After teasing us for years with all the sweet cars it sells in Europe – Focus RS, anyone? – Ford is finally bringing some of them to America. First up is the Fiesta, a competent subcompact aimed at first-time buyers and, perhaps oddly, baby boomers.
The Euro-designed and developed Fiesta is Ford's big push into small cars, an increasingly competitive arena long dominated by Toyota and Honda. You've gotta pack a lot of value into a well-engineered car to excel in this segment, and Ford largely succeeds. The Fiesta is a comfortable, competent subcompact that is supremely practical and, ultimately, hard not to like.
With those sharp angles, the steeply raked windshield and aquiline headlamps that make it look like the car is glaring at you, the Fiesta has a definite Euro look. Ford calls it "kinetic design," and it works better on the Fiesta hatchback than the sedan we drove. We weren't keen on the sedan's look at first, but it grew on us. That said, the lime squeeze metallic paint (really, that's what they call it) is louder than a Motorhead concert.
Things are equally assertive inside, styling-wise, with more sharp angles, odd shapes and futuristic styling cues. It's a mixed bag. The interior is comfortable and the Fiesta is a subcompact that doesn't feel subcompact. Even the back seat (in the sedan, anyway) offers a decent amount of room unless you're freakishly tall or wide.
But there's entirely too much silver plastic and the dashboard is a bit over the top in its bad sci-fi movie design. Some of the knobs felt a bit flimsy, and the audio-system controls can be confusing with all the buttons and menus. Once you figure it out, the 80-watt six-speaker system provides reasonable, if not window-rattling, sound. We give Ford bonus points for using 25 percent recycled material for the seat inserts and sound deadening material, but where's the center armrest?
We've long considered Sync the standard for in-car connectivity. But we couldn't get Sync to sync with a Sony Ericsson Xperia no matter how often we tried. We finally gave up. Shame, because we couldn't try the Traffic, Directions and Information feature. It provides turn-by-turn directions, traffic conditions and other info – including horoscopes. It sounds good on paper, but the downside is TDI is accessed only through a Bluetooth-connected phone. Ford says that's cheaper (just $395) and more convenient than embedded navi and allows Ford to include features like 911 assist and a vehicle health report. The trouble is, you lose your navigation if you lose your cell signal.
