[crAbb]

I had the opportunity, over the weekend, to have a drive in my kid brothers new 'toy'. A 2016 Ford Fiesta ST200. Its some time since I drove an 'old school' hot hatch. I fell in love...

Firstly, it looks great still sharp and head turning in light grey, silver alloys and red calipers. The seats are Recaro and are some of the best I've ever sat in. Driving position is a touch high, which I think is a common issue with this type of small car. There's enough performance to make accelerating interesting and you need to keep an eye of the speed, for the purpose of license protection.

The best bit? Oh the handling.....absolutely sublime. I'd forgotten just how good Ford chassis are, but the hot hatch versions are incredible. My face still hurts from the grinning. If I didn't need a large car, to cross a continent with three dogs, I'd chop the M340i in and buy one of these.

If you want a reminder as to how good a chassis and steering can be, when executed by some of the best engineers in the business, I highly recommend you try one. Prices are now such, particularly with the ST versions of this car, they fall into the realm of 'something for the weekend'.

Now. Back to Autotrader....

[gac]

Good luck keeping hold of one, the Mk7 is in the generation of Ford that are incredibly nickable with nothing but access to the OBD port - I dunno whether they improved it for the latest model but I think I've seen a YouTube video of a 2016 Focus ST being started without the keys in less than 2 minutes including the commentary to camera.

I had a 2014 standard ST-3 but with the Mountune 215 pack (pretty much just an airbox, air filter and remap) and thought it was a brilliant little thing. Plenty fast enough to be fun, seats held me in well and it loved to be chucked about. I don't remember the driving position being high but I guess that's kind of subjective, and I'm not a tall bloke.

I'm sure the heated seats and heated front windscreen helped the toerags who stole it make a quick getaway on a chilly March midnight...I gave serious thought to just buying another but I'd had it a couple of years which is when I usually change cars and figured it'd just be tempting fate to put another one on the same driveway.

For your kid brother, I would suggest aftermarket security should be a consideration. I pulled the OBD fuse and moved the port, but realistically it just slowed them down a bit. On the other hand, I'm in two minds whether that's better than having something like a Ghost immobiliser and have them potentially break into the house where me and my daughter were sleeping. Depends on your appetite for risk, mine is pretty low personally.

[Pond]

I bought a mk4 Focus ST estate with the 2.3 litre ecoboost a couple of years ago.
It was good fun if a bit larger and heavier than the Fiasco.
Only problem was at 55 years of age the baseball cap looked silly the wrong way around and I kept getting thumbs ups from all the teenage chavs!

[Sennen]

They are great cars OP.

My sons old girlfriend had a circa 2019 one and I had a drive and it was sublime, far better driving experience than the likes of the A45, RS3 etc and a fraction of the price.

[boba-fett]

Similar driving experience to a Mini JCW (which I think is even better) thats how I got the Mini bug!

Trouble is these cars bring out the hooligan in you, and make it so easy to corner and drive fast, and to other motorists, I bet they say "look at that fvcking idiot" but these little go-cart type cars are so capable!

[isleaiw1]

Originally Posted by boba-fett

Similar driving experience to a Mini JCW (which I think is even better) thats how I got the Mini bug!

Trouble is these cars bring out the hooligan in you, and make it so easy to corner and drive fast, and to other motorists, I bet they say "look at that fvcking idiot" but these little go-cart type cars are so capable!

Yep, my thoughts on reading it, was like reading about my Mini....

Fiesta probably has a better chassis, but the Mini is not far behind and I prefer the other bits of the Mini more....