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Around mid-2023 I decided to sell my Mk7 GTI Performance to buy something cheaper after recently having bought a newer and larger house, and with a larger mortgage it made sense to sell the GTI and buy a cheaper toy. My car only gets driven between 50-100km a week so I don’t need to spend much money on something fancy when it hardly gets used.
Let me preface this by saying that I searched for ages to try and find a suitable Mk5 GTI, Mk6 GTI, Polo GTI, Audi S3 or Scirocco R in good condition, with a manual gearbox and in my price range – but unfortunately this is not an easy task these days. Everything was either too far away or was not in good condition. Not wanting to spend more than about $15-17k I started considering other Euro alternatives such the Ford Fiesta and Focus ST’s and Renault Megane RS’s etc because these are manual-only cars and therefore more available for sale and easier to find in my price range.
I found this 2017 Fiesta ST in my favourite colour from a private seller in south Sydney, owned by a mature car enthusiast, in very good condition, completely stock and original, full service history and 95,000km.
Fun little warm/hot hatch
Manual transmission
Nice colour
Recaro bucket seats
Zippy 1.6L turbo engine
No accident damage or anything dodgy
All original paintwork
Test drive confirmed all was well, so a price was negotiated, money transferred and I drove it home the same day.
The Fiesta ST is certainly a compromise in terms of interior quality, ride quality etc compared to the Golf GTI, but you have to keep in mind these cars were about $26k brand new - so they are never going to be comparable to a $40-45k car. But I have to say it’s certainly a more exciting car to drive, really fun with a manual gearbox and handles/steers amazingly well. Very light and nimble and has a really fast steering rack. It has a 1.6 L turbo 4 cylinder engine, with direct injection and a tiny turbo – making 134kw (180hp) and 240nm.
As always, with a newly purchased car – its always a good idea to check everything over and give it a service, this way you know exactly what has and hasn’t been done and you create a servicing baseline for future maintenance. I gave the engine an oil + oil filter change the next day and gave everything a good look over underneath – no leaks or any damage so that checked out well.
Let me preface this by saying that I searched for ages to try and find a suitable Mk5 GTI, Mk6 GTI, Polo GTI, Audi S3 or Scirocco R in good condition, with a manual gearbox and in my price range – but unfortunately this is not an easy task these days. Everything was either too far away or was not in good condition. Not wanting to spend more than about $15-17k I started considering other Euro alternatives such the Ford Fiesta and Focus ST’s and Renault Megane RS’s etc because these are manual-only cars and therefore more available for sale and easier to find in my price range.
I found this 2017 Fiesta ST in my favourite colour from a private seller in south Sydney, owned by a mature car enthusiast, in very good condition, completely stock and original, full service history and 95,000km.
Fun little warm/hot hatch
Manual transmission
Nice colour
Recaro bucket seats
Zippy 1.6L turbo engine
No accident damage or anything dodgy
All original paintwork
Test drive confirmed all was well, so a price was negotiated, money transferred and I drove it home the same day.
The Fiesta ST is certainly a compromise in terms of interior quality, ride quality etc compared to the Golf GTI, but you have to keep in mind these cars were about $26k brand new - so they are never going to be comparable to a $40-45k car. But I have to say it’s certainly a more exciting car to drive, really fun with a manual gearbox and handles/steers amazingly well. Very light and nimble and has a really fast steering rack. It has a 1.6 L turbo 4 cylinder engine, with direct injection and a tiny turbo – making 134kw (180hp) and 240nm.
As always, with a newly purchased car – its always a good idea to check everything over and give it a service, this way you know exactly what has and hasn’t been done and you create a servicing baseline for future maintenance. I gave the engine an oil + oil filter change the next day and gave everything a good look over underneath – no leaks or any damage so that checked out well.
. Thankfully it was just white paint transfer and the dual action buffer sorted it out quickly.
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