Hey - I'm a regular on the FORS forum. I'm considering buying a FIST next year for daily use, keeping the mileage off of the RS. Just here to learn more about the platform, what it's capable of, common faults/issues and what the aftermarket looks like.
Thanks.
Do it!! I chose the FiST over the RS for many reasons and a big one was my short heavy traffic commute. The car is a blast to drive and you would be surprised how just a Protune really compliments the vehicle. I do a lot of around town driving and the FiST is amazing for that. I only have about 1000 miles on it and I started out with a big list of mods coming from a FoST, surprisingly the FiST is very well sorted out of the gate.
The plus side is that there is also a very big aftermarket support as well. Many options out there in terms of power adders and other mods. Things like a hybrid turbo yield very good results and will be very close to a tuned RS in terms of power to weight. The engines handle power no problem until you run out of fuel (around 320whp)and then can keep going but my research has led me to think anything beyond the 350whp mark pistons would be a wise upgrade at least.
Suspension wise my only real gripe is the chassis doesn't handle large impacts well (over damped a bit). How ever I prefer this over my underdamped FoST and the FiST is close to the RS in terms of ride feel but the RS deff has an edge on handling those bigger impacts. Good news easy fix and you don't need to spend 2K+ on dampers as many run MeaisterR's for around 1K with excellent results.
For the money it was a given, I paid 21K fully loaded -runroof (weight) with my discount and huge rebate that was going on. Things like Heel & Toe are way better stock in the FiST over FoRS. Most importantly the vehicle is just a blast to drive, you can have fun just cruising around or really put a smile on when you get on it. The good news is being so light you don't have to drive at 7/10ths to get feedback from the chassis, it's alive with light inputs and doesn't fuss when you want to push it more.