MK8 Ford ST3- reliable?

[Leicesterdave]

Are these any good at all? I like the look of them/price point etc. Manual gearbox these days feels a bit old hat?

Opinions welcome!

[liner33]

I bought one back in 2019 but sold it about a year later , no the gearbox isnt great , not awful just not good but few manuals are nowadays, The ride is a bit choppy and gets old but for a b road blast, but i think they are a little too single minded, I never got decent economy out of mine about 35 average.

Mine was reliable but found the tech was flaky often wouldn't boot up and would lock up etc found the dealers pretty poor as well

[LuS1fer]

I had a Mk 6 and 2 Mk 7s, one Mountune in Spirit Blue.
All very reliable and I wish I hadn't sold the last one.
The seats were snug and the ride was firm but it was a great driver's car and the manual gearbox is great.

I stopped at the Mk 8 as I found the styling a bit bland and the colours were also bland though the new green could tempt me. The last road test pitched it against the Yaris GR and while the Toyota was a great car, the Fiesta was almost as good for a lot less cash.

[Janesy B]

Nothing fundamentally wrong with them, best in class until the i20N perhaps - depends if you're buying new or used.

Suspension can feel too firm and fussy on bad surfaces, gets better at higher speeds.

I really miss my MK7 at times, would have gotten a MK8 but needed something bigger.

[Nick-ST]

They are great fun cars but I would question how reliable the engines will be long term. I know when they were developing the 3 cylinder unit they had massive problems with catastrophic engine failure. Of course they are going to sorted this before putting into production (we hope) but I still wonder...

[Janesy B]

Coolant pipes burst on the early 1.0 Ecoboost Focuses and being a small turbo engine in a small package it got hot very fast, fixed under a TSB.

The 3 cyl has been around for 10 years now, I think you'd hear more noise about them if they had a tendency to self destruct.

[g40steve]

Anyone got the latest facelift model?
Any reports good or bad, thinking of ordering one.
With the chip & other supply issues thinking of no options apart from spare wheel to avoid delivery delays?

[Janesy B]

More of the same really, some people don't like the cylinder deactivation as it makes the car sound rough. The new Ford Performance seats look more comfortable than the old recaros.

As for options, the b&o sound system is very good and the heated front seats and steering wheel are nice to have but that's up to you. ST-3 has pretty much everything you need as the performance pack is included.