2005 Ford Fiesta ST150 from UK and Ireland - Comments

Not with the Ford warranty backup it's not, and besides the price includes suspension upgrades as well.

A GENUINE 35 bhp increase from a non-turbo engine for that money, and with the full support of the manufacturer is more than reasonable. Do you have any idea of the work involved in releasing power from a non-turbo engine? Or do you believe the chip manufacturers and the adverts for the bolt on crap that litter the tuning comics.

Buy an ST at RRP, have this upgrade done, and the total package is still no more expensive than a Polo GTI, Clio 197 or Cooper S.

I don't think it's me on another planet mate. If you think a £250 chip can do the same job, good luck to you.

I didn't leave the original comment saying what planet are you on, but 35 bhp for £1800 is NOT good value. I know it's harder to get power from a N/A engine, but it's still a rip off when you think you can get 70 bhp out of an Astra VXR or Focus ST for the same price.

Don't even come back at me saying that they are turbo cars and it is easier blah blah; I and everybody else realise this, but don't buy a car that is hard to tune and then when you spend a lot for little power turn round and say "well it's good value for the engine" because in the great scheme of things it isn't good value.

You are completely missing the point.

You can pick up a new ST150 for £12,500 without even trying. Add the £1,800 for the conversion, and you're looking at £14,300. The cars you list are considerably more expensive. If they weren't quicker, they'd be pointless. Sub £15k for 185 bhp, 0-60 in 7 secs and full warranty support is cheap - how can you argue otherwise?

Turbo engines make huge amounts of power, but for many, the sharper throttle response and more consistent power delivery of a naturally aspirated engine is preferable. Particularly if you look beyond headline BHP and consider the package as a whole. The ST was crying out for more than Ford's 150 bhp and it now has it. If Ford made this car out of the factory for the £15k it costs, everyone would be going on about what a bargain it is. The fact is though you can retro-fit this to older cars, which makes it even better.

If you buy a car to tune or want to boast down the pub about how many bhp your car makes, you'd be mad to buy any naturally aspirated car, let alone a "lowly" ST.

You can buy a fiesta st150 for between 10500-11000 now if you look around! Add to that the mountune kit supported by warranty that adds up to around 12500! Clearly thousands cheaper than Clio 197's! As for the Astra VXR and Focus STs, these are much more to run, buy and have bigger engines, making them easier to tune.

In my opinion Vauxhall VXRs are total crap and I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole!

If you feel 1800 for an extra 35bhp ain't enough, then go to Jamsport Tuning who will supercharge your ST150 for under £3000, giving you 230-250bhp and that will be enough to see off the Corsa VXR, Clio 182, Clio 197 bla bla, and even stay up the back of those bigger cars like VXR and ST225s. So your options are open really.

If you want a fast car buy one from the off, don't spend ridiculous money tuning them, the insurance (if you declare your mods-which you should) will bump the cost up even further than a car of the same performance car just off the line. The focus and the vxr are obviously a better choice for someone who wants all out performance, even a civic type R or something else makes more sense than doing up a fiesta which isn't going to add to the value of the car when you come to sell it. And if you love tuning cars for the power then again don't buy a fiesta, buy a turbo'd car like a seat leon cupra R. The fiesta is fine in its own right but it doesn't make sense to tune it up at costs which could be used on cars built to give better performance with better safety margins and tolerances as well as being cheaper to buy (a clio 182/172 is ridiculously cheap used-although I wouldn't buy one, but do the job better than a tuned ST)

How is it spending "ridiculous money" when the total outlay is still less than a new example of the Clio you mention? Ford admitted they kept the ST down to 150 bhp for insurance reasons, and every review of the car has mentioned that it cannot only comfortably handle, but is crying out for more power? Fifth Gear recently tested the standard ST against the new Corsa which is quicker in a straight line, but the Fiesta whooped it around the track. This isn't a chassis that's going to struggle in any way with a 30 bhp power hike.

You can't knock the ability of the RenaultSport Clios, but how many people who buy Renaults would ever buy another? They simply do not stand up to hard use, and many have build quality and electrical reliability that 1970's British Leyland would have been ashamed of. This is why you can buy them secondhand for 49p. Modern Fords are built like tanks in comparison.

At the end of the day, we are talking about a Ford approved conversion by a major Ford specialist tuning house, which retains the full warranty, not a set of crappy bolt ons from the Ripspeed catalogue. It's no different to an Alpina or Hartge tweaked BMW in principle (if not level), and turns the car into what the press, and some Ford insiders say it should have been in the first place,

Evo liked it a lot.

£1800 is ridiculous money to alter a car which you have just bought. Save up and buy a civic type R, or even buy a used one I don't think anyone would claim a used CTR is any less reliable than a brand new fiesta ST150. The ST is priced accordingly to what it is worth, you add 1800 pounds or more to make it how you want don't expect to see that 1800 quid again, just buy a car which does what you want in the first place.

A 180 bhp hot hatch with the Fiesta's handling talent for under £15k with the full manufacturers warranty. It's peanuts mate. I don't see why you have such a problem with it.

I presume you have a similar issue with Alpina BMW or AMG Mercedes, or even the original Mini Cooper.

I'm not in any way comparing a Fiesta to any of these cars except to illustrate a point. All the above are independently modded with full manufacturer backing. Exactly the same in principle.

I really like the 18:44 comment from the 17th march.

Have you ever owned a sport clio?

Granted the interiors are not great but they are fantastic to drive and do stand up well to abuse, the mechanicals are fantastic, the engine very strong.

I say this because as far as I can see the fiesta st is a bit over weight, tall, and not exactly 'hot' as some people think, ill gladly show you from the lights, on a twisty road, a track. anywhere in fact.

Fair enough I may not have the interior quality, but it's a much better car to drive as I have driven both and have owned the clio for a couple of years now.

All the nay sayers who claim various things have usually never driven or owned the cars in question.

I wouldn't comment on the fiesta's durability as I havnt owned one but I can say the performance is OK, but not hot hatch material.

If your going to spend that money on the fiesta, then it more or less brings the price upto a good used focus st that's neally new, I know which id rather own. or for a bit more how a bout a clio v6? one of the ultimate hot hatches.

The sort of car you could get for 15k and you suggest that a fiesta ST moddified to 180bhp is one of the best, I just don't get it. The Civic type R wasnt much more than 15k brand new, or even a seat leon cupra R or anything that was a couple of years old. If I was going to modify a car I would only bother if it was a diesel and just a case of getting a cheap remap or something similar for big gains.

I've never owned a RenaultSport Clio, but I had an '05 Megane (1.9 dCi) as a company car, and we have a 54 plate Grand Scenic in the family and they were/are enough to convince me never to go near a Renault.

Both are good looking and brilliantly designed, and the engines are mechanically reliable, but both are complete crap; constant wiring and engine management gremlins, and build quality which is a total disgrace. Worn gearknobs and seatbelts chafing holes in B-pillar trim at 30,000 miles, fading paint on the plastic parts of the body such as the bumpers and fuel filler cap, uneven panel gaps, rattles, squeaks and knocks. Neither have been used hard, and both had full Renault histories. I can't even begin to imagine how something of this standard would stand up to being thrashed. The Scenic was a £22k car brand new.

Renault's problems relating to poor build quality, reliability and crap dealer backup are well documented. I acknowledged the car itself is good to drive - it re

Fair enough, I'm not sure on the megane and scenic, but I know in the 30k odd miles I've done in my phase 1 clio sport that only the speedo ever failed, (which was a sensor on the gearbox, changed in 10 minutes)

I like the way they drive and although they are not the best built I have never suffered any proper mechanical or electrical failures of any kind.

Just a quick question, has anybody had there actual 0-60 mph times checked in the Fiesta ST150. The figures which the Ford Guide Lines state of 0-60mph in 7.9secs don't really do it justice! Do they?? I have took my standard ST 06 plate on a track day and my times don't really match up to those figures! Does anyone have the same opinion.

I think the book figure is very accurate. Just compare it to other cars of similar weight/power. The mg zr 160 does 0-60 in 7.4 seconds and is slightly lighter with more bhp.

0-60 is meaningless without all the other increments to compare it with. For example, a car which won't do 60 in 2nd gear will need an extra gearchange, which could add half a second to the time. The car could still be faster overall than a car posting an identical or even slightly quicker 0-60 time, which looking at the 0-70 or 0-80 times would identify.

0-100 is a better guide to performance than 0-60, as more cars will need three gearchanges to reach a ton than will need one to reach 60.