[kevans]

Hello everyone, not been on here in a long time. Sold my mk3 back in 2016 for a kuga. Too boring so bought a Mustang GT. Had that for a couple of years but moved further afield and decided to sell. Paying £120 a week in fuel was getting rather annoying. Been driving a ST line focus for the last 3 years and put an order in for a focus ST estate when the order banks re opened. Got a build date for mid November so providing it doesn’t take too long (need my car to hold its value otherwise I won’t be parting as they are so expensive now) I should be back in a ST. Fingers crossed.

 

[kevans]

Ordered mine when the order banks reopened in October. Went into build on the 11th nov. (A week earlier than scheduled) Sat after being painted till the 21st for some reason. (Guessing parts issue) As of the 22nd assembly offline so just waiting for it to be gate released. Not checked since Thursday.
Mines an estate if that makes any difference.

 

[kevans]

Mine was gate released yesterday. Sat assembly offline since around the 23rd November I think. No idea why mine has gone through. It only went into build 11th November. It’s an estate though. I did hear issues with sync 4 screen availability but I don’t know for sure. Just going to work out a price for my part ex now it’s been gate released.

 

[kevans]

Yes the price will be honoured as per original deal need the list price upon registration to stay under £40k otherwise will end up paying the premium car/road tax rate around £550 per year instead of the £160-165 per year it is currently.

Yea mine is a fraction under £40k on the configurator but the list price (VED MRRP) is a fraction under £39k so hopefully be ok considering Ford has done 2 price increases since beginning of October but you never know.

 

[kevans]

Now my car has been gate released I’ve committed and signed the paperwork. Hopefully be in it by Xmas but with all the delays I’m not holding my breath. Be good to be back in a ST. Longest car I’ve ever owned my Mk3. Still can’t get over the price of cars nowadays but everything has gone up a lot. I paid 35k for a new mustang GT back in 2018. How times have changed.

 

[kevans]

Does anyone know if the cars are 2023 spec yet and what the 2023 spec is? Guessing most or all delivered up to now will be 22 spec especially as they have likely been standing around. There’s always some changes for a model year?

Mine started being built november 11th. finished around 23rd i think and gate released 2nd december. Showing as 2023.25.

 

[kevans]

Is there a spec for the 2023.25? Usually theres one or two changes.

I have no idea.

 

[kevans]

According to the whereismymme, my car has been gate released on the 8th. Bad news is I’m getting stung with the new VED rates…

My salesman has explained to me the VED rate is based on the list price of the car at time of manufacture. Oh well.

View attachment 909865

I’d really like to know what that extra £1,025 in “Addtional Costs” are.

That says on the road price. Like others have said VED rate is based on the list price of the car including delivery charges and registration fees etc but excluding first years road tax Shiah is £945 I believe. Mine has been gated released and it says VED MRRP £38955. On the Ford configurator it shows otr price as £39980. So I’m under either way but hopefully yours just sneaks under

 

[kevans]

My car has just arrived in vlissingen today. Turns out even though it was gate released early December it never shipped for another 2 weeks for some reason. Hopefully have it early jan providing no more hold ups.

 

[kevans]

Well after waiting almost 2 years I finally picked up my new car today and it was well worth the wait. Whilst on todays price it would be over 40k it got registered on the build date price which was September and therefore it’s under the high value tax band. However anyone who has ordered cars and are affected by the price increase, Ford are offering £1000 grants to put towards the first 3 years of taxing. So if any of you are affected, question it.

nice one, mine was in Vlissingen last time I checked so Dagenham is the next stop. Hoping for January collection.

 

[kevans]

Mine arrived at Dagenham yesterday morning, dealers today and collecting Saturday. Cant collect earlier due to work.

 

[kevans]

At least you get a 2023 registration, even though it's on a 72 plate. Does that affect the value? In Germany it does

Ever so slightly possibly but nothing to worry about. My current car is a 2020 (updated model without the washer jets etc but on a 69 plate, was one of the first off the line after the change)
I don’t hold off collecting a car unless It’s a couple of weeks until new reg. they are old within six months anyway.

 

[kevans]

Glad to see things seem to be improving with delivery times. I ordered my first ever Ford through Coast to Coast cars with Sandicliffe on 13th October and was originally given an estimated delivery date of 30th March.
I've had an update today saying the ETA to dealer is now 11th February and vehicle status shows "paint offline" what exactly does that mean?
I asked dealer if they could hold off registering until 1st March (23 plate) but apparently Ford like them registered once they've been accepted by the dealer and in any case he doesn't actually expect they'll see the car until March.
Forgot to mention I've gone for Mean green with Pan roof, I did contemplated the performance pack too, but the only thing I'd probably have liked is the rev matching as my present car has it as standard, but I'll happily live without it.

paint offline means it’s been painted, next step is assembly offline. Mine sat at paint offline for just over a week. Usually the cars get fully built within a day or two but must have been missing parts which is a common theme at the mo. You can make the dealer wait and register the car on the new plate unless he said prior that it will be registered for sales targets for a certain month. (ie you got a better deal by not waiting for the new reg)

 

[kevans]

Pick the car up today. Glad to be back in a ST. The ST Linex served me well but needed a slightly bigger car and thought why not upgrade to the st at the same time

 

[kevans]

Just a quick question. Mine is a brand new estate and just realised it has launch control and auto rev matching (in sport mode). I thought that was part of the performance pack on the 5 door only model? any other MK4.5 owners have this without the performance pack option?

 

[kevans]

Funny you said this, my brother received his Focus a few weeks ago and he never added the performance pack but he's also got launch control and rev matching. He checked with the sales person and said it shouldn't have been on there.

Oh ok, bonus then.

 

[kevans]

I got it too on my estate. Being an auto I don't get rev matching or launch control, so not much use really. I use sport mode quite a bit - thankfully the estate doesn't get CCD so I don't get the hard ride.

I was pleasantly surprised by the ride on this car, firm enough but not rock hard. The feature i like of the damping system is pothole detection. Other than that not bothered but yea cant have that on the estate. I mainly drive in sport mode but that's because i like the grey screen. Not too fond of the blue one.

 

[kevans]

I'm told that the ride on non-CCD cars is halfway between normal and sport on CCD cars. But because there's no individual mode you can't mix and match.
With the auto, sport mode is nice because it holds the revs higher as you decelerate for corners, and the shifts are noticeably quicker.
I had considered an Octavia VRS estate because a) you can get CCD on the estate, b) they have an individual mode so you can have soft damping with hard steering, etc

I didn’t realise that about CCD. I went in the dealers thinking I would get an auto this time but that took it over the 40k VED bracket so stuck with a manual.