By accessing this website, you acknowledge that Edmunds and its third party business partners may use cookies, pixels, and similar technologies to collect information about you and your interactions with the website as described in our
Privacy Statement, and you agree that your use of the website is subject to our
Visitor Agreement.
Comments
I dont recall if anyone has mentioned this but i saw a commercial for honey bunches of oats cereal and thay had a fleet of ZX3's crusing around town giveing out samples of cereal. And guess what they were all in Zinc Yellow with the cereal logho on the hood. That Yellow looked beautiful on the ZX3. Keep your eyes out for the commericial gang.
The cost for my white 5-speed ZX3 with air, tilt, convenience, power locks with remote, mats and destination was $13,003 (sticker: $13,960). I was able to get a good price by asking one dealer to beat another's price, and by leaving out a trade.
Here are my initial impressions after having driven the car for about 200 miles:
Pros:
--Smooth, quiet ride (Goodyear tires).
--Smooth shifting; although I wouldn't have been able to shift into reverse without reading the owner's guide first.
--Fit and finish good, although I noticed a dirty footprint under the passenger seat while I was installing seat covers.
--Stereo sounds good, but not great. Reception is at least as good as my old car, but I haven't tried any AM stations yet.
--At 70 mph, the car doesn't strain in the least (that's the fastest I've driven it so far).
--Seats seem comfortable, although my back is usually screwed up, so I can't tell for sure.
--AC works well.
Cons:
--No fault of Ford, but I wish now that I'd bought an automatic. After not using a stick in a while, I find the fun is gone (plus, it makes it harder to eat a hamburger). I was trying to save money by getting a standard transmission.
--The upshift light is driving me nuts. I'll be using the "Car Talk" solution of covering the light with black electrical tape.
--The driver's inside door handle is in the way of comfortably using the window crank.
--An armrest and more cubby holes would be nice. The cup holders are in an odd position.
Misc.:
--I've been looking for people to notice the car, but I haven't seen any double-takes yet. I was a little distressed tonight when some people called the car "cute" and "perky." Oddly, my pickup-driving buddies have liked the car the most. My 75-year old mother didn't outright call it ugly, but she wasn't impressed.
--Overall, it seems like a well-made car for the money, but the thrill-factor is nothing special.
I'll report back in a couple hundred miles to give some input for future shoppers. Again, thanks to everyone who has posted. I'm off to get my chrome exhaust tip.
Jay in Pa.
after cooling down interior i switched to interior
re-circ. with air on.it came out with more force
and was much cooler.-thanks!also,how did you ever
make out with that scratch?
Mine is an autumn orange, a color that doesn't seem to be as popular as the silver, black, red or green. I haven't seen any white ones yet, though.
A check of a few dealerships here yesterday morning showed few zx3's available, and only one with a stick. The rest were all automatics with power everything.
My brother will soon be joining our ranks. He has found a black zx3 (Philly area) at a dealership that he'll probably buy, even though it doesn't have power windows. He said they couldn't find anything in the area with power windows, so if he doesn't buy this one he'll have to order. Since he needs a car NOW, I think he's going to sacrifice the power windows. I told him to check out this forum for any and all advice he'll ever need!
P.S. My interior hatch release appears to be broken. Project, did they fix that for you pretty easily? Also, I have to try (again) to have the recall done. The part is always on backorder. Anyone else have that trouble?
I called, and they said the car hadn't been built yet, so they could still change it. They did. No problem.
So...yes, they can change your specs.
Of the 100 total that I counted over the past few weeks, 18 were ZX3s. That seems about right to me.
Beast we are twins, did you check out my car pics on yahoo focus clubs?
I believe my wife got 4.9% on a 36 or 48-month note. Since she probobably won't take delivery until after 7/5, she called the dealer and wrote a letter to confirm that they would "grandfather" the deal past the deadline.
Thanks for the offer, but rubberban was kind enough to temporarily donate his factory knob for measurements. The knob is in the mail to Central Manufacturing, and I suspect that the Flameball knobs will be available for the Focus this week. I'll post again when they're officially available in case anybody's interested.
towcrazy2,
Please don't say that the incentives will disappear! That would be bad news for me. I'll have to talk to my dealer to see if they will "grandfather" the deal for me as well. I know now never to give a deposit without specific conditions that would make it refundable.
Maybe you should check your math...
Has anybody found a place where with seat rails that we can retrofit outr cars with?
minor adjustment + white grease done in jan. by
dealer- has been working fine.dealer ordered new post which was slightly chewed-up from closing hatch when the catch was hung-up. replaced more for
appearance than for function. part took about 2 wks.
mileage-that 16 mi.per -seems awful light
avg.25 to 30 air on hwy./ city-mostly stop+go
Several owners have commented on gas mileage. When my automatic ZX3 was quite new, I got only
19-22 mpg. I was bummed, but previous posters had observed that mileage would increase as the engine became broken in, Exactly right. The mileage increased to about 25-27, despite identical driving conditions. Some of the early mileage was in the winter, which didn't help. It sounds like my experience was much like togetners, so hang in there jjk82!
Everyone should periodically check the 'blueovalnews' web site. Besides detailing the latest changes for 2001, don't miss the May 29th article about 'Fighting for Product' Briefly, it indicates that the ZX3 inventory is only 30% of what it should be! So for every 10 ZX3's that Ford could sell...they get 3. No wonder there is a waiting list, and delays.
More later. Any late club news?
It is one thing to make a design flaw and another to ignore it in future releases.
Even my lowly 323 had one touch auto seat forward.
Another stupid design flaw is the window crank hitting anything you place in the door slots. Except a folded up map on it's side, it JUST clears the handle.
I always hit the seat in the up position when loading my bike in the back. Have to go around to the passenger side door, reach in and lift the wheel over the upraised seat. Gets old after awhile.
This is disappointing when I realize all the raves the car got for great interior design. I do like the front dash but the seating is from hunger.
Don't tell me that they were cutting the costs down. Ford should sell some kind of front seats modification kit that we could install, to get more civilized access to our back seats!!!
To me it's a design flaw, something that does
not fit to the overall picture of ZX-3.
in the same class as z.ive driven a pt out of cur-
iosity.it is no fun mobile.in fact,i found it a labor to drive, 150 horses is underpowered for this
vehicle.the one i drove had the cruise contol in-
stalled upside down.a factory quality control over-
look i was told.the power window buttons are located in an odd position.the hood is too bulky to
get good vision of the road.the steering + road feel is vague. the engine is not responsive, im
referring to get-up + go.it also is overpriced.
style it has,substance is another story.as far as
z -front passenger seat,i personally like the simple large pull handle.i view it as a design
that was decided upon for sake of simplicty.i think
it works quite well.ive had those glide seats +
i dont miss it.for the infrequent times i use it,
not much of an inconvenience.same goes for rear.
grant it,im a big fan of the z,but if you consider the total whole+not the sum of the parts,the z
comes out on top.the cruiser is a mini-mini van
not a drivers car.if you factor in dollars spent
and the price/performance ratio,one would be hard-pressed to find a better value than the focus.
to smokeyburnout-if you want more pep,give the 5spd.a spin.
europe, how about our european friends check-in
with their views?
I just get frustrated when designers do not do their homework. If the easy entry seat was available as an aftermarket choice I would buy it pronto. I do use it a lot. Every time I load the bike in and every time I drive more than one person. I actually get embarrased when I have to help with the seat going forward, I actually apoligise for the clumsy design.
I will look into seat slide mods and let you all know what I find. I didn't mean to kick off a maelstrom, I just wanted to know if anybody had found anything.
I also hardly ever use the rear seat, but when you need to drive people home after a night of libations (them, not me) the rear entry become particularly confounding... =]
(rs)
Love my ZX3. Doesn't share with anything else Ford, and I know it's a sports coupe hatchback. Plus she will go 0 to 60 in just under 10 seconds with the automatic.
Pat