Good read: 5 ways people ruin their cars

[jeff]

This is a pretty great article on modding. Points 1,2, and 4 are particularly poignant.

In choosing between a Golf R and a Fiesta ST, aside from the $12,000 savings I scored on the FiST, I simply wanted to own a FiST as it was a bucket-list car. The R is next, a few years down the road, but for now I'm quite happy with the Fiesta. It does make one think though - having invested a few thousand into mods, were I to keep going I'd get into R price territory. Then I'd have a FiST that's as fast as a stock R for the same price, but still an overall inferior car in probably every way. Knowing when to stop....this is a great read that reflects my opinions on modding. Just my .02, I'm sure others feel differently as is reflected in their credit card statements.

But again this article touches on all of it - giving up reliability, balance, and money for maybe the wrong reasons. Farah attests that he's a hypocrite which makes this article all the more refreshing.

http://www.thedrive.com/muscle-cars/6208/the-5-ways-people-ruin-their-cars

 

[frankiefiesta]

Interesting opinion piece.. I don't really agree with everything said, but I understand his point.

I just wish someone would tell him his stock turbo fiesta was not making 250whp.... they obviously screwed with the dyno or did something for marketing purposes

 

[milkman42]

I know car guys don?t like to do math, because then we have to face how much we?ve spent on our cars

ha this is so true. i have a running mod/maintenance spreadsheet going with costs which is great and all, but I've purposely left out the "Sum" function lol. reminds me of some posts i read about the recaro option for our cars being nearly 10% of the purchase price. great perspective but i don't want to think about it!

 

[VuDoo]

Part of the fun of modding is making your car somewhat "unique," or for some, pushing the limits. But we each go our different directions, some want big power others want a little more power, but reliability as well. I would assume that most people who were drawn to the FiST were enamored more by the price and stock performance of this little car. However, as we get used to or become numb to the things that drew us to the car, we start to look for things we can change to get back what drew us to the car in the first place. I don't think that many have gone on a test drive thought "I can't wait to put in a big turbo so I can compete with 75% of cars out there with more power." Maybe some have, but I know that this is the best car I could find at a price point that I can afford. I don't care if a Honda accord can beat me in a straight line. If, down the road I can afford a new part that will increase performance or reliability, I will get it. But I don't think I will break the bank trying to cram every mod out there under the hood to get 300 hp. If I wanted that I would have gone with something else.

 

[Crooked Letta]

Very good read, mostly common sense and 80% of that is how I view modding.

To sum it up basically don't make stupid choices and your vehicle is not to be used as a penis enlarger lol

 

[jfdana]

It is an odd way to make a living: getting people to let you drive their cars while secretly (or not so secretly) mocking them on camera for the choices that they have made. In my part of the country we'd probably use a word more descriptive than "hypocrite."

 

[grnmachine02]

It is an odd way to make a living: getting people to let you drive their cars while secretly (or not so secretly) mocking them on camera for the choices that they have made. In my part of the country we'd probably use a word more descriptive than "hypocrite."

Telling someone the truth doesn't make you a hypocrite. They contact him, and then he agrees to drive their car. If the car sucks, the car sucks.

 

[BoostBumps]

Good read: 5 ways people ruin their cars

#2 - Turning a Reliable Car into an Unreliable Car

...But I recently drove a modified Fiesta ST with a bigger turbo making 300 Wheel HP...who was on his third transmission in a year. Was the car fast? Sure. But for how long? A car is only as reliable as its weakest component, and, as this example shows, engineered bits are often quite reliable inside their tolerance zone. Once that tolerance is pushed?either by heat, horsepower, rotational force or G-force?you reach the fail point quickly. While it?s true you have to break stuff to learn the limits of these parts, do you really want to find that limit on your own car?

 

[frankiefiesta]

#2 - Turning a Reliable Car into an Unreliable Car

I wouldn't call [MENTION=2054]Perfblue15[/MENTION] car unreliable.. he's just had some trans issues and he races his car. 300 whp is not a killer for the fiesta. The abuse is

 

[BoostBumps]

^Exactly...that was taken directly from the article...its not my quote nor opinion...

One could argue that excessive launching and abuse even on a stock FiST could damage a transmission...

That said, no one has proven through extensive reliability testing that increasing FiST hp to +300whp doesn't reduce its long term reliability either...But in all fairness those modifying their FiSTs for +300whp performance more than likely are enthusiasts less focused on maintaining long term reliability and more focused on racing and pushing the limits of their FiSTs...

 

[Perfblue15]

I wouldn't call [MENTION=2054]Perfblue15[/MENTION] car unreliable.. he's just had some trans issues and he races his car. 300 whp is not a killer for the fiesta. The abuse is

Thank you sir. The car is open track raced, drag raced and street raced. I'm merciless on the gear box and flat foot shift pretty much every gear on the road course and drag strip. It was bound to break something

^Exactly...that was taken directly from the article...its not my quote nor opinion...

One could argue that excessive launching and abuse even on a stock FiST could damage a transmission...

That's exactly it. Prolonged abuse breaks stuff. Hell I broke an axle at the track Thursday. I race the car a lot. Stuff breaks lol.

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

 

[jeff]

...no one has proven through reliability testing that increasing FiST hp to +300whp doesn't reduce its reliability either....

There is no doubt more strain on the car with that sort of power bump. Whether or not that was Perfblue15's issue I do not know, but yes Farah seems to say that that was the reason for his problems. Could have been part of it but if I remember correctly there were other reasons. In any case I enjoyed Farah's' review of his car and despite the tranny problems he seemed to enjoy it immensely.

 

[OffTheWall503]

For what it's worth also, Perfblue's car is also running E30 and methanol, which probably gives him high amounts of torque which no doubt will put extra amounts of load on that transmission. Add to that the FFS like mentioned and heavy amounts of hard driving and that is what happens.

I wonder if [MENTION=759]Hijinx[/MENTION] has had any transmission issues or [MENTION=952]frankiefiesta[/MENTION] who have quite a bit more power than him.

 

[Hijinx]

For what it's worth also, Perfblue's car is also running E30 and methanol, which probably gives him high amounts of torque which no doubt will put extra amounts of load on that transmission. Add to that the FFS like mentioned and heavy amounts of hard driving and that is what happens.

I wonder if [MENTION=759]Hijinx[/MENTION] has had any transmission issues or [MENTION=952]frankiefiesta[/MENTION] who have quite a bit more power than him.

I've had zero transmission issues.


Some Guy On The Internet

 

[frankiefiesta]

For what it's worth also, Perfblue's car is also running E30 and methanol, which probably gives him high amounts of torque which no doubt will put extra amounts of load on that transmission. Add to that the FFS like mentioned and heavy amounts of hard driving and that is what happens.

I wonder if [MENTION=759]Hijinx[/MENTION] has had any transmission issues or [MENTION=952]frankiefiesta[/MENTION] who have quite a bit more power than him.

I had my transmission replaced under warranty at 9,000 miles for loud whine noise. This was when I was stage 3, stock turbo. Had no issues with the cyborg, and so far no issues big turbo

 

[Siestarider]

I liked #5 driver mods. When I first tracked my car I had the same instructor twice in a row, hot shoe in S2000 winning NASA TT Fla two years in a row. Only major mod (besides Cobb S3 tune) was LSD added after my first weekend at Sebring.

About 5 track days later I had him run laps in my car and recorded on Harry LT. Took me five more track days to beat his best time at PBIR in my car. With better tires I cut another two seconds off my PB. Next time out we will see if coilovers make a difference. Good to have hot shoe benchmarks to measure your progress if you are serious about becoming more competent on track.

Should probably add #6, tracking is inherently abusive hence expensive in a street car. I could buy a used 944 turbo for tracking only and have a better, faster track car for less money. But I also enjoy DD'ing my track car. Love the mileage and room in back for all my gear, keeping it as simple as possible also has merit. Fist rules the dual purpose economy segment.

I certainly have less than $10k in mods, and have no problem with matching and passing BMW 335i's on track. Except when they will not give a point by. Hence last major mod will be hybrid turbo, if the back straight is the only place some of these expensive cars will give a point by, then I need to be there to get it.

 

[CallmeTurbo]

That was a good read man. For me reliability is a huge thing considering this is my DD. I will say that you wanting that R is not a bad choice But I will say beware! My last car was a 2014 GTI (This car is different than the R but they have same motor) Leased it brand new and I had Revo Stage 2 with full cat and all (All mods were offered, sold and installed by VW and I was making around 290 at the crank. It was an absolute beast. Everything changed though after 1 year. Everything started breaking. Water pump 3x. Car had terrible acceleration problems that it would shit itself and stall (This car was a DSG Auto trans) when merging and A random Oil leak. OH! and also my turbo cracked in half! Also my window switches broke. idk what happened but they all stopped working.Also DSG Auto would hang up in first sometimes and be a nightmare. And with all these problems is exactly why I'm on this forum today. I ended up getting a lemon lawyer and he got me out of my lease and got 2 years of payments back too! dont get me wrong Im not trying to tell you not to get one but I just figured I would throw in my experience just for warning. Hopefully it will do good for ya tho! All in all I did love driving it and it would handle heavy curves being stock like nobodys business. Not gonna lie I do miss driving it. The extra weight helped out believe it or not. And just a FYI if you do get one and have problems and the dealership isnt any help like my situation then make a claim through VW group of america and thats when shit gets rolling haha!

 

[Sil3nt611]

If the ST Octane Academy cars say anything about abuse reliability for a stock Fiesta ST then I'd say you'd probably be ok with tracking a mostly stock FiST and still using it as a daily. The unreliability I saw with mods on my old car is cheap mods. They didn't last real long. I never pushed enough power through my old car to kill it. The other thing I saw, not so much unreliability, but aftermarket parts that weren't engineered to actually be better than factory. I think Ford is smart enough to have done some decent engineering on the car to find stuff that works well. And it my experience it does work well in stock form so I really don't need anything more from it other than reliability.

 

[jeff]

That was a good read man. For me reliability is a huge thing considering this is my DD. I will say that you wanting that R is not a bad choice But I will say beware! My last car was a 2014 GTI (This car is different than the R but they have same motor) Leased it brand new and I had Revo Stage 2 with full cat and all (All mods were offered, sold and installed by VW and I was making around 290 at the crank. It was an absolute beast. Everything changed though after 1 year. Everything started breaking. Water pump 3x. Car had terrible acceleration problems that it would shit itself and stall (This car was a DSG Auto trans) when merging and A random Oil leak. OH! and also my turbo cracked in half! Also my window switches broke. idk what happened but they all stopped working.Also DSG Auto would hang up in first sometimes and be a nightmare. And with all these problems is exactly why I'm on this forum today. I ended up getting a lemon lawyer and he got me out of my lease and got 2 years of payments back too! dont get me wrong Im not trying to tell you not to get one but I just figured I would throw in my experience just for warning. Hopefully it will do good for ya tho! All in all I did love driving it and it would handle heavy curves being stock like nobodys business. Not gonna lie I do miss driving it. The extra weight helped out believe it or not. And just a FYI if you do get one and have problems and the dealership isnt any help like my situation then make a claim through VW group of america and thats when shit gets rolling haha!

Thanks for the warning. It would be a few years, I like to keep cars 3-4 years and at least pay off the Fiesta. The Golf R is on my list but I have heard of reliability issues as you mention which is probably one of the reasons why I picked the Fiesta even after test driving the R. Also I've had cars like the R before so it was time for a change.

All in all Ford is probably way more reliable than VW. Mods probably only exacerbate unreliability issues.

 

[ChuckL]

This article is definitely true in the sport bike arena. I've spent way too much money chasing an extra 20 hp...