The follow-up to the most sold car
in the UK for almost a decade.
This is the new Ford Fiesta.
Now, straight off the bat,
you have a lot of options.
Like the last model, this Fiesta
comes in both three- and five-door versions.
And there are six different trim levels
to choose from, from the entry-level style
to the rather fancy Titanium X.
Then separately, there's this, the ST line.
Now, this takes the regular Fiesta
and puts in sports seats, sports suspension,
and generally has a bit more
of an aggressive look and feel.
And then, there's this.
For the first time ever, we've
got a Vignale derivative of the Ford Fiesta.
Think the fiesta, but with leather
on the inside as standard, a rather opulent
panoramic sliding back roof, and a slightly
higher price tag to match.
Now, this isn't it.
Next year in 2018, we've also
got the hot hatch, the 200 horsepower Fiesta
ST coming up,
as well as the Active crossover.
The first ever crossover version
of the Fiesta.
That's a lot of Fiesta.
But back to the present.
And today, I'm in the five-door titanium
version.
Now, Ford claimed this Fiesta is the most
technologically-advanced small car
on the market.
But before I get to all the fancy tech stuff,
let's review some
of the basic practicalities.
First of all, the space.
Now up here, I'm not exactly lacking
for space.
I've got good headroom, good shoulder room.
There's a good width across the cabin,
so I'm going to be bumping into whoever
sat in the passenger seat.
But what I did have a bit of a problem with
was actually getting in and out
of the driver's seat.
I felt I had to sort of clamber
under the steering wheel slightly.
And it's not at all helped by the fact there
are no grab handles, either in the front
or in the rear.
The good news is I fit.
The bad news is it's not all that
comfortable.
And I'm not even that tall.
I'm six foot.
The driver seat is set up for me.
You've just see me clamber into the back.
And as you can see, not really much space
at all.
If I was going to be the backseat passenger
in this car,
I'd want to be behind the front passenger.
And I'd be arguing with them all the way
to push that seat a bit forward,
so I can have a bit more leg space.
The boot is OK, but not massive.
There will certainly be room
for the weekly shop.
And you can drop the boot floor to eke out
a bit more space.
But if you do so, it will leave a large step,
making it a bit tougher to load
in big, heavy objects.
So the titanium-level spec retails at just
over 16,000 pounds.
So what do you get for your money?
Well, the highlights include
this 8-inch screen with Bluetooth and SatNav
and smartphone integration in the terms
of Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.
You also get things like cruise control,
rain-sensing wipers, automatic air
conditioning, and traffic sign recognition.
Now, sort of sitting back, everything looks
quite modern and quite swish.
But as soon as you start to get up close,
you notice it's a bit of a mix.
So as an example, the steering wheel
and the handbrake in this level of car
has this lovely leather trim and everything
feels solid and stable.
But, say, open this middle compartment
for instance, and you see this rather
rough-round-the edges workmanship.
And if you happen to give it a wobble,
the entire centre console is actually quite
flimsy and not very solid at all.
And then you start looking around the rest
of the cabin and you notice things like this.
I mean, this isn't even a typical hard
scratchy plastic.
This just feels light and cheap,
and doesn't really feel in place
for a 16,000-pound car.
In a recent survey, we asked people what they
wanted from a small car.
And above everything else was value for money
and being easy to drive.
So is this an easy car to drive?
Well, I think so.
Starting with the cabin layout,
I've got quite a lot around me
in terms of controls, and screens,
and information.
But you know what?
It's actually quite well-laid-out.
Everything is within reach.
There's nothing sort of hidden
behind the steering wheel.
And while, say, on the screen in front of me,
there's quite a bit of information.
It's actually quite quick to gain familiarity
with it.
Now, the centrepiece of the titanium spec is
this 8-inch colour screen.
Now, I've been using it for a bit
and I quite like it.
It's bright.
It's colourful.
And using the SatNav that comes as standard
with this car, you've got your pinch to zoom
and your swiping gestures as you
would do on a smartphone.
So it's quite familiar, quite intuitive.
The only thing I didn't like about it
is that there is no sort of Home key
or shortcut keys
to your phone or your navigation,
to your music actually on the console itself.
They're all sort of soft buttons on the menu.
So you have to really take your eyes off
the road just a little bit
in order to be able to switch
between the main functions.
We know from our survey that small car owners
spent, on average, about half their time
in towns and cities.
So a good, small car needs to be able to cope
with stop/start traffic
and be adept at manoeuvring.
This car is pretty easy to manoeuvre.
I did mention before, there's a bit of weight
to the steering wheel.
But that doesn't mean you have to wrench it
over every time you do a three-point turn
or a parallel park.
The turning circle is also quite good.
So turning around in a tight space
shouldn't be too much of a problem.
Don't fancy packing it yourself?
You can pay a bit extra
and get Ford's self-parking feature.
When we tried it out,
it was a bit temperamental in selecting
a spot.
But once it did, it parked itself
quite neatly and quite quickly.
The system can perform a perpendicular park
like you see here, a parallel park,
and can also bring you back out
of a parallel parking position.
And there's plenty of safety tech, too.
Even the most basic Ford Fiesta now
has lane-keeping alert and rear seat belt
reminders as standard, which is great.
But a key technology that Ford is promoting
is called Pre-Collision Assist.
This is a system that will detect if you're
about to crash
and will apply the brakes for you if you
haven't already.
This system is a key part of Ford's claim
that this small car is the most advanced
on the road.
The only problem is, it's not standard
on any trim.
And we think people who have already spent
over 19,000 pounds on a Vignale edition
may feel irked to have to spend another 200
quid on an additional safety system.
Now, we know from our survey
that value for money and keeping running
costs low is also important to small car
owners.
There's some good news.
The fuel economy figures for the Fiesta tend
to be between 50 and 60
for the petrol versions
and around the mid-80s for the diesel
versions, which is quite impressive.
But Which? tests are a bit more realistic
than the official ones.
So we won't really know how much petrol
or diesel this car uses until we get it
into the lab at a later date.
At which point, we'll present more realistic
figures in the full review on which.co.uk.
So what do I think of the new Fiesta?
Well, I think at its heart,
it's a good, all-round small car.
It's easy, but not dull to drive.
It has some practicalities,
even though the rear seats are a little bit
cramped.
And it can be a bit funny getting in and out
of the driver's seat.
When it comes to value for money,
there are some tough considerations to make.
The more sort of upmarket versions
of the Fiesta are sort of priced
alongside, say, a souped-up Audi A1 Sportback
or a MINI
with a couple of the optional extras on it.
So you're going to have quite a lot
to contend with in the more
sort of luxury small car area of the market.
And added to that,
you don't get that advanced safety system
as standard.
Either way, there are so many trims
of this Fiesta and a few optional extras
to consider that when you go to a garage,
you're really going to have
to do your homework to make sure that you get
the car you want at a price you can afford.
Will the Fiesta sell well?
Undoubtedly.
But will it match the previous volume
of sales?
I'm not entirely sure, but time will tell.
Well, this is just my first impressions.
We're going to get the Fiesta into the Which?
Lab at a later date.
And we can run it through our full suite
of tests to determine just how good it really
is and find out if it's got what it takes
to be a Best Buy.