I'm not that active on here anymore but thought i'd share this with you....
I've had my FSI for something like 3 or 4 years now () but recently it has developed a clutch or gearbox issue....
I didn't have the motivation to fix this or pay for this myself so i looked for another route; which led to my following purchase....
The marmite Ford Probe 2.5 v6. Strange choice you say?
Pros:
Firstly, it's cheap. I got this for £750 with full MOT and 6 month Tax... It has done 120k mileage, but everything works still and it drives sweet and smooth. 2.5 V6 Engine is pretty pokey, considerabley faster than my Fiesta, and achieves a reasonable 0-60 of 8.5s - My brother thinks it's quicker than his Almera Gti (when he had it) which has a 0-60 of 7.9, so i'd be more interested in a 0-100 figure if there is one.
Also, this is a mix-breed car. Jap Chassis, Jap Engine, Ford Styling (have i jumped ship here?) In my experience Jap engineering is a good thing! The chassis and engine are both very modern for the time they were produced; I think they were used by Mazda into the 2000's...
The engine revs to 8.5k without running out of steam. It's what i imagine a Type R to feel like but with a V6 soundtrack.
Another plus point is equipment levels: Cruise Control, Elec Windows, Elec Mirrors, Elec Seats, Elec Sunroof, A/C, Twin Airbags, so many other little gizmo's to play with - it's easy to forget this was a premium car back in the 90's and it was made in an era that cars weren't built on such a shoestring budget - probably explains why it's still going at 120k! Decent Build quality.
Fuel isn't too bad; around 28mpg can be averaged on my route to work... the Fsi got around 30-32mpg with the cams in so it's not completely emptying my wallet.
Tax costs the same as the fiesta despite the engine nearly being 1ltr bigger (how does Mr Brown work that one out?)
So far i'm very happy with it. It's been bought to last a year, maybe a little longer...only issues i've had so far are HT leads were knackered....balancing & tracking needs doing and thats about it.
Plans:
- I need the standard spoiler. the back end looks abit yank to me!
- Maintain and enjoy!
P.s Fiesta is still alive.
Any comment's appreciated....
Happy New Year All!
Andy
