[rtw07]

Looking for opinions from people who have had a chance to drive both a ST and RS... is it worth the upgrade?

I have a local dealership willing to order a base 2017 RS for around $37k OTD. I currently own a 2015 ST3 with the Ford Performance Tune. I just don't know if I can justify the upgrade, especially with the added power I already have from the tune. Honestly, it would see very little track time and would be my DD.

What do y'all think? I got a great deal at the time and could get out of my ST without any negative equity.

 

[Joshua]

Looking for opinions from people who have had a chance to drive both a ST and RS... is it worth the upgrade?

I have a local dealership willing to order a base 2017 RS for around $37k OTD. I currently own a 2015 ST3 with the Ford Performance Tune. I just don't know if I can justify the upgrade, especially with the added power I already have from the tune. Honestly, it would see very little track time and would be my DD.

What do y'all think? I got a great deal at the time and could get out of my ST without any negative equity.

Here is a thread discussing this topic:
http://www.focusst.org/forum/focus-st-discussions/67273-so-i-drove-rs-today.html

Personally I think the RS is overkill for me. I don't see the limits of the ST enough to feel a need to upgrade. That being said, I want to get an RS at some point in my life.

 

[AkiraSieghart]

I went through the same thought process, I think. I currently have a 2013 ST3, it's full Stage 3 and is making respectable power. When the RS was announced, I was drooling and figured I'd immediately get one if I could. As it got closer to the first shipment of them, I started thinking I'd wait to see the initial reaction for owners to see what bugs and nitpicks people have with the cars. The RS turned out to be a good car but my hype sort of wore off so I stopped looking for one. A few weeks ago, a friend of a friend bought a RS for about $53k after dealer markups, tax, etc. He offered to let me drive it and of course I jumped into it. At the time, it had about 1600 miles so it was after the break in period. So from my experience:

Drivetrain-wise it pretty much tops the FoST in everything except fuel economy. Interior-wise, it's the exact same for the 2016 models aside from obvious embroidery and some extra functionality for the drivetrain. Exterior-wise, it's a beast looking car. I find it looks somewhere between a Evo X and a ST.

Anyway, is it worth it? It all depends on what you're using the car for. Me, personally, I do NOT go to the track AT ALL and I have no plans to do so. I also do not race aside from some occasional highway fun. Most importantly, I DD my FoST and I drive about 400-500 miles a week. In my case, I do not believe the extra power and better drivetrain will be worth the extra cost of an RS. A lot of RS owners will tell you that when not pushing the car, it does feel similar to a FoST. The biggest complaint I see is that the car rides very stiffly even in the normal driving modes. Both of those combined with the extra loss of fuel economy makes the FoST a better daily driver in my opinion. Like I said, it all depends on what you're doing with the car. Again, in my opinion, I believe you're wasting an RS' potential if you're not taking it to the track.

When it comes down to it, I decided to not spend the extra tens of thousands on a RS and I kept my ST. I do plan on spending a few extra thousand and going BT to bump the power up to ~400 WHP but again, I won't be going to the track. That will be mainly just for some street fun.

 

[rtw07]

I think the extra "usable" power is what is really drawing me... Even with just the Ford tune, my ST just blows the tires in 1st/2nd gear. Sure would be nice to get that power down. I've almost thought the Golf R might be a better DD. It sure isn't as exciting to drive but the cabin is more pleasant and it seems to have more tech. APR tune on a DSG Golf R would make for a fun DD.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[shineboy]

Looking for opinions from people who have had a chance to drive both a ST and RS... is it worth the upgrade?

I have a local dealership willing to order a base 2017 RS for around $37k OTD. I currently own a 2015 ST3 with the Ford Performance Tune. I just don't know if I can justify the upgrade, especially with the added power I already have from the tune. Honestly, it would see very little track time and would be my DD.

What do y'all think? I got a great deal at the time and could get out of my ST without any negative equity.

What dis they offer you for the ST?

 

[AkiraSieghart]

I think the extra "usable" power is what is really drawing me... Even with just the Ford tune, my ST just blows the tires in 1st/2nd gear. Sure would be nice to get that power down. I've almost thought the Golf R might be a better DD. It sure isn't as exciting to drive but the cabin is more pleasant and it seems to have more tech. APR tune on a DSG Golf R would make for a fun DD.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've been in a 2015 Golf R and the interior quality is no competition between the two. The Golf R definitely looks and feels more premium (as it should). The DSG will also be more pleasant to drive in traffic.

 

[AD_GUY]

I went through this when they released the SVT. I just couldn't justify spending an extra 10k for an updated air box.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[SurfRider0414]

i agree with Akira. It's really about what you are looking to do with the vehicle.

I recently purchased my ST (only about two months ago) and was considering an RS as well before i made my final decision. Since it is also my daily driver, i didn't see a value in spending the money. I am still currently at stage one, but am very happy with the ST's capabilities. However, if you're looking to track, it might be a different story.

 

[Lordred]

Go for what makes you happy, if the RS makes you happy, buy it.

Be sure to test drive one, they are much harsher when the roads are poor.

 

[Soden82]

I think the extra "usable" power is what is really drawing me... Even with just the Ford tune, my ST just blows the tires in 1st/2nd gear. Sure would be nice to get that power down. I've almost thought the Golf R might be a better DD. It sure isn't as exciting to drive but the cabin is more pleasant and it seems to have more tech. APR tune on a DSG Golf R would make for a fun DD.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

A golf R is a great DD with the DSG. With an APR tune it turns into a seriously fast, seriously fun car


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Hosz]

I just bought an ST but debated getting an RS.

This video convinced me that the RS would be the wrong car for me.

I did not like that the awd was essentially retro-fitted into the car. Nor did I like having a macpherson strut suspension and no real lsd in a $40k car. Torque-vectoring? Please.

I don't DD my cars but I plan to use the ST for weekend trips and running errands. So there wouldn't be much point in getting a car with the RS's capabilities. I never drove the RS, but nearly all of the ST's power is usable for me on the street. I doubt I would ever come close to the RS's limits on the street. It would also make me nervous leaving an RS in a mall parking lot next to some soccer mom and her self-absorbed kids.

The ST and RS are both nice cars, but underneath, they are economy cars and will likely depreciate like any other cars. I could justify spending $25k on an ST when a Civic runs $20k, but spending $40k on something with economy car roots did not make sense to me. I would rather keep my ST and use the money I save to buy something that was built on a platform that was originally designed to be a performance car.

 

[brian60]

People consider it the top hot hatch for a reason...so it's a remarkable machine, but dealers will have it marked up for probably at least another year or two. Until that subsides they can keep it. Now put one around the 32-33k mark and I'm all over it for the price of anew ST3 msrp

 

[RoachRage]

Speaking of VW's, a couple of things; Car and Driver has done long term tests of both the ST and a VW GTI (Yes, I know this isn't the same as the Golf R). Reliability-wise, they were about the same. However, the gas mileage average of the GTI was 35mpg. Whaaaat? The AVERAGE? Yes, the average. The best mileage I ever got with my FoST was 27mpg. I average about 23 indicated mpg.
Speaking of reliability, I'm not a big VW fan after owning the first model Passat for 11 years. Hands-down, the worse car I've ever had. Can't make myself consider another. So I understand when someone says they could never buy another car by the same maker of the model with which they have had so much trouble. Generally speaking (obviously with some exceptions) Fords tend to be middle-of-the-road cars reliability-wise. VW's not so much.

 

[brian60]

Speaking of VW's, a couple of things; Car and Driver has done long term tests of both the ST and a VW GTI (Yes, I know this isn't the same as the Golf R). Reliability-wise, they were about the same. However, the gas mileage average of the GTI was 35mpg. Whaaaat? The AVERAGE? Yes, the average. The best mileage I ever got with my FoST was 27mpg. I average about 23 indicated mpg.
Speaking of reliability, I'm not a big VW fan after owning the first model Passat for 11 years. Hands-down, the worse car I've ever had. Can't make myself consider another. So I understand when someone says they could never buy another car by the same maker of the model with which they have had so much trouble. Generally speaking (obviously with some exceptions) Fords tend to be middle-of-the-road cars reliability-wise. VW's not so much.

I bleed blue and grew up in a Ford family, and I can say that several of Ford's main models are not reliable, and several are. It's very hit and miss over the past few years.

For example, my mother loved her 07' and now her 12' Escape...but they are troublesome.

I will say this much though, the Focus ST's seem MUCH more reliable than other Ford models, probably since they put a lot more effort into them to make them a performance vehicle.

 

[lug]

$37K OTD? That would be very tempting to me.

 

[LockeLamora33]

My dealer sells them MSRP, also GT500's for MSRP, and presumably the new Raptors. Spoke with them yesterday they just got rid of a RS and have a GT on the lot. So some dealers aren't being idiots, although this is a small independent family run place.

 

[brian60]

My dealer sells them MSRP, also GT500's for MSRP, and presumably the new Raptors. Spoke with them yesterday they just got rid of a RS and have a GT on the lot. So some dealers aren't being idiots, although this is a small independent family run place.

That line right there usually makes a huge difference. Not a multi-million dollar mega-dealer, so they won't hike every one of their 300 cars up $2k+.

 

[Incinerator]

I went through this when they released the SVT. I just couldn't justify spending an extra 10k for an updated air box.

I'm not sure what that means....the SVT was an amazing car for its time. It was missing a turbo, but was fully built for it and selling for $16-18k while being rated higher than that years WRX. I suppose if you already had a Focus it'd be a wasted upgrade, but I bought one to replace my Escort GT and drove it as long as my luck allowed me to.

 

[FoRS214]

Get the RS its worth the money, at least it was for me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[AD_GUY]

I'm not sure what that means....the SVT was an amazing car for its time. It was missing a turbo, but was fully built for it and selling for $16-18k while being rated higher than that years WRX. I suppose if you already had a Focus it'd be a wasted upgrade, but I bought one to replace my Escort GT and drove it as long as my luck allowed me to.

Yeah. I had a 2002 Ford focus SE sedan, and when the SVT came out it looked interesting at first. but once you take into consideration that a few simple modifications could make a basic focus perform almost as good if not better than the SVT at the time. If you peeled back the statistics really, all it was was an upgraded airbox and bigger wheels, for close to 10k more.

But yes, a nice car at the time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk