Originally Posted by
ben_frst
wrong the car is only as reliable as the owner if you take a stock rs1800 and stock frst and treat them the same they will last the same I seen frst 150-60000 mile still with original engines turbos and gearboxes.
the rs1800 was/is less tunable and slow however at 25year old i would stay away from an rst with silly mods its common knowledge that you can make 200hp on a stock engine but 165ish is more realistic and maintainable and pretty fast for a bean tin
RST fiesta was not well received on launch, rubbish handling and uncommunicative steering were just two issues.
Rs1800 replaced it it in 1992 and I believe these issues had been resolved and although it was less tuneable but we're talking about the car you bought out the factory, RS1800 has a good reliable engine which was if I remember quicker out of the box against an ageing crappy old cvh which most owners destroyed fairly quickly then replaced with a zvh, I've had both rst escort and fiesta also 2 rs1800 fiestas, the fiesta rst was poor, engine rebuilt twice and had only done 37k from new, after the second engine let go it got crushed, both rs1800's were great, no issues and are still around.