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PeteCM

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    Ford Fiesta Sport

    in Thailand Motor Discussion

    Posted · Edited by PeteCM

    Everyone has different experiences, so here's mine:

    I bought a new Ford Fiesta Ecoboost S with the Powershift transmission (DSG) at the end of 2014. After having driven 30,000km, and at the risk of sounding like some Ford fanboy, I can honestly say that its been the most reliable and trouble-free car I have owned in 30 years of motoring.

    Perhaps the gods have been smiling on me, or I just got lucky, but I have yet to experience any issues at all with the car. The gearshifts are smooth in auto mode, and the rest of the car has been faultless. Fuel economy has been very good, averaging 16.87km/L over 30,000km.

    My only criticisms would be:

    1. The gearchange is smooth but a bit lethargic, and tends to only change up at around 3,000rpm when cold or driving up a gradient. Even in manual mode, the gearchanges are still very slow.

    2. The fascia is horribly dated, with a tiny screen that wouldn't look out of place on an '80s handheld game console.

    During the car's recent 30,000km service, the dealer informed me that the gearbox software had been updated. Can't say I've noticed any difference, as it has always worked fine for me.

    I'm inclined to speculate that the low-speed jerkiness issue may have been caused by the calibration of the adaptive software controlling the gearchange. In my experience, this software takes a few kilometres to adapt to my style every time I drive the car. Could this be the cause, as the software struggles to 'learn' to the user's driving style every time? Perhaps the recent software update addressed this issue?

    All in all, if I had to chose again, I would definitely make the same decision to buy the Fiesta. For me, its been a pleasure to drive and own so far. My only caveat would be related to the dealers: please check that they use the correct oil viscosity when servicing. They offer fixed-priced servicing that uses the wrong grade for many vehicles!

    I hope the others here that have had problems can get them remedied quickly and that they may also have a similar experience to mine.

    Best regards,

    Peter

    Thai drinks seller shows the milk of human kindness to tourists in distress

    in Krabi

    Posted

    I know the Royal Thai Police (RTP) come in for a bit of flak here, but let me tell you my only experience with them having driven 30,000km all over Thailand.

    A few months back, I got a puncture in Ayutthaya and stopped at the side of the road to change the tire. Located directly behind my parked car were 2 policeman sitting in a truck. After removing my suitcase from the boot, I started to take out the spare, when I was approached by the police. Without saying a word, they examined the flat tire, smiled, and started to help me change the wheel. Scorching-hot day, and all three of us were drenched in sweat fairly quickly, but they changed the wheel for me, and put the spare and my luggage back in the car.

    A drinks vendor about 10 metres away watched the proceedings and then came running over with 3 bottles of ice-cold water for us. He refused payment, and returned a few moment later with a bucket of water for us to wash our hands in. The 2 policemen were so kind and polite, and even gave me directions to where to get the puncture repaired.

    After reading all the tales of woe here, this incident caused me to re-evaluate the veracity of one of the generally-held perceptions on TV. There are a lot of kind-hearted and altruistic people in this world, and I was very happy to have met 3 of them in Thailand.

    And to pre-empt any sarky comments here; no, I don't work for TATtongue.png

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