#4 - Saving The Manuals - Ford Fiesta ST Review
FIRST IMPRESSIONS -
Ten years after its production, this 2014 Ford Fiesta ST is my first manual rental car. This is saving the manuals by support through renting and paving the way for me to eventually acquire my own. Weighing in at 2,600lbs with a 197hp inline-4 turbo you can certainly cook with this egg.
Great turbo whistle (comparable to a Saab) with a nice blow-off sound to boot. I'll have it for the weekend. It's an on-and-off rainy one in LA and we have been getting plenty of it this 2023/24 season. For this reason, and a couple more, traction-control stays on. So far not easy to read where the grip limits are, but still fun to hustle back and forth on the twisties. Thanks to my cousin Khary Robertson for the manual lessons in his Hyundai Veloster that led to me spinning this Fiesta ST. He has a podcast I recommend giving a listen, Heron's Home Podcast (HHP), currently at episode #454 with the same host and co-host, Rico G.
Stalling was involved more than I'd like to admit, but I had the car early in the morning, with open roads to get comfortable as traffic picked up. Someone on YouTube complained that 5th gear was too far away. Either they had a different model or were exaggerating because the shifter was reasonably positioned as I expected it would be. Comparing day to night, my first time on the highway was with standard LA traffic and it was manageable. That night traffic seemed to be moving frantically and it was less enjoyable, including coming to dead stops on the highway for no apparent reason.
It’s not a great feeling when you hardly recognize the tire manufacturers name and that was the case with these Delintes. Seeing them pictured on Instagram, a friend commented to confirm these are not good tires. They didn’t slip on me, but I think that's why the grip limit was hard to detect. Maybe without traction control, the tire feel comes alive like in my Saab 9-3. Going over inclines and big speed-bumps at low speeds was a proper challenge. Leaving my home parking garage, I needed momentum on the incline, but not too much going onto the pedestrian sidewalk. This follows with a decline to the street while trying to slow down enough to not scrape and maintain momentum. I pulled it off a few times, but the last time leaving I stalled on the decline.
It was a nice feeling matching the downshifts well from sixth to first gear on my first go. The kick from it concerned me a bit, but I stuck with it and by the time I was down to first the light changed and I held on well to match the momentum of the car. As I suspected, automatic would still be my preference for daily driving as long as I have my A4 B8. With a manual being a good weekend and optional drive. If you have the most money, it would be nice to have a car that does both, like the Koenigsegg CC850.
POST DRIVE - RECAP
Good fun all around. The steering wheel could be marginally smaller which seems to be the case with many Fords but the overall handling was nice. I didn’t like how much the A-pillar (pictured above) blocks the view from inside. It was manageable, but a bit concerning long-term for busier places like LA. I only got the body to roll a little in one turn. Again, keeping traction control on with the grip limit hard to detect. The crazy part was discovering a missing lug nut on the rear passenger wheel. I still highly rate the host and understand mistakes can happen. Presuming it was off before I picked the little rocket up, it was a reminder for both of us to do proper checks on every car. At some point, I had to hit a high-speed just to be able to say I'd done it in a manual, so thankfully those wheels kept on spinning. There was no noticeable balance difference when driving. If I saw the lug nut missing during pickup the rental would've likely been canceled and this timing was important.
I think the uncertainty of grip level was down to those tires that @domsgarage pointed out as being shoddy. The lug nut missing was only noticed by @zackfeldstein on the wheel shot posted to Instagram. Big thanks to Zack for that, as I mentioned to him, “either nobody noticed or they didn’t say anything.”
The manual has its fun and challenges. Stalls wouldn't be as bad if they didn't tend to come with a violent stutter as the car shuts itself down. The biggest learning curve was hitting inclines and big speed bumps at low rates of speed without stopping or scraping the car. The added challenge came from how relatively low the fiesta sits. The dots were connecting more by the end, but I think it comes with the territory on some of these more challenging LA roads. I've since watched more YouTube videos and think I'll be able to execute the techniques to do better on the next one. The hardest part was reverse parking on an incline. Sometimes smooth but a few times stalling. I was getting the hang of it and by the end I successfully reverse parked it during drop-off on a slight incline without stalling, so a nice way to end the trip. Selling for around 14k currently, that’s not bad coin to spend for a potential daily driver or fun weekend car. Until next time!
*Since this write-up, the Fiesta ST rental has been sold by the host. Replaced with a low-mileage, manual transmission 2021 Mazda Miata I was able to rent for a weekend. That review will likely be going to Instagram, but glad to say I feel comfortable driving them now.