WS Fiesta - Long-term Review Part 3 of 3

[Ms_Jam]

Problems
I can’t fault the build. No rattles, bumps other noises. The warranty work has been minor - a rubber door seal that had lifted slightly, and some adjustment to the steering, at the dealer’s initiative, for a problem I had not noticed myself. And there was an electrical fault in the line to the light inside my gear stick.

There have been a couple of minor annoyances. The air-conditioning in my WS Fiesta at any rate, seems to have been designed for European climates. It is quite livable in summer, however, if you use a large shade on the windscreen when it is parked in the sun, and start up the air-conditioning with the recycle setting (remembering to change it to fresh air after 20 minutes or so). As you would expect, the heating in winter is superb. Another annoyance is that the side mirrors on my Fiesta appear to have been installed for a left-hand drive model.

If I had the time over again, the only things I would have done differently would have been to have an alignment much earlier than 15,000 km, and rotate the tires more than only once in 30,000 km. And of course to be more careful with the tyres when parking.

Next?
I am seriously considering keeping this car for the long haul (part of the reason for my decision to use fully synthetic for the transmission). I was not to know it at the time, but my manual Fiesta Zetec has turned out to represent impressive good value, even though I paid a little more for it than the current WTs are going for. On the other hand, the current models have economised on some of the more subtle features, and mine was made in Germany.

I could be interested in the new sports model due here maybe next year. I have a suspicion I will be in a phone-box minority in saying this, but I am not sold on the idea of a turbo, especially if it turns out to be a 1.4 rather than 1.6 litre. I have a problem with turbo lag, just in terms of responsiveness, and I do not feel 1.4 litres is enough in serious city driving to be comfortable without a VW-like supercharger. I’m probably a minority of one, but what I modestly think would bring the Fiesta better to the really hot hatch category would be a 2 litre, naturally aspirated engine - in other words a direct competitor to the Renault Clio sports (which I must say I would be interested in, if I had the money to spare).

OK, what would I know? But a while ago, a friend sent me a video interview with the chief engineer of Porsche, at the launch of a limited edition 4 litre naturally aspirated 911. One phrase of his stuck in my mind for some reason, “There is no replacement for displacement”.

Footnote
In writing this, I rechecked the Castrol website. It now recommends Castrol Edge only if Magnatec is unavailable. I am puzzled by this. I have kept a copy of Castrol’s web page from when I first considered using Castrol Edge, and back then it suggested both as alternatives. I can’t think why they now have this odd wording. Could it be that some people were putting Castrol Edge into brand new engines? Or could it be that Ford does not want fully synthetic to be actively marketed for their non-premium vehicles?