Cool Cars For Young People: The Ford Fiesta ST150 Review

Today I'm looking at one of the most popular hot hatches from ten years ago - Ford's Fiesta ST.

#Ford #FiestaST #Mk6

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[MasterMalrubius]

"Lets give it some beans."

<queue fart can noise>

Classic.

[darrylwebb]

Simple, honest and engaging, fun cars : Ford were so good at this.

[Salgandarin]

Far more important as most of us can actually afford them.

[kenw]

That's the reason you are one of the few car youtubers that I keep on watching, everything from fiesta's to Ferrari's. Others seem to grow their subscriber base at the same rate as the price of the cars they review increase.

[ConquerDriving]

That power and weight combination is a lot of fun on a B road. I would like to see a video comparing a super car with a sports car that's 1/10th the price. May not be a good idea but it's one I'd like to watch.

[mcgherkinstudios]

The Mk6 Fiesta is very underrated I think. I love the way they look, they’re pretty reliable and nice to live with and can be fairly capable if done right.

[djmandrick]

I bought a stock one two years ago as a second fun car (a treat to myself). The only changes I've made to my stock, is a full resonated branded exhaust, no remap yet. No difference to mpg really before and after, its still about 28mpg. Throttle response with stock exhaust was poor (downpipe is restricted) but livened up considerably now and I love it. Had pro refurb on the wheels. Pilotsport 4 tyres all round now. Same colour as the one featured here I wanted you to do mine but haven't got it fully polished. The 150 was also kept at 150 so it didn't also compete with the Focus RS and due to it being the mondeo engine the first gear is shortened (due to space it couldn't have hte same gearbox) to prevent it from blowing up! Would recommend one to anyone. It''s nippy, feels fast but isn't. There are no toys and whistles and a car I've learnt to do stuff to myself. Audio overhaul and yes, bluetooth is possible, simple double din head swap. Worth noting as well the later version had auto lights, optional folding wing mirrors but they are pretty rare features when I was looking. Buyig tips: rust in wheel arches, check sills also. Make sure the car jack points are included they are ridiculously expensive to replace. Wheel covers. these pop off and get stol3en all the time and again are £30 a pop. These ST150s aren't as rare as you'd think. There are TONNES in the UK available to buy - look for a facellift version which came in on a 55 plate. Get as low mileage/owners as possible (ford parts are designed for 100k miles for info), it has a timing chain so no belt, only an aux so does't need doing til much later. Check MOT history if in UK and run the reg plate. You can bin off half of them like that and don't waste your time on anything anyone has Kev'd up already. Thermostat is likely to need changing (details suggests a common problem around 50k miles, mine I bought it with the issue at 62k) - if you car is stuck at 1/4 permanently thats the fix there. Change the power steering fluid as the reservoir sits near the exhaust and basically boils over time. That'll save you having a failure. I've had zero issues with mine but buy smart and you won't regret it. (EDIT: Oh i forgot I also put a front strut brace in (by OMP) and it makes a HUGE difference removing a lot of understeering it def has a lot of and def one thing I'd recommend adding.)

EDIT 2: thanks for the likes. Hope the folloiwing helps out any budding or current owners.

A playlist of the best YT videos I've found for maintenance (many specific to the ST) and how I learnt/got into detailing:

And a quick video I uploaded this week, purely to add to this comment.
Milltek: EVO2 manifold, sports cat and full cat back system: so you can compare what a branded resonated one sounds like i.e. nothing like the one in the video. Fitting tips I've added to the description if anyone is thinking about it and includes the process and problems we encountered doing it at home.



Edit 3:
Since posting this, have since (for pure interest to myself) a dyno run:
Just a pull:


Their feature video on it:


Edit 2 cont:
What it looks like now, white powder coated wheels. (but I've done the same correction to the bumper and roudn the car now)
Some photos are on Instagram, same name, not a plug I barely use it and only add things to it about the car. I did a 90 hour paint chip restore (no idea so a long learnign curv, many mistakes and gave me a lot of experience) on the bonnet. Also inadvertently found a new hobby during covid (all explained in the link above, all stuff I used), having never done anything like any of this on a car before. I've serviced it all myself since, done all the bulbs, filters and done multiple fluid changes through the work completed. Also helped fit the exhaust/manifold etc. I prefer hte detailing to the mechanics it turns out but all good to know.

Note: there is no Haynes manual for the ST, only covers up to the 1.6 Zetec S.
HOWEVER. there is also a South African (I think?) service guide specifically for the ST150 with full instructions on EVERYTHING with full pictures and step by step instructions for disassembly and assembly. There's a link to the PDF floating about for the ST.
This PDF was invaluable for correct torque settings. Google it it wasn't hard to find, can't remember exactly where I found it to link it. One of the big forums anyway.

If you want cleaning or detailing products and don't know where to start. Bilt Hamber. Everything they do is gold in a plastic tub. Korrosol and wheel cleaner but especially their APC degreaser. Best thign out there and SO versatile. Simply dilute to taste: from interior cleaner to engine bay degreaser.
Check the Forensic Detailing product guide on BH in the playlist above. Great channel. Car Craft Detailing is also brilliant for product tests and how to's for new people to detailing. I get compliments from people at petrol stations and it turns heads all learnt just from watching those two channels.

Summary:
if in doubt? just buy one while there are some good ones left. At £3k MAX (not the jumble sale clothes shop of a similar name!) it's a no brainer if you can afford the petrol and guessing if you are younger, the insurance. Road tax also is £250 (ish) a year. I considered the Mini cooper S R53 (supercharged, £325 road tax as well) but expensive parts, unreliability complaints, a pig to work on and read very little that was good about them. I also prefer the interior of the ST and not to mention the Magic Button (heated front windscreen as standard.)
I know two other people who own normal minis from that generation and someone who had a 12 plate Cooper SD who paid a fortune in bills and eventually sold it. He hated it and the boot? About the size of three carrier bags of shopping. A drive in that confirmed the ST was for me. They've all had nothing but problems or a tonne of work needing doing to them to get them up to scratch. (See YT "Savage garage" about two years ago for the job the had to do on one to change the brakes on a mini from the same period. In short and politely: No thank you. Certainly not for a beginner.)

I know someone else with a built engine 180BHP ST150 (2008) with all the induction kit etc., brakes from a JagXJ220 (it goes liek stink), and someone else at work with a Mk7 which I've driven. Big brakes and does track days etc. Too far for me but you can cater these cars to what YOU want out of it. Parts are so easy to find. final tip on buying parts on the internet. The ST150 is referred to in many cases like ebay by Generation (in our case the fifth, "V"), but a Mk6 or MK6.5 as the facelift, on forums. The Generation VI is actually what we'd refer to as the Mk7 (expalined on wikipedia if you are interested).
The fiesta owners? None of us are selling them any time soon.
Thanks for reading if you go this far and really hope this helped spread hte knowledge its taken me two years of contstant searching to find.
Also hoping some more ST150s find their forever homes! Adopt an ST today!!

[TheMadTatter]

Actually saw one of these on the road just yesterday, white with blue stripes, totally unmolested and looked genuinely great. I think the styling really suits its proportions, almost more so than the Focus of the same sort of era. The interiors are fairly dull but those seats are quite nice, and they are really fairly easy cars to work on so a great pick for a "first enthusiasts" type car

[Samaldoful]

Had my first at 19- still have a low mileage white ST at 34 (3rd car) does less than 1000 miles a year and lives in garage- will never sell it

[usualsuspect]

Someone please lend this gentleman a Peugeot 106 gti, was my first car at 17, now 34 and I still have wet dreams about it

[thedetailingdoctor]

Love the variety on the channel. Most channels are either all average cars or all high end cars. This is the only channel I’ve found to cater to all cars and budgets. Well done jay 🔥

[ML]

I had one of these and I absolutely loved it. In fact I loved it more than my current car which is a Fiesta ST180 (mk7).
It was the most reliable car I have ever owned as well. Only sold because it was getting to high mileage and needed too much work doing and as I was saving up for a mortgage at the time, couldn't afford the petrol to run it - the 2.0 litres in these are very thirsty.
The only mods I did were a panel filter, mountune catback and I had all the grey plastics professionally sprayed gloss black which really lifted the looks. Having a naturally aspirated engine was brilliant as well. Such a joy to rev out. I never thrashed it but certainly enjoyed it. The engines in these are out of the mondeo and very strong. Servicing is cheap as well and no Cambelt to worry about. It's chain driven and you would hear it if was on its way out.
I loved this car so much I had a photo of it put on a tea mug.
I really do miss it.

[jamietyldesley]

1:14 i turn 17 in a couple of months and my first car’s from 1981 lmaoo

[karllelliott]

Now this was an interesting presentation, thank you for bringing this to us! I still see a few of these around and really like them as (to me) they stand out. As a bonus you can still get a few performance bits as well, if your that way inclined. I totally agree with your summary of this car as it is (to me also) a perfectly capable enough machine on todays roads, especially for someone just starting out in their motoring life.

[NinaMango]

Super pumped for this, being from the us never see much content on the old ST, love the content brother!

[schwifty]

He needs to adjust his audio. I can't hear him over that shirt

[Alexsp]

Awesome, I love seeing more day to day stuff like this!

[almn]

Heated front screens are so under rated !! I loved mine on my old mondeo.

[NSGlegendzZ]

This was my first car, owned it until October just passed. Absolutely loved owning it and even after 2 years was just as fun as the first day I picked it up.

[titchardtf]

Sold my ST150 last year after knee surgery made it difficult to use a manual gearbox, miss it so much, great every day fun machine !!!