SA Motor New Car Review
– Ford Fiesta Ghia
Reviewer:
Mark Borlace – RAA
Date: June 2004
Power
74kW @ 6,000 rpm
Torque
146Nm @ 4,000rpm
Weight to
power
14.6 kg/kW
Price
as tested
$21,490
Fuel Consumption
7.7 l/ 100km
Buyers in this very competitive small
car market look for the quality but have a keen eye on price so to be
successful it has to be good value for money.
The new Ford Fiesta may again make Ford
competitive in this part of the market because they have not had any
thing to match the Toyota Echo or Holden Barina since they stopped selling
the Festiva a couple of years ago.
The Fiesta range starts with the 3 door
LX model at $14,490, but once you add air-conditioning, automatic transmission
and ABS its price jusy $1,000 below the top end of the range, as the
5 door Ghia with manual transmission is $21,490. The larger Ford Focus
starts in this price bracket and it Festiva may pull sales off of its
larger sibling.
The styling of the German build Fiesta,
whether it is the 3 or 5 door versions is obviously European, inside
and out.
The incorporation of the tail lights
high up in the rear C pillar is becoming popular with small car designers
as it also increase the visibility of the tail and brakes lights to
traffic further behind than just the car that is immediately following.
Inside the Fiesta has a comfortable feel
of spaciousness for a small car, as there is good headroom.
The seats are firm and flat and very
much in the European style of seating which although may feel too firm
at first are actually quite comfortable for longer trips.
Fiesta’s dash is well designed and
easy-to-use as the large control dials are easy to reach, however, the
LCD read outs for the fuel and temperature gauges are harder to read
and it would it be nice to see them made bolder easier to read.
Also the Fiesta has good, usable boot
space for a small car.
Buyers will need to be aware that the
fiesta comes with the space saver tyre, which is unfortunate, because
the spare wheel well is capable of housing a conventional spare wheel.
Dual airbags is standard across the Fiesta
range however side curtain and thorax airbags are available in the Ghia
model but only as an option.
The performance of the 1.6 litre, 4 cylinder,
16 valve Duratec engine is one of its features.
Beyond 2000 rpm it is a very lively and
useable engine and when driven on some steeper sections of the Adelaide
Hills the five-speed manual gearbox was well matched to make maximum
use of the 74kW engine
And on winding sections of these same
roads the Ford Fiesta handled well as its tight little body supported
the suspension package.
Back in the city the Fiesta’s turning
circle of less than 10 metres made it easy to manoeuvre in narrow city
streets and car parks.
On test the fuel consumption was7.7 l/100kms
and its intelligent engine management system will allow Fiesta either
unleaded or if premium unleaded fuel is used it will adjust to get better
performance out of the engine.
The Fiesta is a good package that will
give Ford a chance of regaining a real presence on this part of the
market.