As far as looks go, our five-door Fiesta shouldn’t look much different that this five-door Fiesta. Why? Because all the feedback on this model’s styling, from Brussels to Beijing to Boston, has been overwhelmingly thumbs up. “So our objective is to keep the look as much as we can,” noted Christine Hollander, communications manager at Ford of Canada.
Hollander also noted that the automaker is looking forward to once again having a B-segment contender in the Canadian marketplace — a segment that accounts for about 8.5 percent of annual sales.
Ford’s C-segment contender, the Focus, will also be all-new and all-global in 2010. Gear heads have been screaming for years that Ford should give North Americans the same great small and sporty cars they give Europeans. Looks like it all starts next year, which is not exactly tomorrow, but at least they’re coming.
And that’s all Ford is saying at the moment, about the coming North American Ford Fiesta. Which is quite all right too, because that was quite enough preamble for a 10-minute test drive.
On the road
My first surprise was how compliant was the suspension. It might be even a bit too Lincoln Town Car. But it gives the Fiesta a very comfortable ride for such a small car. It soaks up road rumples very effectively — the car always stays nicely in control. And handling and agility didn’t seem affected by such a relatively plush suspension. The small car requires very little effort on the wheel, and it willingly goes where it’s pointed, with minimal body lean, though it pitched a bit under braking.
The engine revs easily and smoothly, and easily meets or exceeds class standards for noise levels and refinement. It feels powerful enough, especially on the highway, where it felt quite relaxed. I don’t know if Ford of Canada stacked the deck by only giving us a 5-speed manual car to test out; an automatic version might feel completely different.
But the 5-speed is fun to row through the gears, even though the whole enterprise is more or less econobox issue (versus the more snickable units in upmarket sport stuff, like Impreza STI, Cobalt SS, etc.).
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| As far as looks go, our five-door Fiesta shouldn’t look much different that this five-door Fiesta. |
Hollander also noted that the automaker is looking forward to once again having a B-segment contender in the Canadian marketplace — a segment that accounts for about 8.5 percent of annual sales.
Ford’s C-segment contender, the Focus, will also be all-new and all-global in 2010. Gear heads have been screaming for years that Ford should give North Americans the same great small and sporty cars they give Europeans. Looks like it all starts next year, which is not exactly tomorrow, but at least they’re coming.
And that’s all Ford is saying at the moment, about the coming North American Ford Fiesta. Which is quite all right too, because that was quite enough preamble for a 10-minute test drive.
On the road
My first surprise was how compliant was the suspension. It might be even a bit too Lincoln Town Car. But it gives the Fiesta a very comfortable ride for such a small car. It soaks up road rumples very effectively — the car always stays nicely in control. And handling and agility didn’t seem affected by such a relatively plush suspension. The small car requires very little effort on the wheel, and it willingly goes where it’s pointed, with minimal body lean, though it pitched a bit under braking.
The engine revs easily and smoothly, and easily meets or exceeds class standards for noise levels and refinement. It feels powerful enough, especially on the highway, where it felt quite relaxed. I don’t know if Ford of Canada stacked the deck by only giving us a 5-speed manual car to test out; an automatic version might feel completely different.
But the 5-speed is fun to row through the gears, even though the whole enterprise is more or less econobox issue (versus the more snickable units in upmarket sport stuff, like Impreza STI, Cobalt SS, etc.).
 |
| The 5-speed is fun to row through the gears. |