Road Test – New Ford Fiesta
Ford’s popular best seller is not out until October, Kevin Haggarthy tells all
These are hard times…so here’s the good news. Ford’s new Fiesta starts at only £8,695. That’s £155 cheaper than the old car, yet it’s 40 Kg lighter (making it much cheaper to run long term), trendy, and different.
But that’s only part of the good news. There’s more. Fords these days are anything but ‘buying on the cheap’ – yes, the big manufacturers are struggling, but despite the harsh economic truth Ford quality and refinement just gets better all the time; Consistent build quality and refinement is pretty much guaranteed these days, often exceeding some ‘quality’ brands, particular on the engineering side, and ride quality across the range of new Ford models is easily becoming the bench mark.
Standard setting
This new baby Fiesta raises the ante yet again, with seriously big car refinement in an affordable small car. We’ve driven cars twice the price of the upper range circa £12,000 1.6 Zetec S that couldn’t touch this car’s refinement and driveability. Being the most exciting of the range available at launch, the 1.6 Zetec S proved a genuinely sporting drive, yet somewhat overshadowed by the surprisingly spritely and torquey 1.6 diesel. If you clock up the miles you’ll find the Zetec S has little performance advantage over the diesel – in fact the torquey low end pick up of the diesel is actually more rewarding in real world driving conditions.
A new innovation across the range is electronic steering. For 90% of your daily motoring, and provided you ‘re not an ultimate purist in your demands for precision and feel, you’ll love it. The advantage lies in minimal parking and manoeuvring effort in town, whilst for push on cross country driving, the feel is somewhat sacrificed and artificial.-especially on hard cornering. The big advantage with the steering though is less weight –again making for greater economy.
The gearbox proved a debating point – a bit notchy with a long throw from gear to gear in the 1.6 Zetec we tested , but smooth and refined with the Titanium and diesel versions we tried later, the latter two we believe to be more representative.
All new interior
Inside the Fiesta is surprisingly comfortable and spacious. Unless front and rear passengers are 6ft or above you will be comfortable even for long journeys in the back (and front), especially with the ride quality of the car being so high. The interior is also totally new, centrally modelled on mobile phone technology, it has much more of a driver focused ‘cockpit’ feel. In user-friendly terms - it works a treat. Ford have been bolder with the interior finish this time round and all interior trims come in subtle two shade tones, whilst outside a bold set of new colours matches the trendy design.
All versions come well equipped, with folding mirrors standard on every model except the entry level ‘Studio’ model, and there are a variety of comfort accessories as you work up through the range. A favourite will be the ability to plug in and play your music from a USB..
A safe bet
The new Fiesta is a timely and critically innovative new move from Ford. It ticks all the economy and environmentally friendly tick boxes, low on tax, low on running costs, cheap insurance, economical yet refined, well designed, modern and trendy, with standard setting refinement and nearon benchmark handling. The new Fiesta is critical to Ford volume sales – it needs to be good enough to sustain Fords critical market performance in this segment. No worries, it does the job like money in the bank. Highly recommended.
Price: from £8,695 (Studio) to Zetec S (£12595) and Titanium £12095
Fuel economy: Combined Studio 52.3 mpg 1.25 petrol/ 1.6 diesel 76.3 mpg/47.9 mpg for Zetec S
Insurance Groups: Studio 1e upto to 5e (diesel) 6e Zetec S
Goes on sale in UK – October 2008
