Test Driven: Ford Fiesta Sedan Review
Lets get something clear from the start: I hate Ford Fiestas. This maybe a bold statement to make at the beginning of a review of Ford’s latest super mini, but let me at least state my case. My dearest Grandmother had a 1979 Fiesta 1.1 Popular Plus. I was often put on the back seat as my grandmother took me on wild tours of the countryside of Northern England; as it was the ‘olden times’ this particular Ford Fiesta didn’t have seat belts, so I bounced off the roof, the windows, and found myself in the footwell quite a few times. My Grandmother decided she didn’t like the color of her yellow Fiesta one day, so she painted it. Herself. With white emulsion. You could see the brush strokes, but she was adamant it was her ‘new’ car. Another round of wild rides ensued. With my grandmother’s family being a strong Ford loving family (she recently upgraded to a Ford Ka) I went through several generations of crazy Ford Fiesta journeys with my dearest grandmother so it’s easy to understand why I strongly dislike Fiestas, especially with all the abuse I went through during my junior years on the back seat of one with my grandmother at the helm. Thankfully these days I’m too big for her latest Ford Ka, but at 76 years old she isn’t showing any signs of slowing down physically, but her lead foot is heavier than ever.
Chang’an Ford were kind enough to lend me their latest Ford Fiesta this weekend, the sedan version that will eventually see production also in North and South America. Usually when car makers design a sedan out of a hatchback car they manage to make ugly monstrosities that only developing world markets seem to buy (look at the Peugeot 207 sedan, for example). Not so for Ford: the Focus hatch and sedan are equally handsome cars and that has spread down into the latest Fiesta range. The kinetic design theory that is present across the Ford range has worked well for the latest Fiesta, the lines of the car clearly embrace the kinetic design style of ‘always accelerating’ even when standing still.
The Fiesta we had this weekend was a 1.5 Luxury sedan model, with a 4 speed automatic gearbox. Although the test colour, ‘gloaming silver‘ we had was not the best in the range, it certainly suits the sedan styling better than the vibrant blue or rustic orange colors which look better suited to the hatchback model. The Fiestas boot, or trunk to our dear American readers, is surprisingly large. Expecting a tiny little boot, I was extremely impressed to find that it could easily take two large suitcases at a push, or accomodate a great deal of grocery shopping. The interior is light and airy, the leather seats offer adequate comfort. The central console seems awfully complicated at first, but after five minutes of playing it becomes completely clear what it all does. Our car came with an AUX input, making it easy to hook up an MP3 player rather than using one of those awful radio transmitter things that always receive interference from every one else that has one at the traffic lights. The dashboard is long, and wide and the new Fiesta is essentially a Tardis; its a small car, but its also huge.
It’s easy to get comfortable at the wheel of the Fiesta, especially for someone like me that drives a huge SUV, and a smaller SUV often. Usually driving small cars after driving large ones makes me feel nervous, but not so in the Fiesta. The Fiesta handles extremely well, one could say its better to drive than the heavier Focus. The four speed automatic gearbox finds its feet at above 3000rpm but anything below its weak at best. When you accelerate from traffic lights, its almost as if the gearbox has a comittee meeting takes a vote before deciding whether or not to take action. As the gearbox is of the semi automatic kind, its easy to swap over to manual mode if you want to control the power. We took our test Fiesta (and test Mondeo) up the highway towards the Ba Da Ling section of the Great Wall, winding around the small twisty two lane highway was easy work for the Fiesta, with it easily mastering tight corners and braking sharply when needed. Overtaking in automatic mode is a challenge, I do recall throwing my fist in the air and screaming YYYYEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS! When I finally managed to get past a 1.6 VW Sagitar, but throw the gearbox into manual mode, keep the revs high and you’re laughing your way past BMW 7 series.
The Fiesta also has a few niggles. When pulling into a gas station to refill the tank I spent a good few minutes with the gas station attendant looking for the lever to pop the gas tank lid open, you won’t find one below the steering wheel or next to the driver’s seat like many other cars; in fact you won’t find one at all on the Fiesta. That’s because the gas tank cap doesn’t have a lever – you simply push the gas cap, and it pops open. A great idea, but the cap itself feels very flimsy when opened, and could easily break off. Another issue we had on our test drive was the lack of lights on a stalk, but this is common on most Ford Euro cars. Whilst driving through mountain tunnels I was frantically looking for the light switch, but it is obscured by the steering wheel. Obviously the above two issues are minor, a regular Fiesta driver would figure these out within an hour of owning the car.
So is the new Fiesta any good? Yes, the Fiesta is quite frankly a fantastic little car, the best in its segment. The sedan has a huge boot which will make it popular with small families, the hatch version has an excellent sporty stance. I expect that the Fiesta will sell well in its new role as a Global Car, even in North America when it goes on sale in 2010. The Ford Focus has almost become an automotive icon for middle class life in China; the Fiesta could easily become the automotive icon for upcoming young, professional white collar office workers. In 2010, I am planning to move to Shanghai and I doubt I will be driving my compact SUV around in the quagmire that is Shanghai traffic. Instead I will buy a small car and the Fiesta is currently at the top of my small car list, despite the abuse I suffered at the hands of my grandmother and her Fiesta over 20 years ago.
China Car Times Verdict: For city driving go and buy one, now.
Models: 1.3l and 1.5l with manual and automatic offerings.
Pricing: From 78,900rmb to 111,900rmb
Thanks to Wesley and Craig at Chang’an Ford, and Martin at APR for reviewing the grammar, and spelling!
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Nicely written review Ash!
Your assessment of the Fiesta seems to agree with mine. It’s indeed a real little gem and it really wouldn’t surprise me if the Fiesta drove better than the Focus. I’m loving mine so much that I haven’t driven my Mondeo this week yet!
While the 1.5L engine does seem eager to rev, I haven’t driven mind too hard as I’m still breaking it in. That’s good to know that there’s more power to be found in the higher rev ranges. I’m finding mine to be more than adequate in (grid-locked) city driving – while it could use some more power (though this could change once I get past the break-in period and let it rev), the instant throttle response and revvy engine give the impression that the car is faster than it really is. It’s a lot of fun to drive, even during rush hour traffic!
I think that Fiesta might take some sales away from its bigger brother, the Focus, especially in this economic climate. Younger couples who were previously considering the Focus hatch may realize that the Fiesta is big enough for them, while being significantly less costly.
By the way, I don’t think leather is a factory option on Fiesta here, but you can get it installed by a dealer.
PS – will you also be posting a review of the Mondeo?
PPS – your grandmother sounds really cool!
How does it compare to the new Honda Fit. I can’t imagine it beating the Honda. Am I wrong?
Very good, very comprehensive review.
Ding.
I agree with the sentiments shared in the review, the Focus is the Fiesta’s fat older brother, a fat older brother that has spent the last decade dining on a rich diet of lager, pies, and chips.
I just bought a Fiesta sedan (for my wife) in Zhuhai, it is sound.
Ash!!
The site looks amazing! what a nice surprise to come back after a few days and see this awesome new looks!!
congratulations, and keep the good work!
Jackson Liu
good review, by the way.
I just wish for a little more about its road abilities.
European Ford’s are known for their GREAT chassis/suspension tuning.
Does this Fiesta stand up for it?
Jackson, Id say yes, its much better than the Fiestas that came before it.
A very good review! Does anyone know if there are any Ford plans for improved sports models? The Focus 2.0 only comes in 2.0l Sports trim, it would be cool if they launched the ST range etc here.
As much as I would love to have the Focus ST (I just watched Top Gear’s review of the Focus ST on Youtube), I doubt Ford will bring it over. Up until now, large displacement/high-powered cars here have been reserved for luxury models and niche imports. And the gov’t is hoping to keep things this way. However, things could change if there’s enough consumer demand.
That said, I think there’s some hope for us once Ford’s Ecoboost range of turbo direct injection gas engines is expanded to include smaller displacement engines (such as 1.4, 1.8, etc.). It’s more likely we’ll see a higher-powered Fiesta or Focus over here with a small displacement Ecoboost engine rather than the gas-guzzling (relatively speaking) Volvo 2.5T. Besides, it’ll be better for the handling as well.
Nice review! But what did you mean by “For city driving go and buy one”. Does it not perform as well on the highway? I live in the U.S. and we get the all new 2011 Fiesta in spring 2010 as both a 4 door sedan and 5 door hatchback. We will only be getting the 1.6 Ti-VCT gas engine. We also will get Ford’s Powershift 6 speed automatic dual dry clutch transmission. It should be an outstanding little car!
Matt, so far how do you like your new Fiesta sedan? Is it everything that you expected it to be and more?
Patrick – I think it will be just fine on the highway with the 1.6 Ti-VCT and 6-speed DST. Over here we are stuck with the 1.5L and 4-speed Aisin automatic, and the acceleration in 3rd and 4th gear does seem a bit weak at lower revs. However, I’ve found that the 1.5L gives a noticeable boost in power once you go past 3k RPM, so maybe it’s not so bad if you let it rev (I’m still breaking mine in so I’ve been going easy on the throttle). That said, I do wish ours had an extra gear or two – that would definitely help things too.
I think the new Fiesta is indeed outstanding, and I’m sure you will be impressed by this car.
Cool, thanks Gerald for your response! Do you have the sedan or hatchback?
I’ve read that the new Fiesta is selling like crazy in Europe and Australia and now even in China. That’s great news.
The 4 speed auto is lacking grunt for highway work, but overall I really enjoyed it, I would buy one.
Patrick – I have a hatchback (5-door). It’s a bit limited in boot/trunk space. But this is our second car, the commute fighter, and we take the Mondeo when we go on road trips or whenever we have guests.
If you’re trying to decide between the Fiesta sedan or hatchback, I would say that the sedan is more practical and better suited for family use. And it’s also quite nice to look at too, it’s a bit more elegant than the hatchback. The hatchback has sportier looks and might be more appealing to younger folks (although I am not that young myself).
The Fiesta has only been on the market here for a few months but I’ve already seen quite a few on the road here. It does appear to be selling quite well, at least better than its close cousin the Mazda 2 (which seems to suffer from a styling and pricing disadvantage).
I really like the look of the hatchback myself. I’m single so a lot of room is not a big issue for me. Gerald, where in China do you live? Which do you see more of people driving, the Fiesta hatchback or sedan?