There might be a SHO in my future!

[passive jay]

Hello!

I like nice performance cars but make cheap econobox car money.

In that past I have had things like a 2007 chevy cobalt SS supercharged and a 2013 Fiat 500 Abarth. . Basically I can afford to buy something in the 20k range or lease in the 25k range. (my budget is 300 a month and I dont like to put money down).

My current lease is up in december (21016 jeep renegade, wasnt bad but I am ready to let it go). I have a friend that works at a chevy/ford dealership and I have pretty much got it down to a new ford fiesta ST or a 2014-2015 ford taurus SHO with 40-55k miles, both will get me a payment of about 300 a month if my friend can get me decent discounts.
I can get a decent warranty buying from a dealer but I still kind of worry about making a long term buy on a 4-6 year old car, so I figured I would check with you guys. Are SHOs fairly maintenance free at that age/milage or should I be going for the ST instead?

 

[luigisho]

SHO's are never maintenance free and awd while great for putting power to the ground adds complexity and more to worry about. I'm partial to SHO's but a fiesta or focus st is a nice little performer. SM105K owns a SHO and Focus ST he should chime in on this one.

 

[SM105K]

Yep....LuigiSho hit the nail on the head. The SHO is an investment. Anything twin turbo and AWD needs to have more preventative maintenance and has the opportunity to be more expensive repair wise.

That being said, do want something that is comfy, faster, and is a complete sleeper?

Or do you want something that is really smaller, decently quick, and gets better mileage?

I cant give you advice on a FiST. I have Focus ST however I can give insight to that.

My SHO is my drive once in awhile car. It was my daily, but after putting 20k miles on it 7 months I went back to my old shit box GTI for daily duty. 5 months later the GTI fell apart and I purchased the ST.

My SHO is tuned, modded, lowered, and looks decent. I treat it like how a mailman treats a letter. I SEND IT EVERY CHANCE I GET BEHIND THE WHEEL! Full pull..yeah buddy. The look on people's faces....

My Focus ST is my daily. It is tuned, and for what it is very fun. It is nimble and with the extraordinary torque makes the ST very"interesting". It is smaller and I am getting roughly 30.5 mpg combined. Also I get to bang gears with the 6 speed.

Both have their pros and cons, but at the end of the day....SHO all day.