Yup sure is a great car?

[Ben85]

That is pretty bad fuel economy tho. I recently took my zetec from sydney to adelaide and managed to get the fuel consumption under 6L per hundred, sitting on 120kph. I do approximately 600ks a week and only use one tank of petrol, and most of this driving is stop/start city driving delivering pizza's. So i would seriously try and get ford to look at the fuel consumption. Because even my old 87 automatic laser at worst only burnt 10L per 100kms. And as for not running in top gear, there is something wrong there, i always put my zetec in to 5th around the 50-60k mark, and have never heard a peep out of it.

P.S. I no im comparing it to the zetec but thats the only comparison i have, i wouldnt expect a 2L to have too many differences in economy or how fast u need to be going before u slot it into 5th.

[Steffo]

Originally Posted by mowog

Your what? Sorry but I dont ever recall that car coming up in an XR4 thread :

Try an agressive cam in Mini Cooper S with higher compression than standard. Trying to come to life thru 2 cold SU's on a winter morning in Brisbane. Now that was a car I was happy to wait for it warm up. She had a single Lukie Muffler being feed by a set of LCB extractors.

I had an even more aggressive setup in a Mini Moke at the same time. Both cars were pigs until they where warm. The XR4 is quicker than both I would imagine but the XR4 or some french s h i t box will never come close to sound of a hot A series or the pure driving fun.

You can call it an ****box, but my car doesn't seem to be falling to pieces 7 years old, let alone brand new like yours.

By the way, the mods don't take too kindly to beating the swear filter.

[da_ilks]

Originally Posted by mowog

By saying that a shopping car is its most obvious postion in life. Its not a Grand Tourer by a long shot.

No, it's a small hatch back with a largish engine and good handling for low dollars. It's meant to provide cheap thrills, which it does. It isn't meant to pull 13's down the quarter, but if you wanted a car to do shopping trolley duties why wouldn't you have saved the $10k and bought a Jazz?

Originally Posted by mowog

My XR4 is not happy in 5th at 60k/h even on level roads. put a slight uphill grade in and forget about 5th.

Well mine does - sure, it's not going to accelerate with any kind of speed but I can definitely putter along in 5th no problems.

Originally Posted by mowog

"Your family must be flogging the ring out of it"

Its easy to make assumptions isnt it? I do drive this car a bit mainly to keep the k's down on my Ute. On one highway trip I reset the trip computer and at 100klm/h it settled at 8.5/100 I can get that from my Ute? As soon as we hit the burbs it went back to 9.5/100.

Well maybe something is wrong with it, or I am just a soft driver? Even from new I was getting between 7.2L and 8.1L per 100km's, and the worst consumption came from having the air con on all the time.

Originally Posted by mowog

As for the rough running if you as a customer are willing to accept it then it will never get any better. If enough owners complain then something will get done on your and pick your nose and nothing happens.

A modern 4 cycl engine with EFI should not run like a hairy goat. Hot or Cold

I am well aware of that, but if Ford says there is nothing they can there is nothing they can do. It only happen for the first minute of startup anyway.

Originally Posted by mowog

More like I am expecting the car to at least perform and run to what I see as normal small car standards. Again if you are will to accept less then you are not doing yourself and the community of XR4 owners any favors.

lol I've driven quite a few small cars and the Fiesta is one of the best made and certainly one of the most fun to drive (XR4 or not)

[mowog]

da_ilks

I am happy your XR4 meets your expectations... But not everyone is happy with just average which where this car sits in "My Opinion" which I am entitled to do. As for Jazz comment I made my requirements fairly clear in an earlier post.

I have 2 good Fords so I was willing to take a punt on Ford No 3 the jury is still out on if Ford No 3 was a mistake or not. But at the end of the day I can afford not to drive it because I have 2 other choices of cars to pick from. My children who are in the demographic target for this car are not in any way overly impressed or passionate about the XR4. In fact my daughter wants her Barina SRi back.

[da_ilks]

Fair enough then. I can't lie and say I'm overly passionate about the car either, but for what it is I like it. Doesn't mean there's not heaps of other cars I'd rather be driving ;)

If it was up to me I'd be scooting around in a Gen3 or XR6T but taking the 'sensible' option was a good idea at the time - unfortunately, if you are a car enthusiast, cars are anything but sensible :p

[Jess85]

i love my XR4 and if the seats were any lower i'd hardly be able to see over the steering wheel lol..even my bf who is close to 6ft doesnt think there is any problem with the seat height.

[sly_ba]

Originally Posted by da_ilks

I am well aware of that, but if Ford says there is nothing they can there is nothing they can do. It only happen for the first minute of startup anyway.

Not true my friend. mowog is right. If a corporation, under a contract of sale, sells goods to a consumer which are defective and this defect cannot be rectified then you are entitled to your money back or a replacement product.

To many people are complacent in putting up with defects only to be pushed aside by dealerships and motor comapnies who claim that the problem cannot be fixed. If you purchase a new car and it has a problem which cannot be rectified then both the dealership who sold the product to you under a contract of sale and the manufacturer of that product have a big problem.....

The Trade Practices Act (Com), Fair Trading Act (Vic) and Consumer Affairs Victoria are your friend.

[photn]

Originally Posted by sly_ba

Not true my friend. mowog is right. If a corporation, under a contract of sale, sells goods to a consumer which are defective and this defect cannot be rectified then you are entitled to your money back or a replacement product.

To many people are complacent in putting up with defects only to be pushed aside by dealerships and motor comapnies who claim that the problem cannot be fixed. If you purchase a new car and it has a problem which cannot be rectified then both the dealership who sold the product to you under a contract of sale and the manufacturer of that product have a big problem.....

The Trade Practices Act (Com), Fair Trading Act (Vic) and Consumer Affairs Victoria are your friend.

True, BUT it will only be classed as defective if they accept the problem as a defect and not "within running perameters". The only way to get around this is ifthe issue is a major one that no one can deny.

the problem for instance with the start up issue is, FORD can claim that it is written in the ECU for the car to do that to protect itself against harm and BAM, nothing you can do about it because they still class the car as "within running perameters".

So i would suggest that you get the dealership to first acknowlege that its a defect then go from there as you will have the ammunition to get it fixed.

[sly_ba]

Originally Posted by photn

True, BUT it will only be classed as defective if they accept the problem as a defect and not "within running perameters". The only way to get around this is ifthe issue is a major one that no one can deny.

the problem for instance with the start up issue is, FORD can claim that it is written in the ECU for the car to do that to protect itself against harm and BAM, nothing you can do about it because they still class the car as "within running perameters".

So i would suggest that you get the dealership to first acknowlege that its a defect then go from there as you will have the ammunition to get it fixed.

Thats correct photn. The first problem is in fact getting the dealership to concur that there is a problem.

However, should you over come the above mentioned hurdle, normally when booking in your car at a dealership to have somthing looked at, you a given a print out when you pick the car up which sets out the reason why the car was examined, the problem/s identified and the action taken in regards to this problem (if any).

[da_ilks]

Originally Posted by sly_ba

Not true my friend. mowog is right. If a corporation, under a contract of sale, sells goods to a consumer which are defective and this defect cannot be rectified then you are entitled to your money back or a replacement product.

To many people are complacent in putting up with defects only to be pushed aside by dealerships and motor comapnies who claim that the problem cannot be fixed. If you purchase a new car and it has a problem which cannot be rectified then both the dealership who sold the product to you under a contract of sale and the manufacturer of that product have a big problem.....

The Trade Practices Act (Com), Fair Trading Act (Vic) and Consumer Affairs Victoria are your friend.

I know what you are getting at but considering how many 'lemon' cars are sold with major problems and nothing is done about it, I doubt any of those organisations will worry about a rough idle at startup

[zetec jim]

Originally Posted by mowog

My children who are in the demographic target for this car are not in any way overly impressed or passionate about the XR4. In fact my daughter wants her Barina SRi back.

I'd be well pleased if my parents bought me a car! even if it was a Suzuki Liana....maybe.....actually no, i wouldn't.

[Bain]

Originally Posted by mowog

The XR4 is about to go in for its 3000klm check. The longer I own this car the less I like it.

L/H Tail Light falling out. (fixed at delivery doing it again)
Low Power Unresponsive engine. (Note Vortex 98 used)
First run in mornings engine rough prone to stalling
Engine pings under moderate load. (Note Vortex 98 used)?
Fuel venting from filler cap. Car only ever filled to first click.
Aircon is crap under performs on warm days.
Some drivers report Hot/Cold cycle from Aircon.
Engine check light did come on but cleared its self?

I havent had this many issues in a year of ownership with XR6 Turbo!

Other than that after having owned it for a while.

The handling is ordinary.
Seating position to high.
Seems to suffer from body roll to much.
The front seats are uncomfortable after about 30min.
Just about any pair of decent sunglasses make the LCD panels unreadable.

Because of the seating position and the seemingly excessive body roll it does not inspire any handling confidence.

Fuel consumption 9.5-10.0l/100 which is pretty ordinary for the work this car does.

Over all after 3000klm this car gets a 3 out of 10 and it only gets 3 because its better than catching a bus. (but not by much).

Sounds like you got a lemon..

My XR6T (which im trading in this weekend) has had a total of 35 return trips to the dealership in the 3 years ive had it.. (15 of those was in the first 6 weeks of owning it)

Looks like you may have received a car built on a friday or monday.. sorry to hear about it..

[QikSmurf]

Guys,

Give the guy kudos for giving some honest feedback.

My personal experience of this car - I was given a red XR4 for the day as a loan vehicle while my F6 was being serviced. I drove it from Metro Ford in Brisbane to the airport, out to Ipswich and back to Metro Ford. (Total trip about 100kms). I hope no one here works there.....here goes - I pretty much gave it a performance test - as you do with loan vehicles. Mine was a manual.

I was expecting a car that handled like a go cart. Sadly disappointed. It was no boat but it didn't seem to be any better than my sister's Suzuki Swift.

I expected a zippy 2l engine. Again, sadly disappointed. The car had 5500km on the clock and it was very underwhelming - sorry guys.

I expected a MX5-type gear shift. Instead, it seemed very notchy with no clutch feel at all. It was smoother than my old BA F6 manual, but nothing like a Mazda box (not even close).

The interior was modern and seats were sporty and firm (just the way I like them). In fact I really like the look of the car in general (mine had white stripes on red).

Overall I would NOT describe the XR4 as a performance car. One of the work cars is a new Mini. That's a whole other review but suffice to say it is the most overrated car on the market. Again, I am left wondering what the 'experts' find so good about some cars.

At the end of the day different people suit different cars and we all need to respect those choices. If you own a XR4 then you have a great looking, economical and stylish car. Be happy with it. If you are looking at buying one because you want a performance car, I would suggest you look at all your options - including cars made by those whale-eating people Mowog hates.

[Bain]

Originally Posted by QikSmurf

Guys,
my F6 was being serviced.

I expected a zippy 2l engine. Again, sadly disappointed. The car had 5500km on the clock and it was very underwhelming - sorry guys.

Coming from a Turbocharged 4.0 litre 6 cylinder of course its going to feel underwhelming. :togo:

I was expecting a car that handled like a go cart. Sadly disappointed. It was no boat but it didn't seem to be any better than my sister's Suzuki Swift.

Im not sure how you did your testing, but you are coming from a heavy (almost 2 tonne) rwd vehicle. How did you measure the handling?

Did you drive it any differently through corners to your RWD? The reviews of this car praise its handling above pretty much everything else the car delivers. Having taken my XR4 down the Great Ocean Road, i can say without a doubt that it handled better than my XR6T that had quite a bit of suspension work done to it.

it seemed very notchy with no clutch feel at all. It was smoother than my old BA F6 manual, but nothing like a Mazda box (not even close).

I agree that the clutch has no feel - especially if youre coming from the heavy duty clutch of a manual XR..

Overall I would NOT describe the XR4 as a performance car.

I guess it depends on where you are viewing the performance from.

If you are looking at buying one because you want a performance car, I would suggest you look at all your options - including cars made by those whale-eating people Mowog hates.

What options would you suggest for those people out there that are wanting to spend 25k (or there abouts)?

Ralliart Colt? - to pricey and ugly
Golf Polo GTI - to pricey and bland looking, but certainly more to be gained out of the engine
Suzuki Swift Sport - underwhelming at best

[Go baby Go]

Hey Mowog,

Were your problems sorted after going back to Ford? i'm interested in how you went.

On a side note- travelling to the city along the freeway last week and the road is SHOCKING - hit a rock or the like that had come out of a hole in the roadworks section and wham - flat tyre. By the time i got to an emergency lane (parts of the fwy don't have any) she was kaput..... no damage to the rim but $285 later....... :

I know... yep they are great tyres and well worth the money, but when it pops on you like that......
ohh, and i got the spare back into the car wihtout the dramas some have had (mind you i was very mindful of the problems some guys have had putting it back in)

Cheers,

[mowog]

The car seems to have settled down now. The engine feels a bit better.

One thing that has shown up lately is orange spots in the paint? Has anyone else had this problem on white cars?

[zetec jim]

probably sap from a tree you park near. won't be the paint.

[mowog]

Originally Posted by zetec jim

probably sap from a tree you park near. won't be the paint.

It doesnt get parked under trees. At home its is undercover. I have heard rumours of other white cars developing orange spots.

[zetec jim]

twilight-zone...

[robjh80]

Originally Posted by mowog

It doesnt get parked under trees. At home its is undercover. I have heard rumours of other white cars developing orange spots.

This guy in Perth has a White one and it had Orange spots all over it, apparantly it was due to Industrial Fallout settling on the car while it was in the holding yard in Germany, Ford fixed it up under warranty including respraying the rear bumper.

Might be worth getting in touch with him.

http://www.fordxr4.com/forum/index.p...=profile;u=110