Impressed by Fiesta in the metal
I wasn’t surprised by the new Fiesta on its European launch programme because I had been one of just four Irish journalists who had gone to September’s Frankfurt Motor Show and attended the special Blue Oval Club first ‘reveal’ of the car. But it was nice to feel just as impressed with it in the metal and on the ground, so to speak, when I slipped into one at Malaga Airport last month.
It’s a good-looker. Not as dramatic as the original New Edge Ford styling, but perhaps a little conservatism is what’s sensible in this segment, where what the package does is more important than pushing out the stylistic envelope.
And it’s big, as colleague Donal Byrne has already pointed out. The Fiesta is not alone in this: I’ve already driven the upcoming new Ibiza, also bigger than its predecessor, and VW’s new Polo is even larger than its SEAT sibling in the luggage department. So we’re seeing a fairly definite ‘crossover’ segment coming into place, challenging the existing small family cars - Corolla/Golf/Astra - in the next segment up.
As far as the exterior is concerned, the pictures here tell the stylistic story well. But it’s only when you get into the car that you find how well they’ve put the overall packaging of the car.
Ford is claiming that it is the best packager of people and their luggage in the class. And for the golfers, who in the segment usually have to put their club bags anglewise or through a folded part of the rear seat, there’s no problem - the boot takes the bag straight across.
I can sit in the back of the new Fiesta without knee or head contortions, something I couldn’t do in the ending version. In fact, the headroom is said to be as good as the second row in a Ford Galaxy.
“We worked out what was needed by using REAL things rather than official capacity measurements,” says Fiesta product manager Martin Cooper. “We used everyday things like baby buggies and golf bags.”
The new car is also more fuel efficient, and Ford’s people say that in real terms - again not just going the official measurement route - there’s an overall 10% improvement over the outgoing car.
The cars we drove on the launch days were all 5-doors, and this is the version which will come to Ireland first.
It features high hip-points on the seats, and wide doors front and rear to make it easier for getting in and out. Ford has paid particular attention in recent years to the fact that European demographics show an ageing population, and the marque’s current designs reflect this.
But you can cater for less supple people without losing flair, and the concept behind the new Fiesta is ‘zest for life’.
The dashboard and instrumentation is pleasant and clear, and all button controls are large and direct to use. Like the Focus, the boot release button is high on the dash. There’s some strong design emphasis on the air vents, which become a feature of the dashboard and break up what might otherwise be something a little uninteresting.
In around 300km of driving, in mixed conditions and road kinds, the new car felt very competent. It is agile, very solid on the road, and as comfortable as many cars which are in larger classes. Ford used their own Focus as the ‘target vehicle’ for the Fiesta benchmarking. It would have been hard to do better.
One clear message came out of the run, though: the 1.4-litre turbodiesel engine developed jointly with Peugeot is THE engine for this car. I was absolutely enthralled by it, and colleagues were all equally impressed.
The market for a diesel in this segment in Ireland is small, as there are few incentives to pay for the extra cost. There’s also a perception, particularly among women, that diesels are smelly and noisy and really not to be bothered with.
But if they can do something to get people into this one, I believe Ford will get a very pleasant surprise in the numbers they could move. The one real incentive is that it returns almost 66mpg without trying hard, and a couple of years of ownership would easily wipe out the original investment cost for the oilburner. Plus, you’d be doing your bit for the environment.
There’s a brand new 1.3-litre 8-valve engine which is claimed to be also very economical, but we didn’t get to drive that in Spain. Though it will be significantly down on power than the 1.4-litre petrol we did drive, I suspect from the paper specs that it might actually be more pleasant to drive, because it doesn’t have to be revved hard to reach its optimum pulling power.
In all, since 1977, some 140,000 Fiestas have been sold in Ireland. Within six years of its arrival, it had captured 10% of the Irish car market, and it has been Ireland’s best-selling car 11 times.
The new Fiesta has a lot to live up to. But it’ll be worth waiting for, I think.
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