San Diego area to look at car

[Rebel257]

I found a green envy Fiesta ST but it’s all the way across the country in San Diego. Anyone local to the area that can swing by the dealer to make sure it’s legit and worth buying/shipping? Car is at Galaxy Auto in San Diego.

 

[Jnorthrup]

I need to go test drive a 2015 and a 2017 so I can decide which suspension change I like better. Anything more particular you want to know if I go look at it?

 

[Rebel257]

Was really looking to get a feel for the dealership and the actual condition of the car mechanically before I decided to make an offer on the car. The dealer sent me some detailed photos with 3 minor imperfections on the paint, but aside from that it looked very clean. Let me know if you go check it out please. My search for a clean low mileage Fiesta ST continues...

 

[Jnorthrup]

I can go in an hour or so.

 

[Rebel257]

Sounds good 👍 I’m done with work for today so I can respond asap

 

[Jnorthrup]

I’ll be there in 10

 

[J.andretti93]

This is why I keep a FiestaSTforum.com tab always open.

This community overall just rules.
🫶🏽

 

[Jnorthrup]

Interior and paint looked super clean to me. I didn’t get super nitpicky on the paint that’s not my thing but it looked really good I thought.

It drove well through first and second gear, there wasn’t enough gas to take it on the highway. Handling and engine both felt good.

Engine oil was clean and engine bay was clean. At the end I took a look under the car and there is some rust but it’s not super bad.

The guy selling it was a quiet guy he kinda just repeated the good things I said about the car. He was nice but I got the feel English maybe was his second language. He said he liked the car and bought it, but he didn’t know a ton about fiestas specifically it semester, “I’m not sure if green was painted on or if it was a special thing from the dealer because I haven’t seen many green fiestas”. It seems he buys and sells cars, galaxy auto is his dealership, but it’s not a typical dealership with a big building, he has like 8 parking spaces to show cars in the front of a building with a bunch of small units for different businesses. Seems a little sketch on paper but I don’t think it’s a dealbreaker at all. He was a nice guy and the car seemed to be in super good condition for the year.

This was the first Fiesta ST I’ve looked at I’m curious what others thoughts are on that level of rust and whether it will be a problem or if it’s reasonable to expect more or less?

Also, like I said before, my motivation for looking at it was to see if the stiffer suspension on 15 and earlier is significant to the softer 17+ suspension, and which one I liked more. I haven’t driven a 17 yet but I liked the way the 15 handled on smooth and it wasn’t bad on the rough I thought.

The reason I wasn’t looking at it with the intention of buying is because my partner is really against the green and I don’t want to get it and never hear the end of it. But to me, wow it looked good.

He said he 3 or 4 people interested in it I’d definitely consider getting on it quick if the shipping isn’t too bad and you guys don’t think the rust is too much of a problem?

 

[Rebel257]

Thanks again for going to check it out! I'm gonna hold off for a little bit on that one and see if I can find something closer for now unless they drop the price down. GL on your search as well

 

[Jnorthrup]

That’s probably smart, shipping prices are significant! I thought I noticed a Missouri sticker in the rear driver side window as I walked past the last time, maybe it’s from there, and maybe can find one from a dryer place with less rust.
Good luck!

 

[M-Sport fan]

That car has a rear box (muffler) delete on what appears to be a factory exhaust system.
I have never seen a damper with that much rust on it in my life, and I live in the salt soup belt! (But easy/inexpensive enough to change out if necessary. )

 

[Jnorthrup]

That car has a rear box (muffler) delete on what appears to be a factory exhaust system.
I have never seen a damper with that much rust on it in my life, and I live in the salt soup belt! (But easy/inexpensive enough to change out if necessary. )

Yeah, can’t drive on the beach unless you go to Baja, Mexico or Pismo beach in NorCal. But a one off trip like that wouldn’t be a problem, the car probably is from Missouri then!

Could ask to get a carfax if I was looking to buy but we’re both gonna keep shopping so not necessary!

 

[Rebel257]

Carfax shows first owner was from Michigan. The car then went to Ohio followed by Missouri and finally landed in California. I'm gonna hold off on that one and keeping shopping around. I don't mind spending a little bit more for a cream puff, but it sure if hard finding Envy Green cars right now. I think I've found 3 total for sale in my searches and one has 115k+ miles on it, the other has 60k+ with really bad modifications and then there was this one.

 

[Jnorthrup]

Interesting. Agreed, same.

I’m having a hard time finding decent white or blue ones too.

There’s a lot of black, metallic, and silver. And yeah, a lot of high miles, high mods, or bad price.

I was trying to filter out non recaros but I’m gonna give up on that. I think I can add recaros and sync3 later if I decide to. Still need to figure out if I have a big year preference (after I drive a 17+ suspension) and if having a moonroof is a dealbreaker for me (headroom, reliability and weight)

 

[Dpro]

Yeah, can’t drive on the beach unless you go to Baja, Mexico or Pismo beach in NorCal. But a one off trip like that wouldn’t be a problem, the car probably is from Missouri then!

Could ask to get a carfax if I was looking to buy but we’re both gonna keep shopping so not necessary!

Pismo Beach is central coast not NorCal lol. Anyways Ya I would not touch that car with a ten foot pool if it has that much visible rust who knows what’s not visible. This is California and SoCal no rust should exist unless the car lived at the beach its whole life. So ya hard pass on that one and seriously I would not let stock suspension determine your purchase stock suspension is ok not great and it does wear out. I personally would opt for a 16 up because larger front swaybar and stiffer rear beam . You can always upgrade the shocks and springs and or go coilovers . Plus the newer you get the cleaner the car and most likely much lower mileage . Unless you get an amazing deal lean towards a 18 up and get the backup camera and sync 3.

 

[Jnorthrup]

I realized that after I said it.. lol. Farthest I really tend to go is Santa Cruz so that feels like NorCal to me even though I know it’s not. Want to travel more that’s partly why I want to get rid of my truck and get a Fiesta. Not ideal for it but at least I’ll have fun when I do it and I don’t drive on highway daily so might as well get something I enjoy to drive while also decently reliable and good mpg.

That’s a good point I’ll try to find a 16 past the cutoff date for the suspension changes. In the forums I’ve read it’s unclear whether the change happened February 16 or August 16. I’m not sure how important those changes are to me yet. Why are they important to you? Do you track it or take trips to drive twistys a lot?

Obviously low miles is good but I’ve read that getting one that is clean is more important than the miles. Because these can do highway miles reliably for a long time so getting one with high miles is a good deal, but mods and hard driving are a different story, that could lead to something more serious going wrong. Especially if I’m willing to work on it myself slightly higher miles and an emphasis on clean is more important for me. If I had the money to get super low miles I would though.

Similarly, if I do it myself, sync 2 to sync 3 is like $200 or less, and adding backup camera is $50-$60.

I think newer ones can depreciate faster than the benefit is worth in comparison to a 16 or 17 around 90k miles (if I can find one with no mods and one or two owners that seem to have babied it.. which is hard), but that seems like a good sweet spot for me on the depreciation curve personally.

 

[Dpro]

it all depends on who has owned and driven it. I drove mine in the twisties a fair amount it was a 18 I bought new . I just sold it to another member here. I can honestly say the newer the car the more likely it will be clean overall . I am also very aware of the fact that there are cars with higher mileage that can be very clean. Though lower mileage is always in your favor with our cars you are less likely to find an earlier car with low mileage. As far as you depreciation thoughts go actually at this point in time a newer will not depreciate faster as even the newer ones at 19 are 5 years old😂 Hence why I feel it’s wiser to get as new as you can get with low mileage vs a older one that might be dirt cheap but will have higher mileage prices are falling. hard on the cars now though. Its not a bad time to buy a used one vs how the market was say a year or more ago.

 

[Jnorthrup]

Those are all good points. I’ll start looking at the newer ones more.

 

[rallytaff]

Interesting. Agreed, same.

I’m having a hard time finding decent white or blue ones too.

There’s a lot of black, metallic, and silver. And yeah, a lot of high miles, high mods, or bad price.

I was trying to filter out non recaros but I’m gonna give up on that. I think I can add recaros and sync3 later if I decide to. Still need to figure out if I have a big year preference (after I drive a 17+ suspension) and if having a moonroof is a dealbreaker for me (headroom, reliability and weight)

I don't know where you get your info about there being lots of silver ones out there. I still have my 2014 and I have only come across ONE other in the 10yrs I've had mine! I do a lot of driving in California so where are they hiding?

 

[Jnorthrup]

Ha! There’s one for sale in Glendora rn that I just realized the guy double posted rather than changing the price and miles in the original post.

There’s really just not a lot of STs available for sale at all so even that makes a difference.

Also when the search filters don’t work appropriately I end up having to scroll through a bunch of Non-ST regular fiestas, and there’s a decent number of those in silver.

I was kind of grouping black, metallic and silver together as non white and non color which is what I’m looking for personally (I’m looking for white or blue). I definitely agree silver is much more rare than black and metallic for the STs.

Wish I could go see them all in person at a dealership. Would you get silver again as your first choice? What would be your second?