Month 6 running a Ford Fiesta ST: residual values and depreciation

However, my maths is truly rubbish, so I hoped it was that, rather than my also-rubbish driving.Īfter the second fill-up I worked it out properly with a calculator: 38.6mpg. I thought it would be easy to show those meddling kids a thing or two.Īt the first fill-up I did some very rough maths and it didn’t look promising. And there was me thinking this little arrow graphic only popped up to goad you into going faster, but actually it tends to appear at just below 2000rpm on a light throttle. In the main this meant nuzzling the throttle with the tip of my big toe to try and keep the turbo off boost and a slavish adherence to the gearchange indicator on the dashboard. So, I thought perhaps I ought to try and do the ST justice, and spent the month driving as economically as possible. I’ve – embarrassingly – barely got it over 33. I seem to have failed spectacularly badly in my quest to become young again by driving a Fiesta ST, because two 18-year-old Formula Ford racers drove one on an economy marathon and averaged 75mpg. Month 7 running a Ford Fiesta ST: the fuel economy question What a remarkable achievement for such a humble little thing. Still, I’ll take a few more quid in fuel for the unadulterated joy of winging about in this car, which is one of the best driver’s cars, at any price, on sale today. The ST isn’t alone mind: I don’t think I’ve ever driven one of Ford’s much-vaunted turbo petrol Ecoboost engines that gets close to it claimed figure. Not perhaps a major buying concern for the type of person who wants an ST, but nevertheless it would be nice to sometimes be able to chug along at more than 40mpg. Even in my more doddery moments I can’t get anywhere near the official fuel economy. But as a hot supermini it loses hands-down to the Ford which is far more focused in doing its primary job of going fast and being fun to drive.Īnd while I’m on the more boring elements of its everyday performance, the fuel economy has been hopelessly below par. The Clio Renaultsport I had before was a considerably better all-rounder, proving more spacious, refined and comfortable. No real surprise there then, and I think it would be churlish to criticise it for failing in such a role, but even with the long doors it’s a right old faff getting kids in and out of the back. In terms of practicality, you might not be surprised to find that the ST isn’t a great family car. No wonder across the rest of the range Ford is busily ripping out dashes and installing new, less cluttered ones. Then there’s the infotainment system, which like Stonehenge or The Loch Ness Monster, remains a mystery wrapped in an enigma, despite much effort on my part to fathom it. I took some stick on CAR’s website for saying as much, as if anything made by Recaro can be such torture, but almost everybody who has driven the ST concurs, and not all of them are oversize galoots like me. For a start the seats are properly uncomfortable. It’s not all gearchange sweetness and light oversteer though. Wearing after a while maybe, but I don’t drive along wincing, praying for a smooth surface ahead. So while you feel every bump in the road, it’s not painful as such. Yes, it is very firm, but damped well enough that the ride is not crashy, which is usually what makes such things unbearable. Some have found the ST too stiff for everyday use, but I’ve not found that to be the case. Personally, I like this approach, because I can live without the faux race-car nonsense some other manufacturers might have gone in for. Perhaps one of the only things stopping it from being a car that even more people lust after is that it’s not especially in-your-face: some half-hearted deeper bumpers, a twin exhaust, chunky alloys and a slightly bigger spoiler are pretty much all there is to distinguish from a typical granny-spec Fiesta. No wonder they sell by the bucketload: it’s a future classic, I reckon. In fact, it is such a fabulous car to drive that it surely deserves to rank up there with anything Ford has produced in the past few decades. After 30 minutes on the serpentine B664 I never feel like sending anyone to a gulag, or penning a new, joyless protestant theology of Christianity. Just the very effect of motion, at whatever speed, is enough to bring a smile to your face. The result is it is not a car you feel you have to be on the limit with to really enjoy. Its poise and balance is fabulous, the gearing perfectly spaced and accurate, the steering communicative and the exhaust note parpy like a mini racer. Old man Steptoe, Morrissey, Joseph Stalin, Martin Luther: some of history’s greatest miserablists would be beaming with delight if only they had had the opportunity for a blast along deserted roads in middle England in a Fiesta ST.

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