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Ford Fiesta - Any Good?

Here are some pics. I mentioned it wasn't a manly color, right? :D The lady will drive this 90% of the time, but as nice as it drives, I won't be ashamed to be caught behind the wheel either!








 
Zomg, I almost thought I was the only person left who buys stick. Nearly any color short of neon pink can be forgiven for that fact. :)
 
It's not metallic magenta, it's Manly Purple! Nice car, I like the looks of them, and they sound fun! Now go get that dealer sticker off the rear hatch ASAP, looks horrible, and if you wait a couple years before taking it off, the paint under it won't match the paint that's spent 2 years in the sun. I really hate those dealer emblems they stick on cars. I just gave you a butt-ton of money for this car, why should I then damage my paint to advertise for you?
 
Hrethgir said:
It's not metallic magenta, it's Manly Purple! Nice car, I like the looks of them, and they sound fun! Now go get that dealer sticker off the rear hatch ASAP, looks horrible, and if you wait a couple years before taking it off, the paint under it won't match the paint that's spent 2 years in the sun. I really hate those dealer emblems they stick on cars. I just gave you a butt-ton of money for this car, why should I then damage my paint to advertise for you?
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I literally took those pics, uploaded them to photobucket, busted out the hairdryer, and got to work. I'll upload the finished job too ;)
 
_mw_ said:
Zomg, I almost thought I was the only person left who buys stick. Nearly any color short of neon pink can be forgiven for that fact. :)
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I think wanting a stick is what made this search difficult. Within a 500 mile radius there were currently 3 manual cars (2 of them the dealer couldn't get a hold of). Stick is just more fun. :cool:
 
lordofthereef said:
I think wanting a stick is what made this search difficult. Within a 500 mile radius there were currently 3 manual cars (2 of them the dealer couldn't get a hold of). Stick is just more fun. :cool:
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Not only is it ten times more fun to drive, it's also a hundred times easier to maintain if you're a diy mechanic, and a hundred times cheaper if you're not. Short throw that summabij.
 
_mw_ said:
Not only is it ten times more fun to drive, it's also a hundred times easier to maintain if you're a diy mechanic, and a hundred times cheaper if you're not. Short throw that summabij.
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Wish I had mechanical know-how :( I can take apart a cat and put it back together (it's a lame vetmed joke), but when it comes to a car I am clueless. One of these days I will sit down and teach myself or maybe even take some classes. One of these days...
 
Did you ever play with lego growing up? It's surprisingly similar. I'm not kidding, and anybody smart enough to take a cat apart and put it back together has more than adequate reserves to figure out a car. You just need to get your hands dirty (and a Chilton's manual for your make/model).
 
Is that white piping I see on the seats? To borrow a word from Jeremy Clarkson that he normally reserves for Alfas, that's filth.:D There's enough Top Gear in this thread that I expect that will be understood.

In regards to working on your own car, _mw_ is on the money. It's really not that difficult once you get over the first time nervousness. The only thing you need is to be able to be organized (read that as not put ever bolt into the same jar) and do only one thing at a time. An oh shit moment working on your car is cross threading something and with a cat it putting a hole in the wrong thing that bleeds. You can't really break anything if you check as you go and make sure there are no extra things left.

Sitting down and teaching yourself probably won't help you much, it would be a hell of a lot better to change your oil. The first thing I was taught when I worked a summer in high school at a mechanic was to take off a serpentine belt. It was nearly impossible for me to break something and if I F-ed up it would be blatantly obvious.

A class would be good, a couple of the community colleges in the Bay Area have wonderful auto programs. They just spoil the crap out of you. After a few days with a full lift I would never be able to look at my floor jack without disdain again.

Or you could start slapping on bolt-ons and tell the lady it's for the added bump in fuel economy.
 
lordofthereef said:
I literally took those pics, uploaded them to photobucket, busted out the hairdryer, and got to work. I'll upload the finished job too ;)
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Good on ya, mate! Lets even more Manly Purple show through! And yeah, working on a car isn't really that difficult once you give it a try. And being a vetmed, you must be a faily smart feller, shouldn't be an issue. Besides, this car isn't going to need more than basic maintenence for years, only stuff you would get really deep into it for would be modifications and upgrades, just stuff you WANT to do, which makes the learning and doing more easier... that isn't proper grammer, is it? Oh well.
 
So two (minor) things about the car that I would have designed differently:
1. No right arm rest. I got used to it on my truck, and in the Jetta.
2. Seats don't fold down flat. I knew this, and didn't think it an issue, but I went to pick up a fish tank last night and it was a PITA to get it in (of course we were paranoid about scratches. I'd say the seats fold about 150-160 degrees, which is pretty close, but certainly not flat.

We head out for our cross country drive tomorrow morning. We will definitely see what this little car is capable of, especially when we hit the rockies! ;)
 
Alright. Back from our trip, and we've driven this car ~4k miles since we've had it. To over a couple of questions:

Turn radius: Superb. Can flip a U on a two ay single laned street if you aren't afraid to turn the wheel before moving. We were actually in a tight parking garage in LA where I kept missing my turn due to not opening my eyes. The small footprint of the car helped out in those cases too.

Driving from Iowa to California (and back) we went over the rockies. I was surprised what this little engine could do. Very rarely did we have to downshift. Generally 4th gear was fine. On a particularly steep incline we had to drop to third for a little bit there. I have driven my 4cyl tacoma and my lady's jetta over said mountains and all required downshifting. This car did very well in those regards. The slowest we ever had to go was 55mph.

A few more things that we didn't like:

1.) For me this is huge... Sync is advertised as being able to read/send texts while you are driving. This is not the case for ANY smartphone (well, iPhone and Android devices anyway) based on what I have read. It requires a dumb phone (moto Razer as an example) to use the texts feature. I am not sure if this can be remedied with an app, but based on how long we have had sync and how an app still doesn't seem to exist, I am leaning towards that not being possible. Please note this isn't limited to the fiesta, but rather MS Sync installed in any Ford vehicle.

2.) For some reason the left foot rest is just carpeted. Those that drive a manual especially know you need a foot rest. Every modern car I have seen has had a rubber or plastic foot rest here. Not so in the fiesta. Obviously not a deal breaker, but a little annoying.

3.) There are also no handles above the doors. We got quite used to having something to grab onto. This also isn't a necessity, but we both found ourselves looking for something to grab out of force of habit.

3.) The installed USB port charges very slowly. For a lengthy drive that isn't a problem. For something a bit shorter where you need more juice, I'd bring a standard car charger. That will charge in 1/4 the time. (and no, the slow charge of the USB doesn't last longer than a quicker standard car charge).

4. While there are plenty of drink holders, they are all quite small. The front doors can each hold a water bottle with ease. Soft drink are awkward in the center and rear cupholders, however. Some cups (such as Mcdonald's) are shaped properly where the bottom is much smaller as it tapers off. Those fit fine. Others, not so much.

Aside from the sync issue, these are all fairly minor gripes. Quite frankly without these minor gripes I would say Ford made the perfect car.
 
One more thing to add (on this insistence of the lady). Apparently, for shorter people (she is 5'6"), the AC is blocked by the steering wheel no matter how you angle it (it just ends up blowing mostly at your hands, at best.

Luckily, at 6'2" I don't have to worry about that. The driver's seat is the best seat in the car for me ;)
 
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