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I got lucky. Found my car in dealer inventory (albeit a 4.5 hour drive away). Molten Orange, Recaro, nothing else. It was ordered by a real car nut at the dealer. He ordered it the way he would have wanted it :) This guy has a Euro package SVT Focus daily driver plus a stable of like 15 unusual cars mostly Mustangs.
 
Discussion starter · #42 ·
I figure since my first review was on this thread might as well not make a new thread...another very long review, read at your own risk. :p

On another note, I really still kinda wish I would have gotten into the Fiesta Movement. I probably wouldn't have been an amazing agent as far as the monthly missions, but I know I could have learned a whole lot more about the car after daily driving it. Seeing as how much review info I've got on the car in three test drives and a couple trips around a track... haha. Oh well, it is what it is. I definitely enjoy the short amount of time I get to test drive my dream car. One of these days I'll have one. Hopefully sooner than later. On to the review...part 2.

I was at home for the Christmas break so I decided to go show my mom the Fiesta ST to see what she thought of it. As a bonus I got to see the Green Envy in person, test out both the regular and Recaro seats, finally brought my iPod along to plug it into the system and test out the sound system, the green car was a moonroof-less car so I actually confirmed and took pictures of the mythical missing sunglass holder (never actually seen anyone take that picture yet), I tried the dual height hatch floor again and figure out the trick, and got a bunch more shots of both the green and orange.

First off, the Green Envy is an amazing color in person as well. It's unfortunately just like the Molten Orange in that it would take some pretty good cameras and camera work to really show what the colors look like in person. It was overcast today so I didn't get to see it in all it's glory with the sun out, but it's still better looking in person even with no sun. I would have to say I'm pretty torn on these two colors now, but ultimately the orange is where it's at. If the orange didn't exist, no doubt in my mind the green would be my choice.

I was surprised when the salesman told us we could go out and drive it without him. I haven't taken a ton of test drives but the salesman was always with me on the ones I've taken. I would think especially with a car like the Fiesta ST, a performance oriented car, they'd rather have someone in there with you. On the up side, because of that I took a little more time to play with stuff without feeling like the salesman was staring me down waiting for me to hurry up. Maybe it's because I looked older with a short goatee growing from the past week-ish I've been off work (this is my 5th year in college and I've been asked more than once in the past what high school I go to...), or maybe he just does that all the time.

I took the green car first because the orange car's battery was dead. The options were pretty minimal. It had the cloth seats, silver wheels, no moonroof, and I'm not positive on the navigation because we couldn't locate an SD card for it and I didn't check the window sticker. I sat down on the regular cloth seats. They weren't absolutely terrible, but they definitely weren't really made to be in a car that does good cornering. One thing I looked at as soon as I got in was the taller roof because of the lack of a moonroof as well as the lack of a sunglass holder. Up to that point I hadn't ever seen anyone who'd taken a picture of the headliner of one without a moonroof to show that it's really missing, so I had to see for myself. :p The rear headroom is greatly increased as well. If you regularly have average sized adults in the rear seats, they will tank you for not buying one with a moonroof.

I finally remembered to bring my iPod and a cable to plug it in so I could test it out on the MFT system and see how good or bad the speakers sounded. As soon as the iPod connected it started playing no problem. Once I got going I turned up the music a bit and I was actually kinda impressed with the amount of bass produced without a subwoofer. That's not to say a subwoofer wouldn't complement it all being as I have a full audio system in my current car, but I guess if that's really the only drawback to moving from my ZX2 to the Fiesta ST, I'm doing pretty good. I didn't play around with the MFT a whole lot, and I wish the navigation SD card was inserted so I could see the nav in action, but unfortunately even with everything you want to try out on a test drive the actual driving is the biggest part of it.

With the controversial dual height hatch floor and people not being able to get it down on the bottom level...I played with it a bit since I didn't have a salesman staring me down wondering what on earth this idiot was doing. I found that pushing the floor all the way under the pegs poses the problem that people are having in that it pushes the floor too far down under the spare tire level so you drop the floor and it gets hung up on the spare tire and won't go down anymore. The trick is to push it under the pegs, let it drop on the spare, then pull it out of the pegs as you let it go down under the pieces that hold the floor up near the hatch. You gotta put a little force into it because it's got rubber where it contacts the pegs and it's a tight squeeze. Keep pulling it out and it will eventually even out and drop down on top of the spare tire. That's the lower level. Without the full sized spare I don't think you'd have an issue getting it to the lower level. Several pictures will be provided down after the "review". I still prefer it on the upper level to store stuff down below. that I don't want sitting on top of the false floor.

On another note, I saw many people up North who have to defrost their cars in the morning before work are complaining about the horn honking when you get out of the car because it lets you know the key is outside and the problem being they don't like getting honked at when they know they key is outside the car and the car is on and their neighbors and family that are still asleep get a little annoyed at the honking. But the deal was not all Fiestas on here seem to do the honking. So I did a deliberate test on both cars to see what these cars were going to do. Not only did they not honk, but I watched the MFT screen and there was no interior chime or message on the screen as I opened the door, walked out with the key in pocket, and shut the door completely. I did a couple tests to make sure one wasn't a fluke. I walked all around the cars with them running and all doors closed key in pocket taking pictures of them. No honk, and at that point even if there was a message and interior chime, it wouldn't be seen or heard. I have test driven three Fiesta STs, none of them honked upon exit, only one chimed and showed a message on the MFT screen... I have no idea why some do and some don't. While I don't exit my car a lot when it's going, I wouldn't mind getting one that didn't honk though. haha

As far as the driving went, I saw the hill holder in action again as I let off the brake and expected to roll back a bit on the hill and didn't. Both Fiestas obviously drive the same. Still have plenty of pick up. I stayed in residential areas so I didn't get past 4th gear. The Fiesta still has plenty of power for me. I got in my car later to do a WOT acceleration and was disappointed. :p
 
Discussion starter · #43 ·
I took the green car back and the salesman had the orange car open so we sat in it and my mom saw the immediate difference in the seats between the regular and Recaro. I got to compare them side by side basically. It's another orange set of Recaros, the options were exactly the same as the first car I test drove at the beginning of this thread. Molten Orange, moonroof, nav, orange Recaros, and grey wheels. The wheels are something I was decidedly going to get silver at first, but having seen two molten orange with the grey wheels they are growing on me, and considering I have grey wheels on my current car... The price tag is just a bit steep for a little bit of grey paint and I could care less for the red calipers. I'll likely end up with the silver wheels. As I said, unfortunately it was overcast, so again, the orange didn't shine as bright without the sun. However just looking at it in person looks more orange than the pictures.

A bit of back tracking...the cars were back in the back lot where they have as many cars as possible packed into a lot. Getting the green car out wasn't too hard, but the small size and turning ability of the Fiesta made it a snap. Trying to do that in a Mustang might be difficult. But the orange car was tucked in back behind a telephone pole. Turning right out of the parking spot would be just about impossible. So I went the other way around and the fit trying to turn in between the fence and the front end of another car in a space that any normal car could barely park in was pretty tight. I was able to miss both the fence and car, drive through the spot and out of the lot with relative ease, I just went slow because there was no way I was going to be crashing the car. So I drove the orange car and definitely liked the Recaro seats hugging me in compared to the cloth seats. My mom was pretty snug, but she wasn't complaining, she actually said she liked them. One thing I forgot to test, being it was a bit cool outside, was the heated seats. I remembered about them in the green car, but of course they weren't there then. Back in September when I test drove the first one it was still way too hot in Texas to even think about heated seats. The test drive went about the same other than the seats definitely feeling better. On my way back I was at a stop light on a two lane each way road. Of course I can't have enough of the acceleration, but I kept it slow off the line because I'm still not used to the clutch (although I never have yet stalled it). The Nissan sedan next to me takes off a little bit quicker than me. Then I get going and do a WOT run to 40 (speed limit 35) and pass the sedan with ease. A couple seconds later the sedan zooms by, it was hilarious. Just so happens there was one of those gauges that shows your speed up ahead and he passed it going 65. I wasn't trying to race him or anything, I didn't try and keep up and I never looked over at him trying to get him to race. I just wanted to test drive my car how I would drive it as I would own it. These boring car drivers are intimidated. :)

I can't think of anything else to say at the moment, so here's the pictures. As I said, it was overcast, along with the fact that neither color photograph well and my camera was just set on auto for today so the pictures really don't show the paint color in all their glory. On another note, if you wanted to see an orange or green with window tint, both of these have dealer installed tint on them. If you want a laugh, make sure you check out the rear end shots of the orange one. Whoever decided not only was that a good place for the dealer emblem, but that it was level, was probably drunk... And you guys thought the dealer decal on the first car looked bad...
 
Discussion starter · #47 ·
Couple things I forgot to mention...

I asked my mom after the fact when we were driving back in my car if she thought the ST ride was rough for her. Being that there's so many people that are going "It's too rough!" or "Is the ride really rough?" For one, it's a sports model of the Fiesta, it handles freaking amazing, the wheels are larger and it has low pro tires, and because of all that the ride will most definitely be rougher/stiffer than a regular Fiesta. Now that you are aware of that if you don't want any kind of a stiff ride, the Fiesta ST is not the car for you (might I interest you in a nice Lincoln Town Car or maybe a Bentley?) Saying all that, my mom's answer was that she didn't notice a rough ride. She daily drives a truck, so she's not used to rough riding cars. We were driving on a road that would be considered rough. For those of you that are genuinely worried if it has a rough ride, it doesn't (considering the fact that it's a sport model). I know I'm tolerant of a rough ride, but I know my mom isn't so much. She doesn't care for how my ZX2 rides on rough roads.

The headlight on warning chime doesn't seem to be existent or something. I drove the green car up to the front trying to find the salesman again and I had the headlights and fogs on. I turned off the car but accidentally left the lights on and walked away. We were told to go back to the back lot and the salesman would meet us there to look at the orange car and on the way back I noticed the fogs (I think) and parking lights on. So apparently there's no chime or it's not obvious for the headlight on warning and the actual headlights turn off when the car is off but you left the switch on. Unless I just got a car that neither honks upon key exit, or chimes when the lights are left on... When I get my ST I might just leave the switch on auto so I don't accidentally leave them on. The car looks better with the lights on anyway, even in the daytime. :)

I'm sure I'll remember something else eventually.
 
Discussion starter · #49 ·
Mine definitely chimes if I leave the lights on when I'm getting out. Pretty weird that some cars behave differently with the chimes and honks.
How obvious is it? I think there was like one chime when I opened the door when the lights were on after I had realized it, but my ZX2 really lets you know with a constant beep until you turn them off or shut the door.
 
Pretty sure mine is continuous while the car is off, the lights are on and the door is open. I'm out of town for a few days, but I'll verify when I get home.
Yep, confirmed that the headlight chime is continuous when the door is open and the lights are on and engine is not running. I can also leave my vehicle with the key fob without getting honked at.
 
Discussion starter · #53 ·
Yep, confirmed that the headlight chime is continuous when the door is open and the lights are on and engine is not running. I can also leave my vehicle with the key fob without getting honked at.
haha, maybe I was doing it wrong. I dunno, but I'm pretty sure I heard one chime and then it stopped when I opened the door. It wasn't like an in your face, "Hey stupid you left your lights on" like my ZX2 is, but more, "Thanks for opening up the door." That's weird though that some cars do some stuff and others don't. But yeah, when I get mine I'll probably just go ahead and leave it on auto lamp to turn on and off with the car even if it does chime. Driving with the lights on in the day isn't a bad idea anyway, there will be that one person that will say they didn't see the bright orange car that they pulled out in front of. But if they don't see the bright orange car with it's lights on, they probably shouldn't be driving. :p
 
Discussion starter · #54 ·
Another thing I remembered. I heard there was a shift light on the cluster, but I didn't ever notice it on previous drives. I finally saw it when I happened to glance down at the cluster and it showed up. Probably not real big news to anyone, but it is there. Of course I ignored it because I was having too much fun. I averaged about 17MPG in 4 miles. :p I do find it kinda funny they enabled it on the ST. I figure most people who are buying STs probably have a decent idea of how to drive a stick and know when they want to shift.
 
Another thing I remembered. I heard there was a shift light on the cluster, but I didn't ever notice it on previous drives. I finally saw it when I happened to glance down at the cluster and it showed up. Probably not real big news to anyone, but it is there. Of course I ignored it because I was having too much fun. I averaged about 17MPG in 4 miles. :p I do find it kinda funny they enabled it on the ST. I figure most people who are buying STs probably have a decent idea of how to drive a stick and know when they want to shift.
Actually, by having the shift light incorporated into the instrument panel, Ford is able to publish an MPG figure using that shift point RPM in order to get maximum mileage. As you likely noticed, it comes on much earlier than you're likely to shift an ST ;)

My old Focus had a bright yellow shift light that annoyed me for 12 years. At least the Fiesta ST is hidden in the blue center panel, much less obvious.

I can also vouch for the "no honking" when you walk away from the car. As a matter of fact, you can leave the key at home (or wherever) and the car will continue to run just fine. Until you turn it off.
 
Discussion starter · #56 ·
I suppose if you ever want maximum MPG you can look at the shift light to know when to shift. My ZX2 has a spot on the cluster for a shift light, but there's no light and they were never enabled in the ECU to come on from the factory. Maybe they thought about doing it then decided not to.

It seems more people have been saying their cars aren't honking upon exit of the car with the key in hand. I would say maybe it's an early production thing for it to honk, but the first test drive was early September and it also didn't. It came in the first batch of STs and some people that got their's later are saying they do honk, and BRGT350's Fiesta Movement car (pre-prod) honked as well. So it's just a game of chance if you get one that does or doesn't.
 
Discussion starter · #57 ·
I came upon what the auto lamps actually does... I thought it would turn the lights on and off with the car but it actually turns on the lights when it gets dark out. Not quite what I had in mind. The auto lamps on my old Tempo back in the day would turn on with the car and turn off in a set time after the car turned off. I'd prefer it that way to be honest. I know to turn on my lights when it gets dark. :p
 
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