As you may have seen in another post the battle of the sexes competition was held yesterday, which basically involved razzing around in fiesta STs all day. It was a top day & gave a real taste of what the ST is capable of.
A quick review:
Engine - Ignore the rubbish about it sounding harsh; it sounded just fine to me & wasn't loud or intrusive. It pulled nicely to the redline, and never sounded particularly 'coarse' as has been said previously. Torque is good through the speed range, pulling strongly from 2k with no big 'hump' at 4k like my current 1.6 lump. The only oddity was the ease with which it stalled on pull away, and the fact it sounded scarily like a diesel when in first gear (when stood outside). When it's driving away from you it sounds nice & rorty (as little as the law allows, any way)

Handling - First of all, grip. There is absoulutely loads of it, so much more than my standard zetec it was difficult to believe it was the same car. Body roll is not existent, and the ride is very good considering.
Absolute handling was probably my only slight dissapointment, as it flatly refused to wag it's tail even under extreme provocation; lift off mid corner & it just tucks it's nose in. It's certainly a lot better than the standard fiesta (which is good anyway) but still not quite as good as the focus chassis.

Brakes - The best bit for me, no doubt. They are fab. So much power & feel, easily the best brakes of any car i've driven. When i got back into my Zetec, it was a big come down, to say the least.

Overall a excellent day. No regrets on putting the order down now, bring on Jan 1st

Awesome news! All those reviews were putting a real dampener on it and it's nice to hear to the contrary. Thing is I know that you're not jaded by the fact you have one on order. If you thought it was crap I'm sure you'd say so.

I've made this a sticky so people can read this post and feel more excited about the car and be more confident if they've ordered one.

o.O brilliant review there Harry!!!

Our first first drive. Sounds good to me...

Well done matey, glad you had a good day... jammy bugger

Nice write up too, it certain will fill more potential buyers with confidence!

..... .... Bugger me that car moves... Must have one...

Thus ends my review Here's a pic of the car I drove...



In all seriousness I loved the car. I didnt get to really give it a thorough drive because it had just come off the transporter so had a cup full of petrol, wrongly inflated tyres, the dealer didnt know if the spring blocks (?) had been taken off and the road I drove down was 40mph with cameras (*boo*). I'm not a technical, car-speak whizz but it drove nicely, handled well and went like stink I really didnt think I'd like the Colorado Red but I really do now, so when I go for it, I'll be getting Colorado Red with sides stripes. Time to go and drive the other dealerships demonstrator and start playing them off each other for freebies

Excellent! Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the photo.

The Spring blocks are put on the suspension sprimgs to stop the car bouncing up and down whilst being transported. You'd know very quickly if they were on as the ride would be very harsh!

Good luck with your dealings.

Personally, I really dont like the red colour without the stripes. It looks like any other family vehicle to me.

I think that is partly these photos... some of the Ford press shots looked great.

I was just happy enough to drive it Must admit though when I test drove a Performance Blue one I had to stump up the £325 for the paint *heh*

to be honest i am very surprised that any manufacture still produce cars in non metallic paint.

i think that the charge for metallic paint is that final slap as you order your car and if you order a car without it they are getting even more value out of you!!!!

So by odering a white one i am giving them even more of my pennies toeard their profit!!!

Having taken delivery of an ST in Colorado Red (no stripes) i'm convinced i've chosen an excellent colour. From my POV a car that screams look at me is no good at all, as it attracts all the wrong kind of attention from theiving scum & the law; in red it is that little bit special for people to take a second look as you drive by, but not enough for the guy on the street 500yards away to tell its anything too special for his attention. Just my opinion!