Is when I ordered my 2014 Fiesta ST sight unseen and having never even driven one.
I was 19 years old and an Airman (E-2) and my E46 318i was starting to show signs of it’s age and abuse. I had seen all the press (mainly Top Gear) surrounding the newest ST and decided that I had to have one. I went to the dealership on Ramstein Air Base to place my order. The guy kept telling me that they didn’t have one for me to drive and that they didn’t know when they would have one in for me to drive. I didn’t care and I had him place the order for a 2014 Oxford White Fiesta ST with no options but a sunroof.
It took awhile to get it delivered but, eventually it was mine and I fell in love immediately. I was a little upset that it had 6 miles on it when it arrived in but, I got over it after my first drive up in the mountains.
I was lucky enough to walk to work so 90% of the miles I put on the car while in Germany were fun miles. I used to go out around 10pm on weeknights just to make sure I’d have the mountain roads to myself. I’d go drive for an hour or two a night on perfect roads. This little car made it to Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, and eventually the US.
Everywhere I took it I had fun. Went to see some races, 2016 LeMans when Ford beat Ferrari, 24H at Spa, Nurburgring 24 hours, DTM and World Rallycross at Hockenheim, Rallye Deutschland, and so much more. Blasting down the Autobahn at 140 mph trying to pull out every ounce of performance that little car had getting from place to place a bit faster than the GPS had suggested. 24,000 miles of European fun before having to ship it back to the US.
That is when everything went wrong, literally 1 mile from the pick-up spot in Baltimore the car overheated and shut itself down. I had to get it towed and ended up having to get a hotel for the night while the dealership sorted out the problem. They said it was a pinched wire and I drove the 3 hours home the next day with no problems. About a week later the car overheated and left me stranded again. Back to the dealership where they told me I needed a new engine, luckily it was covered under warranty. After about a month I got the car back with a new heart. I could never really enjoy the car after the engine got replaced and 3 months later I traded it for my Mustang.
I still miss the FiST. I hope all is well and that your new owner is taking you on adventures too.