Ford FIESTA 1.4 16v RANGE
Most Customers Of Fords Latest Fiesta Will End Up Behind The Wheel Of The 1.4-litre 16v Petrol Model. Will They Be Disappointed? Jonathan Crouch Decides
If Fords latest Fiesta is to be the kind of sales success that the Blue Oval desperately requires, then the 1.4-litre petrol-powered variants featured here must sell strongly. Very strongly.
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This Fiesta will have an easier ride here than it will in Europe, where the old one failed to make any real impression on the buoyant Supermini sector. But even on UK shores, the going looks likely to be tough, with rivals as good as Hondas Jazz, Toyotas Yaris, VWs Polo, SEATs Ibiza, Skodas Fabia and others all squaring up to steal what used to be guaranteed
Ford sales. So this car had better be good and on paper at least it is. Prices for the three and five-door 1.
4-litre petrol variants featured range from £9,195 to £11,845 in Style, Zetec, Zetec Climate and Ghia specs and, as ever with Ford, you can usually get the local dealer to sharpen his pencil. Equipment levels on all models run to twin front airbags, Fords Intelligent Protection System (IPS), a CD stereo, central locking and 60/40 split-folding rear seats. A Durashift EST sequential manual transmission is also available as an option. As youd expect, the market and finance side looks good, with low day-to-day running costs and a healthy projected residual value.
Ford has worked hard to keep the weight of this car down it tips the scales at 1,035kg. Thats just as well for with 79bhp on tap, this little 1.4-litre 16v engine has to work pretty hard to haul a ton of car along. No good then, expecting especially sparkling performance: sixty from rest takes 12.2s on the way to 104mph. Having said that, of the cars top rivals, only Skodas 1.4-litre Fabia is significantly faster and some (like the Polo) are a lot slower.
Anyway, the Fabia pays for that pace at the pumps, so you could argue that with a 44.1mpg combined fuel return, the Ford strikes a good balance between power and parsimony.
"The steerings great, the grip impressive and the body roll well controlled."
Most should find the engine to be smooth and unobtrusive, provided its not revved too hard. You may find yourself doing just that however nor only to make it over steeper hills. As with the old-shape Fiesta, this car is a great handler and it may well bring out the Colin McRae side to your character, assuming of course that youve got one. The steerings great, the grip impressive and the body roll well controlled.
That may sound irrelevant if all you want to do is tootle to the shops and back but should you ever be in an emergency, having a car that changes direction easily, controllably and predictably could just make the difference between having or avoiding an accident. While were on dynamic excellence, the ride is also very good, one of the things that makes this a small car you could quite happily use on longer journeys. To that end, the spacious cabin will be a boon. Though its not the largest in its class, you can (just about)
seat five adults in reasonable comfort, thanks not only to the surprising width but also thanks to more knee-room at the rear than some cars from the next class up.
Theres a good luggage capacity too (of 284 litres or 10 cubic feet) arranged in a shape to optimise usable volume for longer items like foldable baby buggies. Large rear doors and that impressive rear seat roominess mean that installing a child seat in the back wont prove the usual Olympic challenge. Although the backrest of the rear seat is split for increased versatility, unfortunately the seat cushion itself isnt. While were carping, it would also have been useful if someone at Ford had thought to include an interior boot release catch (though there is one on the key fob).
Drop into the height-adjustable drivers seat and youll be greeted with a dashboard that adopts many of the quality conventions of the Mondeo range, and thats good news. For those who enjoy tracing the lineage of the design, the Mondeos interior designer was poached from
Volkswagen and it shows. Its easy to see where cost has been excised from the Fiesta, competing as it does in a class where margins are utterly cut throat. Some of the fascia plastics could be nicer to the touch, theres a lack of cupholders and storage spaces arent too prevalent.
Ford have appreciated that the bits of the cars we physically touch most often lend the strongest impression of quality, and to this end have wisely fitted leather-trimmed steering wheels and tactile gear shifters. The location of said gear lever (on a kind of raised pedestal) is particularly good. Another example of intelligent design comes in the shape of rear head restraints that are deliberately uncomfortable when not slid up into their deployed position, thus encouraging rear seat occupants to utilise them properly. This also gets around the issue of encumbered rear vision when rear head restraints are traditionally fitted.
Nice touches? Well, we liked the clever functionality of the wipers. Youve just washed the screen and its nice and clear, then inevitably, a drip slowly rolls down in front of your face. This Fiesta knows its coming and automatically comes back for another sweep of the wipers two seconds after the wash cycle is complete. Plus, as is becoming usual, the rear wiper sweeps automatically if you select reverse with the front wipers going.
So is Fords latest Fiesta good enough? In many respects, yes. Excellent dynamics, carried forward from the old car, now complement a spacious and versatile cabin. Indeed, if the standard in this class wasnt as high as it is, we could be talking about a new era for Supermini drivers here. As it is, the Fiesta faithful will be delighted to sign on the dotted line, while many others will surprise themselves by enjoying this feisty Ford.
FACTS AT A GLANCE
CAR: Ford Fiesta 1.4 16v range
PRICES: £9,195-£11,845 on the road
INSURANCE GROUPS: 4-5
CO2 EMISSIONS: 153g/km
PERFORMANCE: 0-60mph 13.2s / Max Speed 104mph
FUEL CONSUMPTION: (urban) 32.1mpg / (extra urban) 60.1mpg / (combined) 45.6mpg
STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Driver's and passenger airbags
WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: length/width/height 3917/1800/1432mm
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