After some busy days, here's my first take about my new Mk2 (manual, fridge white).
Mileage so far: 1177kms, mostly on highways, and still mostly in break-in mode.
So, it's really just a first shallow take, even if I pushed a bit more after passing the 1000kms on clock.
Overall impression on the road: to me it looks like a different car from the Mk1 in many ways, I feel like I need to master it almost from scratch before pushing it like I'd like to. But it happened to me with the Mk1 as well at first, so we'll see.
Going through the details now , with respect to Mk1.
Seat position: it's much better and comfortable than the Mk1's, at least to me.
Engine: stronger and very impressive on low and medium rpms.
Driving modes: during the break-in I admit I appreciated the ECO mode quite much; I'm not used to get to an average consumption of 14kms per liter on this car at my usual cruising speeds.
Clutch: heavier and harder to modulate.
Brakes: just one hard brake so far, due to a truck that tried to kill me. The braking power is still there, but it looks like it needs more force on the pedal to get to the all of it.
Steering: a bit heavier and with a better feeling, to me.
Suspensions: firmer and with a bit less feedback.
Gear: a bit more precise and firm, even if still less precise that the one of my Fiesta ST Mk8.
Dash: I liked it almost immediately after using it a bit.
ADAS: much less annoying than I feared, and even helpful sometimes (first time I say something like this about ADAS). No start-stop (it never turned off the engine at any stop), Cruise control with very smart settings (I left it on for most of the highway trips), ISA alerts at very low and negligible volume. LDA a bit more complex to turn it off (through setting menu, 3 clicks).
By now, my verdict about "Mk1 or Mk2" is: take (or keep) them both if you can, because I feel they offer experiences that are more different than I expected.
But I need more miles with the Mk2, on more proper roads, to say my actual last word about this.
Two problems that shouldn't be there on a new car like this one: the gear knob was loosely screwed, and the car pulls slightly to the right. This last thing particularly annoys me a bit, and I hope it will be neatly fixed soon, when I'll take the car to the dealer to have its first oil change done.
