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What hot hatch do you own? This poll is closed. |
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|---|---|---|---|
| Golf GTI / R / R32 |
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196 | 0.02% |
| Impreza WRX / STi |
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133 | 0.01% |
| Mazdaspeed 3 |
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92 | 0.01% |
| Veloster Turbo |
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20 | 0.00% |
| Focus ST |
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149 | 0.01% |
| Other Hot Hatch |
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230 | 0.02% |
| Elantra GT |
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1000001 | 99.92% |
| Total: | 1000821 votes | ||
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Well, I just put a deposit on a silver Focus ST (ST2). It's a dealer trade, so I should get it, and join the 'hatch' crowd on Friday.
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Dec 24, 2014 21:38
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 14:10 |
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GutBomb posted:Now my decision on a FiST is a bit more unclear. I test drive a Golf R, a Veloster turbo, and an MS3. I really liked the MS3. It had a lot of torque and a lot more room than the fiesta. The Golf R was a bit sedate for what it is, and the Veloster was a horrible cheap vibrating mess. Aren't those other cars competing more directly with the Focus rather than the Fiesta?
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Dec 26, 2014 20:43
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Done deal.
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Dec 26, 2014 22:51
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howling_mad posted:Nice, I see we're twins. Now just get some goodies and you're set to go. No real 'goodies' I want for it really. I plan to daily drive it and also occasionally autocross, so once I wear out the F1's that are on it I will probably pick up a 2nd set of wheels and put RS-3's or Direzza's or whatever the current hot 'street' tire is on the spare set to autocross and probably something that will last longer than the F1's for daily driving. It's the king of the hill in GS, so no real desire to make it go into a money-pit class. Only other thing would be to look into a way to replace/supplement the factory sub, as I already miss the pair of Punch 10" (with a 500w Punch amp) I had in the old Fiesta. I don't want to go with a giant box like those are in and eliminate the utility of the hatch though, so I'm conflicted.
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Dec 27, 2014 03:04
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priznat posted:I saw a FoST today from the front and was sad that my province requires front plates. Shame to cover up that cool grille! No front plates here, which makes me glad. The dealership wasn't stupid and didn't put on the front plate holder like they did on the Fiesta either.
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Dec 27, 2014 06:16
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Or the driver is that bad?  I'm guessing roads, I've been driving on 40 series tires for years in Mustangs and the M3 and I've never damaged a wheel (knock on wood - please don't wreck my Focus wheels Mr. Karma), but the one thing we probably take for granted here in the Phoenix area is nice roads without giant car-eating potholes.
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Dec 29, 2014 18:58
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Observation on Focus ST after 1 week and 500'ish miles: Really could use a larger fuel tank. Also, 32mpg highway is wildly optimistic as cruise control at 75mph on flat Phoenix freeway returns 28~29mpg*. I suppose it might pull that off at 55? On the other hand, it doesn't get much worse than that overall in mixed driving, as it's at 25.8mpg average since picking it up and I've been driving it a lot harder on average than I did the old commuter car. *numbers from car's computer system, I haven't calculated the real mileage from fill-ups yet.
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Jan 4, 2015 08:13
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GutBomb posted:...it's one of the few circuits in this car that only runs when the car is actually on. The cigarette lighter is always on. I ran a ground from the mirror to a stud by the fuse box with a ring terminal. If it's like the Focus, they aren't really always on (cigarette lighter), they are on a timer and shut off about 5 minutes after the car shuts down, but come on anytime you open a door. I wired my dash-cam into the cigarette lighter, and it comes on as soon as I open the door, and then stays on for 5 minutes after I shut the car down and walk away, which is fine.
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Jan 4, 2015 22:30
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GutBomb posted:I first had the mirror hooked up to the cigarette lighter but noticed the light blinking on it after I closed the car and locked it. I went back an hour later and looked in the window and it was still blinking. I looked again an hour after that and it was still blinking. I decided to play it safe in case it would run down the battery if I leave the car alone for a weekend. Besides, having it hardwired just feels cleaner. Guess the Fiesta is different!
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Jan 4, 2015 23:40
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According to the owners manual for the Focus, there is a 9hp difference between premium and regular. 243 vs.252 if I remember correctly.
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Jan 6, 2015 00:50
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I celebrated 1000 miles on the Focus today by abusing the stock tires at an autocross. Surprisingly nimble and fun to drive for a FWD car, this may have been a good choice.' Video from my cheapo dash-cam, as I didn't take the GoPro or ContourHD to the event. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTT_sZ_-298
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Jan 12, 2015 03:24
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GutBomb posted:I also put the Kenwood underseat subwoofer in and it's awesome. It really fills in what was missing with the factory system without being annoying. Where did you find space for one, and which one did you use? Does is replace the factory sub, or supplement it (or does your Fiesta not have the factory sub)? Other than the passenger front seat, I don't see how I could fit an underseat sub in the Focus, with the way the rear seats fold up to let the backs lay flat, although I really haven't ever investigated this type of sub.
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Jan 18, 2015 01:38
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GutBomb posted:It's about the same size as a super Nintendo. So really small. I put it under the driver's seat because there's already some unit under the passenger seat. I figured that was the model, as it's the only active Kenwood under-seat sub I could find. I am kind of curious how it performs compared to the factory sub with the upgraded stereo. Given the size and power, I kind of doubt it would be a big help though, but I may have to research that down the road. Thanks! japtor posted:And a related side note, there are drivers on the road today that were born after the N64 came out so that might not be the best reference if The Locator happened to be a younger driver Old. Indeed I am. I was old when I registered! I never did have a Super Nintendo though.
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Jan 18, 2015 03:28
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GutBomb posted:It's not enough bass to even shake the mirror, but it's enough to make my old guy music sound good (80s synthpop mostly) Pretty sure the factory sub is better then. Thanks.
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Jan 18, 2015 04:53
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needknees posted:I'm looking pretty heavily at a Focus ST to replace my old Civic Si hatch. What's the going "good" price for 2014 ST3 models? Local dealer has 5 on the lot but wasn't dealing much. I definitely don't mind traveling a ways to get a good deal. I got $3000 in incentives and then another $1500'ish off on an ST2 in December. Given that the 2015's are on the way, I would think they'd be willing to make at least that deal on remaining cars. Note that $500 of the incentives were a 'Ford truck owner' incentive that I qualified for, and almost all of the incentive requires financing through Ford without taking their super special rates (which isn't a big deal if you are ok with re-financing through your bank later at a slightly higher rate than you can get doing the new financing). Edit to clarify: Special rate that was available from Ford was 1.8%, but give up $2000 in incentive for that. Rate from Ford with the incentives was 4.49% Rate from Bank for 'new' car (not refinanced) would have been 2.19%, but also lose the $2000 incentives. Re-finance rate from Bank after buying the car and financing through Ford for all the incentives - 2.47% So I took the $3000 in incentive off the price, financed through Ford at 4.49%, and will re-finance through my bank next month at 2.47%. Even if I had gone shorter term and taken the 0% financing, taking the incentive will be better in my case after doing all the math. Your mileage may vary (especially depending on your credit rating and stuff). The Locator fucked around with this message at 22:42 on Jan 29, 2015 |
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Jan 29, 2015 22:37
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Wicaeed posted:I actually never put the front plate on my ST. I know it's a ticketable offense, and I've totally seen the local cops/CHP eye the car over, but nothing yet! We don't even get issued front plates (except for custom plates) in AZ, so luckily I don't have to worry about that here! Dealers don't even bother with the front plate brackets (thank god). I'm also an older dude with a Focus ST (in boring silver).
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Feb 4, 2015 06:58
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bobfather posted:The Hot Hatch Discussion Thread: We all grew into sensible drivers It's true. I don't get tickets at the racetrack!
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Feb 6, 2015 01:23
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Manawski posted:They would have been functional too. The ST has a turning radius comparable to a F150 I'm used to driving an F150, so the ST doesn't bother me at all.
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Feb 6, 2015 05:49
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I have a Focus ST, and a friend has a Fiesta ST. At today's autocross we swapped during time only runs. Both have Recaro's, and both are 2014's. Handling is very similar (although I was on factory Goodyears and she was on RS-3's, so with equal tires the Focus might have been a bit better), but power curve on the Focus is so much smoother, and for me, the shifter position in the Fiesta is too low and not placed in a 'natural' position. The Fiesta 'felt' smaller/lighter (which makes perfect sense) but also a bit less refined. There is a noticeable power lag coming out of the corners hard with the Fiesta that the Focus doesn't have, and the brakes are touchier on the Fiesta as well. The ergonomics of the Focus are better (IMO) with larger displays and the fully-automatic climate control. Also, it's a bit wider and longer so slightly more roomy. Overall I'm glad I went with the Focus, but they are really both a lot of fun to throw around, and I think it really should come down to which one you just 'like' best.
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Feb 9, 2015 01:50
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SperginMcBadposter posted:So for the FiST owners, have any of you tried to fit a standard 8' by 4' drywall board into it? That's the bulkiest thing I use my dakota for, and I was wondering if I would still be able to move around the occasional piece of drywall if I traded it in. I don't even have to have one of these cars to answer this. Hahaha.. no way in hell. I couldn't even begin to fit that in my Focus, let alone a Fiesta. The rear hatch of the Focus is just over 3' wide, and at the diagonal it's not even quite 4', so you couldn't even start pushing it inside the car. The length from the inside of the hatch to the back of the drivers neck is about 60" max, so an 8' piece of drywall would pretty much touch the steering wheel, if the front seat-backs weren't in the way. The Fiesta is both narrower, and shorter.
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Feb 19, 2015 04:36
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SperginMcBadposter posted:How does ordering a FiST work? There are 3 ford dealerships here and none of them have the ST trim on the inventory. You walk into a dealer and say "I'd like to order a car".
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Feb 19, 2015 18:40
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Voltage posted:gently caress ordering cars from dealers, just go find one on autotrader and buy it. Do a fly and drive if you have to. Dr.Caligari posted:Do dealers also add a 'landing fee' or other such charges as an incentive to buy what they have on the lot vs. ordering? I suppose it depends on the dealer you are working with. The dealer I ordered my Focus from is great from a customer service standpoint. We discussed the car I wanted, agreed on a price, and I gave them a $500 down payment. Per our discussions they were free to look for a dealer-swap car, or order from Ford, whichever got me the exact car I wanted. Once the car was arranged, they told me the exact day it would arrive, and scheduled an appointment to pick it up. I arrived, inspected/test drove the car, signed all the paperwork and drove it home in less than 30 minutes. This is the second car that I've gotten through them this way (ordering an exact car), and the third that I've purchased from them (my first purchase was an F-150 from their stock). All of them have been exceptionally easy for me. They didn't even require a deposit on the other car I ordered, as it was just a commuter Fiesta, which they would have had no problem just selling if I had flaked out.
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Feb 19, 2015 19:36
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fknlo posted:This is one thing I'm not a fan of. I don't want some high school dropout loving around in my car for its first couple hundred miles. When I was trying to get an FRS the dealer wanted to do this and I said I'd be fine with it if I picked up the car. They said that wouldn't work so I didn't do it. Ended up changing my mind on what I wanted anyway. The dealership I deal with is out in rural farmville. All of their drivers are retired people that do it for part time jobs to fill their days. They drive too slow if anything! The youngest person I've ever seen employed at this dealership was a service technician who looked like he was in his early 30's, and for a short period, they had a 20-something woman working the front desk. Obviously my situation is unique, and I guess I can sort of understand your position with some dealers, but at the same time, any damage they somehow manage to do to the car isn't my problem - if it's damaged on inspection, I'm not taking it, no paperwork has been signed at that point, so the only issue is 'mileage', but that's also something that isn't a big deal to me - I don't care if the car is new with 21 miles, or new with 78 miles - that stuff's all on the paperwork and that point is where my mileage clock starts ticking for warranty and stuff anyway.
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Feb 19, 2015 21:59
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Bovril Delight posted:Mustangchat in the hot hatch thread. I had a 1990 Mustang GT, and a 1993 Mustang Cobra. They were both hatches.  It was actually harder to find the coupes in the Fox body era than hatches (at least in my dim memory).
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Feb 24, 2015 03:06
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Mcqueen posted:Fat dudes, too. I guess I should dump the Focus and go buy one then!
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Feb 24, 2015 04:32
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NO gently caress YOU DAD posted:Just shook hands on a brand new FoST, now I've just got to wait for it to wing its way over from Holland. This is going to be a long two weeks. Congrats. How did you end up getting one from Holland? I assume you are probably in Europe somewhere, is that where the plant is over there?
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Mar 1, 2015 01:39
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Jack B Nimble posted:Since I do want large back seat, I'... Based on this, you don't want a hot hatch. Go to the dealer, set the front seat to a comfortable driving position. Look in the back and tell anyone with a straight face that a normal human being would be comfortable sitting back there. I've carried a typical near six foot adult in the back seat, but only on the passenger side since the front seat passenger can move his/her seat forward enough to give the back seater some room. I would never try to make anyone I like sit behind me in the Focus, as there is very minimal room between the back of the drivers seat and the front of the back seat without compromising my driving position, which I won't do.
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Mar 1, 2015 18:17
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Franco Caution posted:I did not have this problem in the mk7 gti and I am 6'1". That's one of the first things I tried at the dealership when I went on a test drive. I put the driver seat exactly where I would want it if I was driving and then I jumped in the back seat right behind it to see if I fit/how uncomfortable it was. I fit just fine and I was really surprised. Maybe I have long legs for my height, dunno. I do tend to have issues where the foot pedals are too close if I get close enough to the steering wheel, so maybe it's just my strange proportions. I'm only about 5'11".
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Mar 1, 2015 20:55
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Rhyno posted:Jesus, I swear I could hear everyone in this forum get hard at the end of that video. Let me pre-face this by saying this - That actually has a pretty nice sound for a small car. Certainly much better than your typical fart-can Honda. Now that I've said that, I think I've become that grouchy old man that all the kids hate. I love the fact that the ST doesn't make any drat noise at all, so I can just cruise down the highway and enjoy my music without turning it up to stupid volume, and I don't have to worry about whether I'm annoying my neighbors coming and going, or that cop I happen to drive past while I'm goosing it. If I had some sort of a weekend only classic muscle car, it would need to make noise, but for a single car that also happens to be my daily driver? Give me quiet every single day.
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Mar 17, 2015 03:19
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The Focus ST is already low enough to be a bit of a pain on the speed bumps in the work parking lot, I don't think I'd want to lower it even if that wouldn't destroy the car's classing in autocross (which is actually something I care about and considered when purchasing the car, I understand that it doesn't matter to most people). Was there a specific reason for the spring change? If I didn't care about auto-x classing, I still think the first suspension 'mod' I would make would be double-adjustable shocks. Having the DA's on the M3 has forever wrecked me, as the ability to completely change the handling characteristics of the car in a matter of 60 seconds is amazing.
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Mar 22, 2015 09:19
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A MIRACLE posted:How's the gearbox on the new focuses? Maybe I'm just spoiled now by the miata but my 07 focus had the longest freaking throw I can't speak to the 'normal' Focus manual, but the ST is just fine. It's better than my M3 was IMO, although I have a tendency to forget I have that 6th gear, since it's the first 6 speed manual I've ever owned. The short throw kit would probably be awesome, but since I play in the SCCA I can't do that without loving up my classing. But yea, the Gertrag is pretty good in the ST I think.
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Mar 26, 2015 20:41
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GutBomb posted:Is that really the case? An ergonomic mod would really change your class? Race tires went away in stock classes last year. They are no longer "G-Stock", they are "G-Street" - still GS. But yea, in the SCCA if the rules don't say you *can* do something, then you can't. They do have a comfort and convenience clause, but you'd be hard pressed to convince anyone that a kit that changes the actual throw of the shifter is C&C. You could do a shifter mod that put 'stops' in when there weren't any to protect shift forks (like the old SN-95 Mustangs), etc., but nothing that really changes functionality.
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Mar 27, 2015 05:54
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ilkhan posted:I've never understood dimming mirrors. I never flip my mirror to dark. Glare is annoying, but with it dimmed you lose all depth perception since you can't see anything but random lights behind you. I suppose if you simple want a binary traffic-behind/no-traffic-behind you thing... I use dark fairly regularly when I'm on the interstate and some stupid bro-dozer decides to follow me with his stupidly illegal sunlights boring through my back window and into my eyes. GutBomb posted:If I had one gripe about the Fiesta ST it would be that the gear shifter is about an inch and a half further forward than I'd like it. That was a factor in my choosing the Focus over the Fiesta. The shifter in the Fiesta is both lower, and further forward than the shifter in the Focus, at least to my 'feel' when sitting in the cars.
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Mar 28, 2015 05:08
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mad.radhu posted:I just signed up for the ST Octane Academy May 8-9th, should be fun. You are a week too late. I'll be there on April 30. Also, on the Recaro discussion, there is more in the ST2 package than the seats, but the seats are quite nice. I'm very glad I have the upgraded stereo, it's not as good as my old aftermarket one, but it's good enough that I'm not really tempted to change it out. Also automatic dual zone climate control (which now that I've been using it for a while, I'm sort of spoiled on), the big touch-screen infotainment center thingie.
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Apr 1, 2015 06:53
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Dr.Caligari posted:The 14s also had a problem where there is nothing you can do to reset the 'max oil life' , so once it hits 0% it stays there. Did they fix this on 15s? Was that the Fiesta only? I reset the max oil life on the Focus when I changed the oil and it worked just fine, and it's a 14.
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Apr 4, 2015 22:35
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trem posted:Not a hot hatch, but my parents have a 2005 Ford Freestyle and it's said that the oil has to be changed for the last 5 years. It gets regular oil changes and service but that never seems to clear. They don't reset automatically. There is a procedure (which is different for every car of course) to manually reset the life measurement after the oil is changed.
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Apr 5, 2015 01:43
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ilkhan posted:My local dealer (literally across the street from work, I visit on lunches basically weekly) has had 3 FiST in stock for a month, but 0 FoST in the same timeframe. Its annoying, I want to test drive a FoST again. When I was test driving, the dealer I went to had 6 or 7 FiST in stock, and 6 FoST. Was nice to be able to look at every trim level of both cars all in the same spot at the same time.
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Apr 9, 2015 01:43
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I'm getting too old. I kind of really like that the FoST is so quiet. I commute over 100 miles per day in it, so I just like that it's comfortable and quiet as a daily driver.
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Apr 19, 2015 17:59
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AnimalChin posted:Summer tires increase fuel consumption? GutBomb posted:Better grip gets me to put my right foot down more, thus consuming fuel. fknlo posted:I think I've read that and I would assume so over a lower rolling resistance tire. I could be completely wrong though. So I use Bridgestone RE71R's in the winter. Which tires should I switch to for summer that will have better grip for worse economy? 
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Apr 22, 2015 01:50
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 14:10 |
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GutBomb posted:The main reason I got the FiST over the MS3 (which I thought was actually more fun to drive and more practical) was that the clutch in the MS3 was so drat heavy and I drive in traffic every day. I wouldn't want to make it heavier.  but with a Focus ST. I don't see that there's any sort of problem with the clutch engagement anyway, it grabs perfectly fine. If anything it's touchier/faster engagement than my M3 was, no idea why anyone would want to make it more effort, but to each his own I suppose.
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Apr 24, 2015 15:32
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