What made you decide to buy a Fist?

[RyFiST]

I am a turbo AWD kind of guy. Owned 4 of them. I was (still am) planning to get the Focus RS next year. Then my commuter truck started breaking down. Got fed up & needed a commuter badly. I almost bought a 2016 WRX but I didn't want to go through the hassle of modifying it to be equivalent or better than my previous 2011 WRX Sedan. So I started researching for something small, fun to drive & under $25k. The FiST kept popping up. It was a no brainer at that point. Best decision I've made thus far.

 

[floydthebarberbeefcake]

I haven't bought mine yet. I love the seats, seating position, the instant torque, how it drives. Just in love with it, & I want.

 

[Brick]

My wife and I had a child and I decided to sell my corvette as it was just going to sit in the garage most of the time as I needed the ability to pickup/dropoff my kid-o from daycare and my 99 'vette was unable to turn off the passenger airbag. Using the money for selling the vette (16,000) I wanted something that would be in the 20-30k range that would be the ultimate compromise car. It had to be my daily driver, my grocery getter, my canyon carver, fit potentially two kids in the back, my man trip machine for mountainbiking and hiking, and autocross and hpde machine.

My list.
4 doors
Manual
Performance Oriented
Good enough gas mileage
Cheap to Insure
Cheap consumables
As I live 120 miles from anything but a Toyota and Ford dealership, I really wanted to stay away from models that were known to be on the maintenance heavy side of things. I'm all for doing my own work but any warrantee work I would have done at a dealer.
No more than 30k out the door, preferably less.



This car was never going to be used for family outings as we have a much more capable vehicle for that, so that really opened the door to anything that could fit children in the back EASILY. I know there are some 2 door cars where you can fit kids in the back, but I didn't want the hassle of dealing with that EVERY day.


I've owned or currently have:

1989 Toyota Pick Up (sold) that I modified for rockcrawling/offroading, it was no longer capable to be a daily driver, not even for my 10 mile round trip at the time... it was good at being offroad, that was it. Sold that a couple years ago after it being my first car and
being with me for 12 years.

1997 Toyota 4Runner, stock. My wifes car she picked up in college. I wouldn't take it on long trips. It's essentially a beater vehicle. Seats are all cracked, the paint is bad, etc etc. Trying to sell it now actually because we just don't use it after we bought a

2010 Jeep Grand Cherokee. stock, my wifes ride. It's been a great vehicle. My wife loves it and I pretty much just drive it during long trips or when we go play in the snow or outdoors.

1999 Chevrolet Corvette (sold). Basically stock but it was my daily driver for about 7 years. Canyon runs, track days, 4 hour trips... trips to the grocery store.. camping trips to watch ALMS races at laguna seca. I didn't care, I loved that car. Unfortunately, I couldn't fathom just having it sit in the garage everyday and driving the 97 four runner everyday.


So I was looking for a daily that was still fun.
My shortlist:
Older style WRX hatchback
New WRX
VW GTI
Focus ST
Fiesta ST
Used Cadillac ATS
Considered an older M3, but I didn't want to inherit someone else's problems for the same price as a new or gently used car. I bought the vette used, an older man drove it probably as gently as possible in San Diego. I didn't worry about that ride. I do worry about buying an M3 from a "bro" though hah.
I thought about a Chevy Colorado or Toyota Tacoma (used and new) but figured I would miss fun driving way too much and don't need the utility of the truck that often.


Focus ST: Fast! I had no clue how fun fwd could be. My friend owns one, so he let me drive it... I was impressed. I like that the seats folded down all the way in the back. Didn't like how... big the car felt.
VW GTI: It was nice, but in the end, I was concerned about reliability and the price point for the version I wanted wasn't going to work.
New WRX: WTF? no hatchback... ugh.... I think they look like beefed up corollas. I respect the car... but after checking out the interior, I wouldn't buy one for the price. I don't live somewhere in which I need AWD. Gas mileage wouldn't be as good.
ATS: not as performance oriented, still kinda up there for the used variants.

Fiesta ST: light weight, street legal gokart is all I could think of. Fit the baby. Sips gas. Did everything I needed. I was debating between the focus st and fiesta st as #1 and #2, and eventually the nimbleness and handling is what got me in the fiesta.

If I were to go back in time, I wouldn't change a thing. The car is too fun, best bang for the buck without a doubt.

 

[TyphoonFiST]

Saw one in Taylors falls Mn....walked over to it cause it caught my eye....it was a Black FiST. Never even heard of them....went to a dealer a week later....drove one....a week later went back....signed papers and bam I have a 2015 Perf.Blue FiST. .....I haven't looked back yet. Still puts a smile on my face everytime. The only other vehicle I have driven that can do that is my 92' GMC Typhoon. I thought I'd never find another vehicle as fun to drive. Enter the FiST.

 

[boobsapproved]

Saw one in Taylors falls Mn....walked over to it cause it caught my eye....it was a Black FiST. Never even heard of them....went to a dealer a week later....drove one....a week later went back....signed papers and bam I have a 2015 Perf.Blue FiST. .....I haven't looked back yet. Still puts a smile on my face everytime. The only other vehicle I have driven that can do that is my 92' GMC Typhoon. I thought I'd never find another vehicle as fun to drive. Enter the FiST.

Do you live close to there? I'm not far away.

 

[RAAMaudio]

I had a 97 318TI CA Edition all apart on my lift, $3k shell, total rebuild, $40k budget and most all parts on hand, we needed something small and low weight enough to fit into a toyhauler trailer which was not designed to carry a car but had to fit two adults and two big dogs and groceries yet quick on a road race track as going full time RVing with plans to drive on every track I could get to in North America.

We took off for the winter in the RV and towards the end of the trip were in Sacramento to see the grand kids, trailer was in Carson City NV, got bored sitting around and went to look at the FiST as never seen one before, drove it a few blocks, fell in love, got my wife, two more blocks she said BUY IT!

I figured I would just part out the BMW as all apart anyway and so some simpler mods to the FiST, right, 21 months later, 5,600 miles on it, 3rd IC and soon 3rd turbo change, mod list a mile long and love it more all the time and it is far beyond quick, it is fast

http://www.fiestastforum.com/forum/threads/1836-RAAMaudio-ST-street-track-dog-hauler-grocery-getter-ultra-low-weight-audio

 

[BeansNCornbread]

Seemed great on paper, drove great in test drives and on the track test I was permitted. Sadly I can't get to where the car feels right after about 10 months though I still believe the car is very good T what it is. Just feels like a bad fitting pair of pants. Come early 2016 I will begin looking for something else.

 

[TyphoonFiST]

Do you live close to there? I'm not far away.

If yours didn't have Recaro seats and was there....it could've been you. I live in mpls. Was just there to do some climbing that day.

 

[boobsapproved]

If yours didn't have Recaro seats and was there....it could've been you. I live in mpls. Was just there to do some climbing that day.

No it couldn't have been me, I just picked up my '16 about 10 days ago and it has recaros! Great roads over that way, maybe I'll bump into you sometime

 

[erdna14]

What inspired my decision to buy a FiST was my aging 2006 Focus ST. I spent several months deciding on if I wanted to rebuild the engine and prep for boost and buy a new daily driver or just buy something that would already be equal performance-wise to what I wanted my Focus to be after doing all the work to it. When I finally decided that spending $8000 (give or take) on my Focus for the rebuild, turbo, clutch, etc. was not feasible on a car that was almost 10 years old, I determined that it was time for either a Focus ST or a Fiesta ST.

Since everyone seems to drive a Focus ST, and I wanted something similar to the size of my Focus, the FiST seemed like the logical choice. I went to test drive one and after that test drive I was hooked. The power, the handling, the fun-factor was all there. I had to have one. It was everything I could have wanted my Focus to be. So the search began to find one that met my specifications (bare bones FiST, no options). After searching for two months I finally found one back home in MO. A used 2015 FiST with only 4k miles for $17,800 that the dealership just got in the day before. I put my deposit down immediately, and two weeks later I went back home to pick it up. It's been wonderful ever since. Couldn't have asked for a better car.

 

[miguel.in.az]

Sat in one at the Phoenix autoshow about a year ago and loved how the recaros felt. Also loved the driving position and how easy all the controls were to reach from that position.

When I finally started test driving a couple cars I immediately fell in love with the size of the FiST versus the bigger focus. Loved the mid-range grunt and the steering feel as well.

The FiST is by far the most fun car I've ever driven, in just 4 days after getting my kona blue I've put 600 miles on it lol

 

[PhoenixM3]

Actually, I wanted a TDI Golf first and was thinking hard about waiting for a GTD. I'm glad I chose the FiST now....

 

[ebowtheryan]

Daily'd a 1993 Ford Mustang 5.0 Convertible with about 400 hp... thing was i live in Northern Va where it snows. Needed a reliable daily, something fun, and i saw the FiST and i adored it. Everything about it was appealing to me, and i finally purchased my 16 Shadow Black Fiesta ST Recaro package, and i couldn't be happier. Thing blows my mind every time i drive it, it always puts a smile on my face. My Fox is heavily modified and i do love it, but driving my FiST has changed my feeling about FWD and 6-Speeds. The mustang can corner pretty well (loads of suspension mods) but the Fiesta is incredible, stock. I flat out adored this care, and just broke 1500 miles

 

[D1JL]

I just couldn't spell WRX STI.


Dave

 

[Simon-nz]

I just couldn't spell WRX STI.


Dave

HaHaHa! Funniest thing is Ford have released a diesel Focus ST in Europe - STD (sexually transmitted disease)!

 

[robin5speed]

Thought it would be an fun little car. Had a boring Focus 1,6D before that and thought that i needed some fun. Glad i made the decision! (Molten Orange 2013)

 

[racered]

Upgrade to the gt, btw fist hold trade in value well i found in my case

 

[Deli]

Had a Miata before (great car btw) but got sick of needing to take my other boring car if I wanted to haul my bikes, snowboard, or more than one person. Decided the practicality of the FiST outweighed the lightness and RWD of the Miata. So far, no regrets whatsoever, but I hope I don't miss the convertible come summer.

 

[Kelly]

Had a Miata before (great car btw) but got sick of needing to take my other boring car if I wanted to haul my bikes, snowboard, or more than one person. Decided the practicality of the FiST outweighed the lightness and RWD of the Miata. So far, no regrets whatsoever, but I hope I don't miss the convertible come summer.

An NB Miata was my daily drive five cars ago (8 years?). I miss the convertible/RWD aspect in summer but not winter... though it was actually decent with winter tires. I'll see how the FiST is in summer. Only have driven it with winter tires so far. 3-4 more months...

 

[Vince62]

Hey welcome Kelly I'm in Edmonton sometimes go to Saskatoon maybe meet?Mine's molten orange. What color did you get?