As a previous ST owner, I was keen to get behind the wheel again. So, let’s not dwell on the fact that this car is a diesel right now. Let’s just think about the looks to start with. The facelift has brought it right up to date and it’s looking good, so let’s move right on to the more interesting bits.
The interior still has all the comfort of the old model. If you’ve had one before then it’s a bit like going home to find the same living room, but with new chairs, new telly and new Hi Def’ wall paper. Still the same comfy Recaro’s, but newer looking. Most of the interior is similar, no point trying to fix something that isn’t broken, but most importantly they have improved the cluttered look and the functionality of the controls. The familiar gauges on top of the dash are a welcome sight. The best part of the new interior is the touch screen media system. Easy to get your head around within a couple of minutes (if I can then all of you will be able to) and quick to get the most out of.
Having driven it for a week and taken advantage of some of our tight twisty roads over the Cairngorms, followed by some long motorway driving, the car got a fair workout and does have a bit of a split personality. It was comfortable enough on the motorway and cruised easily, although I never did find the cruise control, but still fun enough on the back roads. The suspension is stiff enough to give you some pretty decent handling on the twisties, but soft enough to use as a daily. Put it this way, if you drove over a pound coin, you wouldn’t be able to tell if it was heads or tails, unlike an XR-3 I used to own. Now this is where I’m going to get some stick, I thought there was still an amount of understeer on the tight turns, despite the much talked about Torque Vectoring. That helps, but having spoken to some of the guys driving other front end hot hatches I don’t think it’s as bad as I first thought? Apparently the dreadful conditions I was driving in would have had made just about anything understeer!
The manual gearbox, no flappy paddles for the less energetic amongst us, makes it a bit easier to engage with the front end and the electric steering didn’t dampen the control. You get decent power delivery, so you’re not up and down the box around town, but can still take it to the red line on the open road. This brings us to the engine and the fuel it uses. I doubt very much that between the lights in town you’d notice a massive amount of difference in a 30 zone. The torque of the diesel engine makes it quick off the line, but it runs out of steam at 4,000 revs. I like a good exhaust note and this was lacking, but does it really make you think that much differently about the car when it’s actually very good to drive?
So, why would you buy one? Well if like me you love the ST, but also need a daily driver, the diesel makes a fair bit of sense. If you’re never going to take it on track and it’s going to be used almost every day, then you’ve got a decent town car with Start/Stop that you can still have fun with at the weekend. No point going for a base model, but for just under £26,000 you get a much better spec’ car than some of the other hot hatches (I was thinking of the Leon Cupra and the Golf GTI). I’ve toiled over the fact that I’m giving it three and half tea cakes out of five, when I had thought it was a four. We don’t have a three and three quarters so I’m sticking with the three and a half, but it might have had a four if it hadn’t been some of the worst weather Scotland has seen for a long time for the full week I had it. That’s not the cars fault, but it’s a fair place to be for the car.
PRICE: £25,995
ENGINE: 2.0Ll Turbocharged TDCi, 6 speed manual
POWER: 185bhp
TORQUE: 400Nm
PERFORMANCE: Top speed 135mph 0-62 mph 8.1 secs
CONSUMPTION: 67.3 mpg (combined)
CO2: 110 g/km
TT Rating:
