No offense JohnP but the current body Focus has only been on the road for about 2 months....vs over a year for the Fiesta. A bit hard to make that comparison, no? Especially given the fact the new Focus is completely different from the outgoing model.
'Grats. Good car.
Reversing the earlier suggestion, you could keep the Fiesta (and eventually, some other car in a few years?) as your commuter, leaving the door open for a real crazy weekend/sporty car. Something like a E36 CSL M3, whatever, that can be bought and if maintained, will hold value pretty solidly, maybe even gain value over time. Those things are crazy fun. The US E36 M3s with the 3.2L can be given the Euro conversion without much trouble, giving 333hp iirc. And you'd have a damned good reason to learn the proper way of using three pedals
Anyway, nice car, and a super good choice for a daily driver, particularly with the great warranty coverage, good safety ratings, and outstanding fuel economy.
edit : oops, Euro-spec 3.2L E36 M3 was 316hp, not 333. Although probably 333hp and beyond easily possible with a couple of dinan parts.
The leather seats in the Fiesta are some of the most comfortable car seats ive ever sat in, no joke. Zero fatigue at all on any type of drive.
I agree. I'm flat-out impressed with the absolute total conversion of Ford during the past few years. Flash back to the '90s, and remember with dismay the tin-box Escorts, fish-eyed Taurus, and just general underwhelming everything.
It's a fiesta, whatever wheel comes with it is fine.I bought one off the lot. It was a pretty close match and they offered me more for my trade than they did originally. It has cloth, but they are going to install the leather. It's after market though. I felt a sampler and it was really really nice.
http://www.katzkin.com/
Now I need to decide on what wheels I want.
I'm not a car guy so I plead ignorance . I'll probably misquote him if I try to explain any further. I'll ask for specifics when I talk to him this weekend.
Is the gen III Focus really new, or is it an update of the gen II? (the one we never got in America)
BTW I hope the Fiesta is a manual
why, the auto on it is superb.
For someone coming off a BMW, the one around $20k that will drive the closest to the bimmer is the Suzuki Kizashi. Sizewise, it is a small midsize, or a large compact if you want to think that way. And driving dynamics is the closest to a bimmer you will get in a car of the $20k neighborhood.
Why don't you take a test drive? Nothing to lose.
It is, in fact most reviews say the car is better with the auto than the manual. The take rate for the auto is ridiculously high according to the dealer when we bought ours.
The Focus implementation has a manual mode....but it's only accessible by a small rocker switch on the shift knob. A bit more useful, but still pretty pointless. I did like the way it drove compared to a torque converter auto though...but it was a 10 minute test drive so obviously not a thorough evaluation by me.
I've found the auto vs manual reviews to be about even. The glaring negative review below really has me questioning if its just the reporter or a transmission that isn't ready yet.
"The six-speed automatic. It should have been a high point but wasn't. It's Ford's take on the dual-clutch, automatically operated manuals that will become common because they use less fuel than older automatics with fluid-filled torque converters. The new style is truly like a manual, but electronics do the shifting. No clutch pedal provided or needed.
Ford argues that it should get dispensation, even from criticism, for offering this new-style, fuel-saving automatic in such a small and relatively inexpensive car.
Not exactly. If you put one in the car, make it as good as they get. It's not.
Some automakers —Volkswagen for one — make their "manu-matics" sporting devices. They shift in snappy fashion in automatic mode, and they have manual modes that let the driver work the gears with panache unlikely using a clutch pedal.
Not so Fiesta. It seemed tuned more for mileage than fun. Downshifts often were reluctant. Without an automatic's torque converter, it was sluggish off the mark.
The former could be fixed by software changes, but easier access to lower gears would lower the fuel rating. The latter could be remedied by changing some gear ratios, but that, too, could erode the 30 mpg city and 40 mpg highway mileage target that Ford cherishes.
Compounding those disappointments, Fiesta's automatic has no manual-shift mode. Customers don't want it, Ford says, and it would add to the price.
C'mon, guys. Get over it. Give us a manual mode, act like you meant it all along, declare victory and move on."
