thrilling car. If you want a car purely for thrashing down back roads and going on track then get the Clio. If you need a daily driver which is 9/10ths as good as the Clio when you want it to be but a million times more refined, practical, comfortable, better made, better looking, and cheaper to run then get the Fiesta.

Thats a fair old trek, lol! I guess if i went on the Ford website they could list my local dealerships. I'm only 3 mins from the main Manchester dealer (i work in manchester) and there must be more between Manchester and home (Rochdale). Will take a look.

Idea idea if the Fiesta RS is worth waiting for? Will it make it to the production line? What is the latest?

Thanks Parksey, a few very good points, and well made (might i add) - Thanks! I do a lot of travelling and as petrol isn't cheap now a days i'm thinking ST, I like my comfort, toys, and afterall in a few months, there will be mods available to get it up to the Clio's standards.

According to Ford, the Fiesta RS won't happen. They've acknowledged that there wouldn't be a market for a car like that, particularly at the sort of price they'd need to sell it for, and have canned it.

that goes for the Focus RS too Tyson
Something about research & development costs being too high - which would push the price tag price up which'd put it out of the game

Cheers Tyson.

From what I've seen/heard from other owners, you will easily be able to get +30bhp from a full exhaust, induction kit and a chip, and it shouldn't cost much more than about £1500 all-in. A lot of money, granted, but its a decent gain for it and will take you up to Clio-matching power.

The economy on the ST isn't great though, its one of my few concerns with the car. If you do a lot of miles then you might be better off getting something like the Zetec S TDCi (although personally I'd go elsewhere for a warm diesel hatch). I struggle to get more than 300 miles out of the tank on mine, so it doesn't have the greatest range. What with unleaded costing me 91.9p a litre, I'm normally looking at about £42 to fill it up.

And as for you spammers...

I think the 21k price quoted for the proposed Group N st, which isn't all that much more powerful than the standard version, shows why, at the moment at least, it wouldn't be economical to produce the RS.

Did someone say spam?

Right, okay, thanks for the info. I need to think long and hard as to whether to wait for the face lift ST model, or i may be that impressed with the test drive that i sign straight away for the current model. Only time will tell! Off to the garage so chat in a bit!

Parksey, i only get 350 out of my 1.2 16v Clio, so you must not have a heavy right foot, lol!

isnt the face lift in october... thats not long. im must say if it were me, id at least hold off until id seen some pics of the new interior.. which cant be far off the automotive press runs....

just incase it looks amazing!