I've come to the conclusion, after my own experiences with my and reading the many problems people on this and the other forum seem to be having with theirs, that the Fiesta is a very poor quality, unreliable car.
My car bangs, squeaks and rattles like mad and the performance of the engine is appalling. There is absolutely no way that this car of mine has got 150PS or anywhere near 190NM of torque.
have checked everything (they say) to find the fault as there is no fault code.
They say the car is OK yet I removed the spark plugs yesterday and the gaps varied from 1.5 to 2.0 mm !!
I have decided (as my wife's new Focus isn't much to write home about either) that these will be the last cars I shall buy.
I wanted a new Mazda MX-5 next, but as that is the same engine that's in the , I've been put off that now!
Time for a BMW I think

Same engine but tuned differently

I've had many fords and no problems at all mate. Guess you just had a bad one!!

Sorry you don't like the car.

I've had mine three months now and am really pleased.

No squeaks or rattles - solid as a rock.

The handling is spot on, it looks great and I can't complain about the performance.

All in all I think the ST is a great little package.

Sorry to hear you are not happy with your Dave.

As Chris correctly said... the forum is here as a knowledge base... any car site would be the same, no matter what car you get. Problems are posted so that people can get help. If every car was perfect (including BMW) then the service department would be none existant.

s are great value for money, not the HIGHEST quality finish but I really love them and do exactly what they say on the tin. Parts are cheap and everyone knows how to fix them.

My focus 1.8 is brilliant... no complaints about it, even my friend with the BMW 130 says he loved his 2.0L focus for driving... and he had an Focus after that.

Down to personal preference, you pay for what you get.

test

I need to clarify the issue I think.
I'm not complaining about the in general, in fact it's an excellent package.
I have diven ST_ONE's so I know how it should be.
When I say the performance is poor, I mean in relation to other s not to other cars.
There is severe throttle response (flat spots) in fact the whole rev range is a flat spot, it's as if the engine timing is out or the car is not getting enough fuel (or too much at the wrong time as aveage fuel conpsumpsion is 25MPG.)
For the first 600-800 miles from new the car was a little rocket. Then the lumpy idling issue appeared and since then the car has gradually got worse.
E.G. - You know when you come to a T junction and your turning left and the road is clear so you don't have to stop? Well you normally can leave the car in 2nd and just pull away nicely. Not mine, I have to stop and engage 1st or else the car will just sit there sucking air.
If I want to over take someone at say 30MPH, I have to drop to 2nd and scream the knackers off it or it will just sit there sucking air in 3rd or 4th.
I was running on Optimax from new then BP Ultimate but have now changed back to regular 95RON as I'm not getting any benefit.
The handling is superb yes (albeit a bit on the hard side at the front.)

The car is going into the dealers again tomorrow as a field technician is coming from Dunton to test the car. Apparantly he only deals with and models, so he SHOULD know his stuff.
I will keep you posted.
I shall be telling him that I will only accept that the car is as it should be if he gives me a dyno print out showing that the car has indeed got 148BHP and 190NM of torque.
If it has then it's time to sell or do a bit of upgrade work I think, Air Filter/Flexi and a Magnex.

Good luck with that Dave, hope this fella can sort it, or if not admit that something is wrong and arrange a new car.

Well, I got the car back and was told there was nothing the matter with it again.
But since driving it I have found it to be alot more responsive and the fuel economy has gone up to 28MPG, so he must have done something.
The salesman said that he had had it in and out of the workshop a few times so he must have been tweaking it I think, but he didn't want to admit it was faulty I think.
I also checked the spark plug gaps last night as they were set to 1.8mm by me after I found them to be between 1.6 and 2mm and they were all set to 1.3.
I phoned Ford Technical help-line and they told me the gaps should be 1.3.
I will see how I get on now and I think I'm going to go down the tuning road I think.
Flexi Pipe and a Pipercross Viper first, then a magnex,some Denso Iridium Plugs and some Magnecor Leads.
But first some better brake discs, I think it will have to be Sport Japans on the front and EBC Turbo-Grooves on the rear as the EBCs aren't available for the front yet.

Glad you seem to have finally sorted things out. Sounds like you're gonna be keeping the ST now.