2000 Ford Fiesta Zetec S from UK and Ireland - Comments

The temperature gauge temporarily went berserk, fluctuating between cold and normal very quickly whilst driving along. Seems to have cured itself and nothing showed up at the dealer diagnosis.

Short grinding sound a few seconds after moving away. Does anyone know what this is?

The car is a fantastic drive and the handling is excellent. Shorter gearing would have been nice, especially in 5th.

More power would be great, but that would mean more than group 8 insurance and put off a lot of its potential buyers. Maybe Ford should have put the Puma engine in it and had 2 models like the Saxo VTR/VTS.

For cosmetic reasons, I changed the standard gear knob for the little round alloy one from the Puma (£20 from dealers). It sounds mad, but the previously sticky gear change (especially when going from 2nd-3rd, and 4th-5th) has been transformed by the smaller (heavier?) gear knob.

If you leave your car on the road or even on your drive at night - have a proper alarm fitted. My wheels went after only having the car a month (the Ford locking nuts posing not the slightest problem to the thieves).

Apparently they are flavour of the month. Get a shock/tilt sensor fitted.

Anyone compared the Zetec S to the new upgraded (98bhp) Saxo VTR?

Congratulate yourselves on having a fairly rare car - The new grown up Fiesta arrives at the end of the year, so your Zetec S may seem common now, but with only a 2 year model run it is likely to be a rare sight within a couple of years.

The noise you hear when you pull away is just the A.B.S. self testing. It's normal so don't worry about it.

Steve.

Why do people keep comparing the Fiesta Zetec-S to the VTR when the Fiesta has the same engine as the VTS?

The Saxo VTR is a good car, but that typical French build quailty has always worked against it. The Koreans and Malayisans build their cars better.

And now that the Zetec-S does eveything better for similar money, there really is no contest.

Good to see Ford have moved the performance hatch stakes. Hopefully the Zetec-S could be a future classic.

I did hear that Ford plan to make a ST145 version of the next generation Fiesta - any truth in that? Might have to wait a couple years if so - could be worth it.

It's just a pity it took them so long to provide the Fiesta with performance to really take advantage of the chassis.

Any chance of doing something similar to the Ka?

How can a Zetec-S have the same engine as a VTS?

They are made by different manufacturers, and produce different torque and power figures. The VTS is quicker and more powerful, but that doesn't mean better. I have known a few people who have totally fried the engine in their Saxo's - they don't seem to like being thrashed.

The Zetec could easily produce 120bhp with some fairly minor modifications, and wouldn't blow up!

The Saxo VTR is a young kids car. The VTS is an older persons car, because they are expensive to insure when your free years runs out.

I keep hearing all this tosh about VTS Saxo being far superior than the Zetec S. Well read this: There is absolutely no point in having a car which is so unreliable, squeaks, misfires etc. Hence I disgustingly disgarded the heap of French junk called the Saxo VTS and got a Lupo. Although the Zetec S was my second choice.

Yeh the Lupo is slower than a VTS, but then my VTS didn't move much, it was always in the dealer with some stupid fault.

This says reliability and build quality are the most important, not tenths of a second quicker to 60 mph.

I prefer the way Ford have done things over Citroen. They've given the Zetec S moderate power, but from bulletproof mechanicals which are ripe for tuning if that's what the owner wants. This is preferable to the VTS which has an inherently unreliable engine which is overstressed out of the box (hence the oil leaks, rattles, knocks and running problems which are common on Saxos with as little as 30,000 miles on them.)

Ford have also included a class leading chassis which can easily cope with 135+ bhp without further modification, the best steering of any small hatch, and a super slick gearbox. Best of all though, they've actually built the basic car properly, which is something even the most blinkered Citroen enthusiast can't claim. If you must tune your Zetec S, just £250 is enough to match a Saxo VTS on bhp. Then various options between £400 and £1800 will liberate anything up to 170 bhp (and 0-60 in under 6 seconds).

I love the way the zetec-s seems to out corner any other small car on the market, but it's a shame that straight line speed isn't quite up to that of cheaper hatches.

You have all said the zetec-s can be tunned on the cheap, but what can be done other than a viper induction kit?

Turbocharge and supercharge.

I thinks out of both the saxos and the zetec s, the zetec is what to go for as it is only group 8 insurance compared to the vts's group 15 which just isn't worth it for a few extra bhp. the thing with the zetec s is they vary in power quite a bit anything from 100bhp to 120bhp which is a bit weird, but if you look up on it you'll see it is true. the phase 2 zetec is the one to go for if ur goin to tune it as a few phase 1's have blown up in the past from turbo's etc. go to shawspeed for serious tuning and they'll get ur zetec up to anything from 120bhp to 220bhp, but it will cost you.

Would the old vtr 8v do 137, only has pipercross induction kit... my friend thinks it can do 137 and would beat a zetec-s.

I think your friend is confused! The old vtr with wouldn't hit 137 unless it was speeding down a very big hill!

The Steering wheels..arghhhhhhhhhhhhh...how can you keep em clean?

Mines filthy, Blue it should be..

How to clean em tips below please!!!

I raced (legally!) a zetec with my VTR on a 1/4 mile strip, and won. The margin of victory wasn't huge, but the VTR did win. The VTS would leave the zetec for dead, from a standing start. Reliability can be a problem with Citroen, however I have had no problems with my VTR.

The zetec is a good car, but lacks power from its 16v 1.6, as is shown by the fact that it lost to a 1.6 8v VTR. And before anyone says its down to the driver, I lost to the VTR when I was driving the zetec, which I drove for three of the six runs. The zetec only won once.

Hi,

As I was reading the comments I just had to reply to the one dated 23rd Mar 2006 137mph VTR. Total RUBBISH. I will put up my car which is a 206 gti 2002 for pinks with this tin can 137. I can only get 135 and it's a 2.0 wake up and don't talk total RUBBISH.