Fiesta ST appropriate for a teenager's first car?

[KnockOff]

Every person is different. I have 6 kids. My 2 older boys are very different when it comes to speed. My oldest, 13 would be fine in the fist. He gets an oh shit look on his face when boost hits. My second to oldest son is 10. Loves to go as fast as possible in and on anything. The fist is a no go. They both love cars. Just recently went to the OC festival of speed. They didnt want to leave haha.

I will be buying them a cheap car so they learn how to fix, maintain, appreciate the work it takes to take care of an automobile. I like my children to earn things so they appreciate what the have. Doing work and maintaining a car will make them proud of it even if it's a pile. My dad gave me his 86 1/2 hardbody. Took 1500 bucks of my hard earned money to get it back on the road 17 years ago. My daughters will go through the same treatment. It also helps them to be self sufficient. That's my long 2 cents.

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[camopaint0707]

I'd suggest a regular fiesta, not an ST

 

[Jerickson88]

My plan is to teach him how to drive in the Fiesta and see how that goes. I am also considering a previous generation Accord Sport, which came with a manual transmission as a possible option.

You know, you could always put the ST in the econo slot and take the accessport out of the car!

 

[dmb]

the car your son will have will be junk in no time. they think they will live forever, that's why we send them off to war. if for some reason the car makes it a year. it's his [the FiST]. but until then a $1500 Hyundai like car with plenty of airbags, don't forget the spyware. would have saved a lot of teens 50 years ago when i was 16. and if you want to piss him off put reflective tape all over the car after the first dent.

 

[Bee Peezy]

If it's a vehicle you already have on hand, then yes. I think it would be an amazing first car. I don't think it would be too quick or too fast, as long as you keep his modding in check, lol!

I remember kids in high school with big block Chevys and various V8s and i was always super jealous. At least your son will have something that's kind of a contender, but by all means in the safest manner possible.

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[ROCKYFiestta]

id go with the suggestion you can plop it into econo mode and leave it stuck like that until he graduates lol

 

[TyphoonFiST]

If you have any Cobb accessport....If so put into Valet mode permanently. I was that age once as we all were and a lot of us thought we were superhuman and do silly things now looking back! Just food for thought..... as others have pointed out.... I'm late to the convo....But looks like the survey says.....Valet mode/ econo slot that beast and remove it until proven otherwise.....

 

[Zombie]

I do have an AP. Didn't realize there was an econo mode. Need to look into this further. Thanks!

 

[koozy]

There’s a way for the resourceful and cleaver to defeat it.


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[METZGER]

Fiesta ST is not meant to be fast it's meant to be fun but still fast enough to die in.. when I got mine I was going down the highway 160 km/h and seen a corner coming up and I wasn't aware of it's capability and panicked a little and could have crashed... 4 years later same car I could take that corner at 160.. just saying..

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[METZGER]

My first primary vehicle was a 96 Ford escort I pushed that piece of crap car to the limit constantly. It all comes down to is your kid a speed crazy, or someone that's very tame. My coworker at work no matter how much horsepower you give him is always going to drive calm and slow. This car would definitely been a lot safer, and more reliable than my first car but it could have possibly got me into more trouble with its power. Personally I think it's too nice of a car to just be given to somebody. Let him have a slow throw away car so he can earn a little respect for what it takes to get nicer things.

I know a lot of people don't consider these cars fast any vehicle you can take down the interstate and do a stable speed of 140 + miles an hour is fast. It's not snap your neck fast but it will put you in the 3 digit zone very easily.

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Haha my first car was a 1980 mk5 Ford cortina 2.3L v6 Ghia and I use to cruz round at 140 km/h like it was nothing then I got a mk2 escort then another mk2 escort with a worked 1.6 crossflow (swapped the engine into my original mk2) and got all the missing bits the engine needed and man that thing was pretty much as fast as my stock FiST now if I remember rightly, it's good as I got all my rear wheel drive stuff out the way young so now I actually love front wheel drive but only because of the FiST and the vectoring control system and the way it works with the light weight of the FiST is on another planet. IMO.

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[CarGuy]

If you have any Cobb accessport....If so put into Valet mode permanently. I was that age once as we all were and a lot of us thought we were superhuman and do silly things now looking back! Just food for thought..... as others have pointed out.... I'm late to the convo....But looks like the survey says.....Valet mode/ econo slot that beast and remove it until proven otherwise.....

Valet mode limits the speed to like 30mph so that wont help. It also limits the rpm to 3,000 which is nice because you can't get into too much trouble at those low rpms.

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[MagnetiseST]

I say no. In our local group we have a young guy, he just turned 17 and he has a fiesta st. Hes on his second car, he crashed his first one, and this second one hes not much more careful with. Its kind of annoying to see someone treat the car this way, but we all know deep down he really does love the car, hes just not mature enough for it.

But hey im not the kids dad... so i mean...

 

[Zormecteon]

Forgot bigger, that does not always mean safer. Thats a common American misconception about vehicles. Somehow bigger means safer. Crash test data does not always bear that out though. SUV’s really are no safer than ordinary cars. Modern small cars are considerably safer than the small cars of my youth or your youth.

Smaller does not mean safer as long as the impact is with something in nature or a similar sized vehicle.... HOWEVER in a two car collision, the larger vehicle is always the safer one. Government tests only show what happens when hitting a wall or same sized vehicle---because they want to push efficiency over safety, they NEVER show what happens when an SUV strikes a B class subcompact. It's physics. F=MA.

That said, when my kids got their first cars I wanted something very light and with only two seats. With only two seats there is no danger that they will be distracted by someone in the back seat and that they will turn their head to the back seat to talk. I wanted light because I taught them that "If you crash, you die. Don't crash". (they got a toyota MR2 and a Honda CRX-H, both under 2000 lbs) They never did and still haven't years later. I had a friend who took the opposite approach. .. "I'm afraid she'll crash and I want her to be safe." He bought large cars with air bags. Sure enough she crashed. She totaled 4 cars before she was 20 years old. .. She was taught that it's OK to crash, so she did.

Back to the FiST for a first car tho. .. He'll be ruined for life. Nothing else has the responsiveness with the fuel economy and utility of a FiST. All other cars will feel dead. When he's 50 he'll look back and think it was the best car he ever owned and he'll be right. ..

My 2¢ YMMV

 

[OrangeFiST]

May I suggest a Focus SE 5 speed if you can find one?

 

[captainmorbid]

My first was a 79 Mercury Lynx, automatic...

Had about 3 whp. I nearly killed myself every time I attempted to merge, would get passed uphill by fully laden Tractor trailers.

I’d say, I’d have been safer in a FiST.

If, when the time arrives, your kid seems like he’s semi-responsible, why not. If you’ve already demonstrated your own reasonably sensible driving habits, or you’ve scared him by passing on the right, sideways, laughing maniacally, giver.


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[zanethan]

Even the most level headed teenager is a dimwit when there is a group of them involved. I’m sure your son is very mature or you would not be considering this but I doubt he’s nearly as mature around friends. My parents bestowed a performance car on to me as a teenager and while I made it through unscathed I contribute some of that to luck over anything else. Get him a reasonable used car with a manual.

 

[Intuit]

My son is cautious and respectful. He will be fine in a car like this. My daughter can have the 04 Tahoe lol

Too much room in the back seat.
(forgive me - couldn't resist)

 

[Jerickson88]

Too much room in the back seat.
(forgive me - couldn't resist)

Daughter like mother

 

[Intuit]

Daughter like mother

I think we just struck upon something. Ford should make a stick shift two-seater that weighs as much as a SUV and market it to Fathers everywhere.