How many of you drive your fist in winter?

[Stkid93]

Alright guys here’s the scenario

I recently bought a fist that was a 2017 with 11,000 miles. I have been trying to figure out why the car had such low miles. I was thinking it was a track car at first but the car was completely stock down to the symposer and still had the original tires and everything. So then I pieced some info together. The previous owner had it for almost exactly 4 years from 2018 to 2022 when he sold it. The car also has the stock summer potenzas on it still. So piecing this information together, I think it’s extremely likely that he only drove this car during the summer. And had a second car for winter.

obviously if the car was garaged during winter that’s great news for me, but I’m curious.

How many of you guys only drive your fists during the summer? They make good year round daily’s if you put some all seasons on them, so I’m curious how common this is.

 

[thecman02]

So I came from the opposite camp as some peeps. I bought my fist as my winter "beater". I realized later how much I like the car though and have gone through with lots of precautionary things to keep the corrosion down. Between lots of car washes and Fluid Film sprayed on everything liberally.

 

[XR650R]

I drove mine in the winter when I first got it, but only when the roads were clear. I had access to another car for the heavy salt soup.
Now, I have a second car which I bought with the idea that the FiST would be more of a toy and road trip weapon. I love the agility at freeway speeds.
My other car is fantastic in the winter. It even handles well for a CUV, being based on the Fiesta chassis. AWD, heated everything, decent mileage, and comfy.

 

[M-Sport fan]

Unlike most others on here, this is the only car I own, and I am only given the parking space for ONE car, so I have no choice but to use it year 'round.

I have a set of dedicated winter (and for me, rally working as well) wheels/tires for when it gets really bad (like greater than an inch deep snow, hanging around for a while, and I MUST get out on the roads).

But so far this winter (and most since owning the FiST, when I still owned the factory wheels with the Pilot Sport AS2s on them) I have been able to get by on the Neo Gens.
I suspect it would be a very different story way upstate N.Y., New England, or the upper Midwest.

 

[SteveS]

Year round here.

 

[FiestaSTdude]

I drive mine year round, but it rarely (like once every few years) snows enough for them to salt the roads here, so road salt isn’t a big concern. The one time it snowed I said screw the salt and drove around anyway testing my snow tires and drifting in parking lots lol. Like m-sport fan I have a dedicated set of snow/rally tires. I also wash the underside after driving on salted roads and I just started to fluid film the car as well.

 

[Stkid93]

Alright so it def sounds like it’s possible he owned a 2nd car and only used it during summer which would explain only having 11k miles as a 2017 model year

 

[M-Sport fan]

Alright so it def sounds like it’s possible he owned a 2nd car and only used it during summer which would explain only having 11k miles as a 2017 model year

Yes, to some, this car IS a 'garage queen exotic' meant only for perfect weather, summer weekend use, and there is NOTHING AT ALL 'wrong' with that!

But, many of us do not have that luxury, or the necessary multi-vehicle option to accomplish it.

 

[rallytaff]

Luckily I live in SoCal, apart from the politics, where the weather is fairly kind to us year round. I couldn't stand not driving my car every day for whatever reason. At 103,500 miles it's never let me down mechanically and if I live long enough, try to get to 200,000!

 

[XR650R]

Alright so it def sounds like it’s possible he owned a 2nd car and only used it during summer which would explain only having 11k miles as a 2017 model year

The EcoSport I posted above is an '18 I bought last summer with only 12,000 on the clock. It's the SES which came with "sport suspension," (stiffer shocks) and paddle shifters. It was the only year and model for the paddle shifters in NA.
It came from Newfoundland. I suspect it belonged to a small business that folded due to covid.
Small businesses don't buy FiSTs, so it follows that the PO just didn't drive it much because other car(s).

 

[Stkid93]

alright so here’s what I think happened. Car was bought it 2018 and used as mostly a summer car driven maybe 4000 miles a year for 2018 and 2019. When Covid hit the person started working from home. And his mileage significantly dropped which is saying a lot considering he barely drove it to begin with for 2020. 2021, 2022. I just hope he started it and drove it enough to keep fluids going and seals from drying out

 

[XR650R]

alright so here’s what I think happened. Car was bought it 2018 and used as mostly a summer car driven maybe 4000 miles a year for 2018 and 2019. When Covid hit the person started working from home. And his mileage significantly dropped which is saying a lot considering he barely drove it to begin with for 2020. 2021, 2022. I just hope he started it and drove it enough to keep fluids going and seals from drying out

I'm sure he drove it often enough to keep it fresh. You'll be fine.
Put good full-synthetic oil in it every 5000 miles, and if you haven't, replace the tranny fluid with 2 liters of this, ASAP: https://www.blauparts.com/ravenol-m...JF4ZFJVXANf4vLo3dyCi7lcZjvR0jG7UaApO7EALw_wcB

 

[Stkid93]

Is that stuff widely used for our cars or something I’ve never heard of it?

 

[XR650R]

Is that stuff widely used for our cars or something I’ve never heard of it?

The early FiSTs didn't have much fluid in the tranny. When I drained mine, it had 1.8 qts. More than the earlier models.
The FiST gets the same tranny as the FoST, but it has a smaller housing. No one really knows how much fluid it should have, but 2 liters of that stuff works great. Meets all the Ford specs, and it's synthetic.
Just do it. Your tranny will thank you.

 

[esp_martin]

The early FiSTs didn't have much fluid in the tranny. When I drained mine, it had 1.8 qts. More than the earlier models.
The FiST gets the same tranny as the FoST, but it has a smaller housing. No one really knows how much fluid it should have, but 2 liters of that stuff works great. Meets all the Ford specs, and it's synthetic.
Just do it. Your tranny will thank you.

completely forgot that upgrading the tranny fluid is on my spring must-do list. also @Stkid93 you might be outside the warranty window for the drivetrain (i forget if it's just 100K miles no matter what or if its 6yr/100K warranty). you are outside the powertrain warranty (5yr/60K miles). if so, upgrade that brake fluid too. it'll help save your clutch cylinders when the weather gets boiling again. EDIT: if your clutch cylinders go it won't *fix* it though. broken is broken.

and to answer the thread question, i run my car year round. i can take my wife's Escape if i ever really need to but the car is pretty dependable in all weather conditions with the right tires.

 

[NOVA_Ranger]

I plan to drive my car year around, weather permitting. If we get winter weather, heavy rain, etc. I'll drive my truck...which is basically my hunting/camping vehicle now.

 

[vivix]

I have two other cars so mileage doesnt rack up that fast. Maybe the PO had extras and/or worked from home. I know most people werent traveling during Covid too

 

[woodford86]

I'll drive it in the winter but not as much, my DD is a Tundra. Tundra has remote start, Fiesta doesn't, and I'm soft and hate being cold....is usually what it comes down to.

When there's snow on the roads, I'll take the Tundra every time because clearance. When its clear but ice it'll be 50/50 - Fiesta has studded hakkepalitta's so handles those conditions just fine, but still...cold.

And just in general I try to drive the Tundra to avoid miling out the already high mileage Fiesta. It's at 150,000km and that makes me a bit paranoid.

 

[Stkid93]

@woodford86

like every car oil changes and maintenance are key, but they become especially important with direct injection and turbo cars. Direct injection sprays the fuel at pressures above 2 thousand lbs per square inch, and when this happens some of the fuel is bound to slip past the cylinder and down into the oil especially if you run rich. this is also a problem with cars driven mainly in the city with a lot of stopping and starting because every time you start the car it runs rich during warm up and the fuel isn't being fully combusted at idle. When the fuel contaminates the oil it can really break down the viscosity and such. Then we have our turbos which generate a ton of heat which also breaks down oil, but with our cars it's even worse because we have such a small turbo with a lot of boost pressure meaning a lot of heat. One of the best things you can do for your oil is get a turbo timer, this keeps the car running for about a minute after you take the key out, this lets the oil circulate a little before shutting off and cool the tubo down. ( or of course you can let the car cool down manually and just sit in it for a minute before shutting it off). Without doing this the oil will sit in the hot turbo and bake, it may not sound like much but if this happens everytime you drive the car, eventually the oil gets baked pretty quickly.

Personally, I do a decent amount of city driving, so I overkill my oil changes to be safe, I only use the best full synthetic oil and change it every 2500-3000 miles. There have been times when my oil had only 1500-2000 miles on it and you could already smell the fuel in the oil. I normally use Pennzoil ultra platinum,

I have watched a lot of oil testing videos and there was a test between Pennzoil conventional, Pennzoil platinum, and Pennzoil ultra platinum. The ultra platinum was far better than the regular pennzoil platinum in many tests, especially the cold weather start up test ( they put the oils in a freezer and tested how fast the oil moved when cold) and the ultra platinum was far better than the regular platinum. And it's only a couple of dollars more. I have heard the ford ecoboosts can give you a ton of miles if you treat them right, I've seen them with 200-300k on the clock and there was one guy who got almost a million miles between his 2 ecoboosts. The first one reached 600k and the second was a little over 300k. problems start when young people buy them and don't take care of them, or put way too much power in them.

if you are really worried you can always freshen up the motor with new gaskets, seals, and maybe get a new short block. This should come with the block, pistons, rods, etc. it will have everything you need to make the motor mostly new.

 

[Pablo Pistoffo]

I'll drive it in the winter but not as much, my DD is a Tundra. Tundra has remote start, Fiesta doesn't, and I'm soft and hate being cold....is usually what it comes down to.

When there's snow on the roads, I'll take the Tundra every time because clearance. When its clear but ice it'll be 50/50 - Fiesta has studded hakkepalitta's so handles those conditions just fine, but still...cold.

And just in general I try to drive the Tundra to avoid miling out the already high mileage Fiesta. It's at 150,000km and that makes me a bit paranoid.

Another vote here for studded Hakkas- I daily my FiST year round, and they are great tires. I used to swap out the coils, but that was a pain so I just leave them on all year now.
It has been an interesting winter.