A mates ST170 clutch has failed at 2600 miles from new! The friction material had completely come off the plate on one side and embedded itself into the pressure plate. Has anyone else had this problem? On another board I've read that clutches have failed prematurely on other ST170's, tell tales signs are when depressing the clutch pedal fully the clutch fails to disengage and the car creeps forward (or backwards), this also makes 1st and reverse hard to select.

For a tale of shi**y handling of the situation by the Ford dealer read on.

No problems my mate thought, brand new car = warranty claim. No such luck however.
Day one: The RAC towed the car off to the local dealer and arranged a loan car.
Day two: The dealer failed to tell him that the loaner was only for 24 hours (hats off to National Car Hire for not charging him on the late return) and then the dealer said they had no courtesy cars available. The dealer next told him that the junior technician couldn't find the fault and a senior technician would need to look at it but there weren't any available (my mate asked something along the lines of 'are they all out with the courtesy cars?').
Day three: Dealer informed my mate that the wrong clutch had been delivered. My mate askes that the technician dealing with his car phones him to discuss it, he gets no call and assumes the clutch is being replaced under warranty.
Days four and five: The weekend, nothing heard from dealer.
Day six: Dealer calls to say the car is fixed and they want £430 !!! My mate goes down to the dealer and spends 1.5 hours arguing with them. My mate is blamed for the clutch failing and they said it's down to abuse (his previous car was an MR2 turbo which still has the original clutch after 65k and survived a track day at Cadwell Park). At one point the dealer throws his toys out of the pram and says they'll take the new clutch out if he isn't going to pay. Eventually to get the car back he pays a third and they were very reluctant to agree to even this, part of why they conceded was because they undertook the work without telling him it wasn't going to be covered by the warranty.