Hello ! New ST Owner

[SVTBob]

Just bought my first Fiesta ST, a 2019 (Spice Orange) with only 25k miles and nearly completely stock (Cobb airbox and crossover, MSRB (?) Cat Back). Old Ford guy, history of Multiple Bronco’s, 2 Gen 1 Lightnings, a Gen2 Lightning, currently GT350 and a Raptor. Looking forward to “meeting” you all as interests cross paths. This will be my DD, so nothing too radical, but after driving it the past few days, love it already !

 

[D1JL]

Dave

 

[WannabeST]

Dang you have my dream ford line up now with an ST, Gt350 and a Raptor. I'm trying my best to set money aside right now for an F150 or a Gen2 raptor.

 

[SVTBob]

Thanks for the welcome, guys. The Raptor (G2) has been the best truck I’ve ever owned but I do not tow very frequently (limited towing capacity) and the bed capacity is limited (both in space and carrying capacity). So consider that before buying a Gen2 Raptor. Also, if you decide to get a Gen 2, a Supercab is a foot shorter and 400-700 pounds lighter (depending on config) than a Supercrew. Cab was better for me as I go off road fairly often and like “lighter”. But the Crew has a very spacious back seat, so if you often have people or stuff in the back seat, the Crew is the way to go. The GT350 is a very well balanced sports car and for me having a manual is very important. So no GT500 in my future. I had two SVT Focus’s, both got totaled through no fault of mine. I have missed the SVT Focus a lot to the point where I went looking for one a short while back. Finding one in good condition at a reasonable price was hard. Then it occured to me I could buy a Fiesta ST for not much more $. When Road and Track named it one of the best enthusiast cars EVER, that sealed the deal for me.

 

[XR650R]

When Road and Track named it one of the best enthusiast cars EVER, that sealed the deal for me.

I went out and bought the magazine because I figured I'd need it as proof someday.

 

[SVTBob]

I did the same ! I wanted to write a letter to that woman stunt driver that was featured to thank her !

 

[XR650R]

I did the same ! I wanted to write a letter to that woman stunt driver that was featured to thank her !

It's her daily. It's a great DD, especially where she lives, with no snow or salt.
What's really important is that tons of car-savvy car writers, as well as Jerry Seinfeld, all put the FiST on the list.
The only other Ford that made the list was the GT.
Not the FoST, not the FoRS, not one Shelby.
The Fiesta ST.

 

[Dpro]

Welcome!

 

[M-Sport fan]

It's her daily. It's a great DD, especially where she lives, with no snow or salt.
What's really important is that tons of car-savvy car writers, as well as Jerry Seinfeld, all put the FiST on the list.
The only other Ford that made the list was the GT.
Not the FoST, not the FoRS, not one Shelby.
The Fiesta ST.

What is even more shocking (and impressive on our rides' part) is that not ONE single model/year/variant of Y Body (Corvette for those not knowing the GM model codes) made that list.

Probably the ultimate 'bang for the buck' car (in certain models/guises) ever offered to the public.

 

[SVTBob]

I thoight about selling my GT350 for a C8 but just could not get myself to do it. The whole ADM thing really turns me off. Would I enjoy driving it that much more than the Gt350 for 3-4x the price ? Nope. Laughed out loud at the thread by the guy who said he sold his NSX after he got a FiST because it was more fun ! Ha !

 

[Fiesta fan]

Thanks for the welcome, guys. The Raptor (G2) has been the best truck I’ve ever owned but I do not tow very frequently (limited towing capacity) and the bed capacity is limited (both in space and carrying capacity). So consider that before buying a Gen2 Raptor. Also, if you decide to get a Gen 2, a Supercab is a foot shorter and 400-700 pounds lighter (depending on config) than a Supercrew. Cab was better for me as I go off road fairly often and like “lighter”. But the Crew has a very spacious back seat, so if you often have people or stuff in the back seat, the Crew is the way to go. The GT350 is a very well balanced sports car and for me having a manual is very important. So no GT500 in my future. I had two SVT Focus’s, both got totaled through no fault of mine. I have missed the SVT Focus a lot to the point where I went looking for one a short while back. Finding one in good condition at a reasonable price was hard. Then it occured to me I could buy a Fiesta ST for not much more $. When Road and Track named it one of the best enthusiast cars EVER, that sealed the deal for me.

I knew I just HAD to make a comment. Not only did the SVT in your name make me curious, but I wanted to see if there was more to it. Funny enough, I too was very very interested in buying a Focus SVT 2+ years ago (before I bought my Focus ST last year). Loved the fact that America finally got the SVT focus after being in europe for so long. I came to the SAME conclusion, buying one in good condition was near impossible, I ran into a few good condition ones online. But only 1 had the right price, but at the time I was in college, so money was tight lol.

Now I stopped my pursuit of the SVT due to scarcity of parts. But I thought it was hilarious that we both basically went looking for an SVT Focus (Even though I never had one), and now we jumped to the Fiesta ST because it shares the same thrill.

 

[SVTBob]

EXACTLY. I had 2. First an ‘04. Had every option, including the European option which included leather Recaro’s. 12k on it from a dealer in’05. A black Suburban cut me off on the 40, I swerved to avoid it, took out about 100’ of guard rail, rolled down an embankment, rolled again. Front and side airbags saved my life. A few months later, bought an ‘03. Had it a long time but it got T-boned and also totaled. Have missed them for a long time. Meantime have had 2 Gen 1 Lightnings (one I had supercharged to nearly 600hp) then a Gen 2 Lightning which I sold to finance a GT350 and a Raptor, both of which I still have. So, lots of SVT type vehicles.

 

[Fiesta fan]

EXACTLY. I had 2. First an ‘04. Had every option, including the European option which included leather Recaro’s. 12k on it from a dealer in’05. A black Suburban cut me off on the 40, I swerved to avoid it, took out about 100’ of guard rail, rolled down an embankment, rolled again. Front and side airbags saved my life. A few months later, bought an ‘03. Had it a long time but it got T-boned and also totaled. Have missed them for a long time. Meantime have had 2 Gen 1 Lightnings (one I had supercharged to nearly 600hp) then a Gen 2 Lightning which I sold to finance a GT350 and a Raptor, both of which I still have. So, lots of SVT type vehicles.

That is cool, I was personally looking for a 2004 in Sonic Blue, funny enough, I liked the 5 spokes a lot more than the optional 6 spoke lol. But that's cool you had the European stuff and recaros. I didn't know that apparently they even had VERY FEW sold in an Orange color, did you know about them??? I guess they only sold about a hundred of them in orange.

I know little to nothing about pickup trucks (not crazy about them). But, really cool you had the gen 2 lightning. If I ever did want a pickup truck, it would have to be that one lol.
1. Bright red
2. Supercharged V8
3. Side exhausts
4. Was in the first fast and furious movie lol

That is truly an amazing list of cars you have though, I am a huge Ford fanatic so I would love to be able to achieve that level someday.

But I think the important part of the whole message is that you're okay after those accidents. Cars come and go and can be replaced, but lives can't. So I'm glad that you were safe.

 

[SVTBob]

My journey began a few months ago. A friend who knows I missed my SVT Focus called me up to tell me that there was an ‘04 Orange SVT Focus with all the options going to be auctioned from a Ford collection (owner died) on Mecum with 425 original miles ! I figured interest would be low, say $8-10k. NOT. I stopped bidding at $15K. Last I looked it was at $25k and the bidding had not stopped. But it relit the fire to have a performance small car. Found a few more but most either had high mileage or were trashed in some way. Found an optioned one in SoCal, silver like my old one, leather Recaro’s which I like a lot, Mileage wasn’t too bad, 60-70k as I remember. But the paint had major sun damage and the interior looked like someone had used it to transport greasy car parts, lots of stained leather. Guy wanted $8K. I decided to pass when I realized I could get a 15 year newer car with greater performance for not that much more. Looked at Mini’s for a while. Then I saw the Road and Track Fiesta article and I was sold. I found 4 or 5 dealers with pretty decent ones, a few low mileage ones. A dealer in Oregon had one in Magnetic, 30k miles, a base model with NO options, wanted $22k, would not budge on price. One in SoCal, also Magnetic, had about 30k but seemed to have small dings everywhere. $19k. Found two in Spice in Maryland, 25-30k miles, both around $20k. Then I found the one I bought in Pennsylvania, seemingly in better shape than any I’d seen, 24K miles. $20k. Flew out, drove it home. …….. I had planned to drive Dpro’s car all weekend, so I could give you an answer. Unfortuanely, after driving it less than 20 miles, I ripped a huge hole in one of the tires. Had to be ordered. The wheels/tires from the stocker would not fit (the wheels on the car, 16”, require spacers. If you remove the spacers, the 17” stock wheels get about 1 mm from the Wilwood brakes, so I abandoned that plan). So I’m driving the “stocker” because I had stuff to do. So, I feel bad about the delay, so please keep looking and/or decide what you might be willing to pay for my car or one like it. After my experience so far, I would encourage you to keep looking for a stocker. The car is very well balanced, as is, very fun, and still plenty zippy for a DD. The minute you start modifying it, you throw the balance off. If I were to keep the stocker, I would do a few things. Short shifter kit, beneficial, cheap, no downsides. Since Vegas is hot, I would consider putting in a larger intercooler (Whoosh V1 with the stock turbo would be fine) at some time later. I find the aftermarket exhaust on mine a bit too loud (same with Dpro’s car), especially at slow speeds around town but I am a fussy old guy. Hywy is fine. Never heard the stock one, expect it would be quieter. When the shocks wore out at some time in the future, I would replace them with Bilstein B6 shocks and reuse the stock springs or something similar. Maybe a pad upgrade at brake time (although I have a full set of new SVT Focus brakes that would fit with very little effort !). Tires are a personal preference but they vary greatly with respect to traction, cornering and RIDE, which is important to my old butt. If you have extra $ to burn, I’d probably get a Cobb AP and a minor OTS tune (20 hp ?) add E30 if E85 is available to you; would like to be able to watch all the gauges you get with it. I think that’s it.

 

[Dpro]

excuse Me Bob Those 16‘s don’t have spacers just hub centric rings. They do not space the wheel out. Oh and Wilwood designed that Brake setup to fit under stock 17’s for the car you would be fine .

 

[Fiesta fan]

My journey began a few months ago. A friend who knows I missed my SVT Focus called me up to tell me that there was an ‘04 Orange SVT Focus with all the options going to be auctioned from a Ford collection (owner died) on Mecum with 425 original miles ! I figured interest would be low, say $8-10k. NOT. I stopped bidding at $15K. Last I looked it was at $25k and the bidding had not stopped. But it relit the fire to have a performance small car. Found a few more but most either had high mileage or were trashed in some way. Found an optioned one in SoCal, silver like my old one, leather Recaro’s which I like a lot, Mileage wasn’t too bad, 60-70k as I remember. But the paint had major sun damage and the interior looked like someone had used it to transport greasy car parts, lots of stained leather. Guy wanted $8K. I decided to pass when I realized I could get a 15 year newer car with greater performance for not that much more. Looked at Mini’s for a while. Then I saw the Road and Track Fiesta article and I was sold. I found 4 or 5 dealers with pretty decent ones, a few low mileage ones. A dealer in Oregon had one in Magnetic, 30k miles, a base model with NO options, wanted $22k, would not budge on price. One in SoCal, also Magnetic, had about 30k but seemed to have small dings everywhere. $19k. Found two in Spice in Maryland, 25-30k miles, both around $20k. Then I found the one I bought in Pennsylvania, seemingly in better shape than any I’d seen, 24K miles. $20k. Flew out, drove it home. …….. I had planned to drive Dpro’s car all weekend, so I could give you an answer. Unfortuanely, after driving it less than 20 miles, I ripped a huge hole in one of the tires. Had to be ordered. The wheels/tires from the stocker would not fit (the wheels on the car, 16”, require spacers. If you remove the spacers, the 17” stock wheels get about 1 mm from the Wilwood brakes, so I abandoned that plan). So I’m driving the “stocker” because I had stuff to do. So, I feel bad about the delay, so please keep looking and/or decide what you might be willing to pay for my car or one like it. After my experience so far, I would encourage you to keep looking for a stocker. The car is very well balanced, as is, very fun, and still plenty zippy for a DD. The minute you start modifying it, you throw the balance off. If I were to keep the stocker, I would do a few things. Short shifter kit, beneficial, cheap, no downsides. Since Vegas is hot, I would consider putting in a larger intercooler (Whoosh V1 with the stock turbo would be fine) at some time later. I find the aftermarket exhaust on mine a bit too loud (same with Dpro’s car), especially at slow speeds around town but I am a fussy old guy. Hywy is fine. Never heard the stock one, expect it would be quieter. When the shocks wore out at some time in the future, I would replace them with Bilstein B6 shocks and reuse the stock springs or something similar. Maybe a pad upgrade at brake time (although I have a full set of new SVT Focus brakes that would fit with very little effort !). Tires are a personal preference but they vary greatly with respect to traction, cornering and RIDE, which is important to my old butt. If you have extra $ to burn, I’d probably get a Cobb AP and a minor OTS tune (20 hp ?) add E30 if E85 is available to you; would like to be able to watch all the gauges you get with it. I think that’s it.

Ya that's insane, I think my max for that SVT focus would be 12k. Only if it had the EAP, and because of the orange color. Paying MSRP for it is just madness to me. The market and the price raise on them made me start looking at other practical / fun options similair to it as well.

Considering you bought it early June (or maybe May) I believe the orange spice Fiesta you saw in Maryland was also the one I was eyeing as well. The one that got snatched up before I could do anything lol. It too had around that many miles and was priced at 20k.

Sorry to hear that a tire blew out though, hopefully you get the new one soon! No worries at all about any delays. I'm not in a rush or anything. Still patiently looking around but sadly no luck. Definitely still interested in buying your "stocker" if you do decide on selling it in the near future.