So after much ado and 1 week of selecting a worthy diesel car I have am a happy owner of my new prize, All New Ford Fiesta 1.5 TDCI. As customary to these threads, here is a brief bit of background of how my journey started.
I had bought an Honda City in 2010 V-AT and was pretty unhappy with the car. It looked great, drove smooth, no clutch, was a looker, but even after spending bucks and bucks on the car, I just didnt fall in love with it. Blame it on my Swift petrol that I used to have, I had been spoilt by it and loved the fact that I could through it around the corners, I wanted something similar, something that could touch my soul, but City only touched my wallet (fuel bills). I upgraded tyres of Michelin Primary LC, new grill, rear spoiler, bluetooth stereo, 2 amps, woofer. Just nothing could make me like this car.
In 2011 my entire family became a diesel convert and I was only one left paying the bills. Bang came news 2 weeks ago that diesel car prices are going to be hiked. I just tried my luck with my family of buying another car/suv for me. A DIESEL one this time (planned to retain the Honda City). To my surprise my parents encouraged me. Even though I did 17k km in Honda City in 1.5 years, but my parents stated that I hardly drive as I used too, and I should take the plunge and buy another car that I like. Even volunteered to help (I didnt take the help).
Cars/SUV's we considered. Here I must tell you that we had two schools of thought, I could retain Honda City or sell it, we were flexible there, and budget too was not something that we had fixed. Anywhere between 10-12.5 would be ideal, but we were willing to push the envelop. So the first vehicle we tested:
XUV 500: I remember way back in 2004 when I had bought an Esteem, my mother just didnt want me to buy a big car. At that time she had locked herself in a Wagon R refusing to come out of it, and even offering me to buy me that car. 8 years later, my mom was here with me looking at this beast. Encouraging me to book it. However we test drove the vehicle and things went sour. My mother even though spirited and wanting to make me happy had troubles getting into the vehicle. My dad too though impressed by my ability to drive the XUV was looking at the practical aspects, i.e. parking problems that I might face. In the end they left the decision to me. I found the vehicle good not great, it ticked all the boxes in looks, good driveability though I could feel the road somewhat. However I knew this could not be my daily drive. The vehicle required effort to drive. It was like driving a bullet.
At this point I must tell you I drive 70% in City. And only have some occasional highway trips (never did any in Honda City as the car never inspired me to take it out on the road). So I knew XUV was not practical, added to that the complicated booking procedure and the fact that the prices had just increased. So I decided to give this a miss even though a special someone wanted me to buy it. Next up we thought we'd go and check out Skoda Rapid but first we VW and decided to go there.
VW Vento: I nearly booked this car. It's not a looker but you get the badge, looks big enough compared to City. But I found the dashboard hitting my left leg. I just didnt like it, interiors too were very basic. No gismos to play with and just not very exciting, though very funcitonal and something that will stand the test of time. Decided to TD, and boy this car flies. I was hitting speeds not worthy of writing here in the forum on open road. However back in the city, clutch was hard, engine not very refined (though a rockstar), my leg hitting dashboard, handling above average (better than Honda City) but just not worthy of the engine under the bay. Plus with the speeds I was hitting, I thought this is going to be not so safe as I would always be tempted to press the pedal to the metal on open roads and given Indian driving conditions, you never know what can happen. However with close to 1 lakh rupee discount on Highline I almost booked the car in the blue (darkish) color that I digged. However there was a twist. I decided to TD VW Jetta.
VW Jetta: If money was no bar I would have almost stretched my budget to 14.8 OTR that I was getting this car for. This vehicle was just so so refined. It was not a pocket rocket like the Vento, but boy oh boy it reminded me of my numerous car rentals in Jetta in US of A. Mom encouraged me to take the plunge, but I decided to give this a skip with a heavy heart.
Other cars considered, Rapid and Cruise. Rapid dropped as when I was getting VW HL (the badge) with 1 lakh discount and Rapid offering only 15k, it was a no brainer. Even though I like the front looks of Rapid better. Cruise, well, it was a true case of dealership make ppl buy or not buy cars. The Chevy ppl made me feel like I was some low class trying to waste their time. Off from my list, even if it was free!!! Well maybe not if it was free
So almost made up my mind to buy Vento, even gave my papers to the showroom when my brother called and asked me to TD the new
Fiesta. Up untill than this car was never in my list. I mean, who buys a Fiesta right? Upper middle class people buy a Honda City, they buy a VW, they buy Skoda, but who buys a Ford right? Wrong. I was so wrong. So unwillingly I just went to Ford's showroom. Alright first impression, car is looking better than I expected from the front. Ok, rear, oops. It just misses the plot in the rear. So I decide to sit inside the car, and boy this feels different. It has a character unlike the Vento. I am not saying its plush, but there are plenty of toys for me to play with, Cruise Control, Climate Control, Display, meaty tyres, handsome alloys, steering mounted controls, bluetooth, well laid out dashboard. Hmmmm things were getting interesting.
Sat in the rear seat, ok its not as dissapointing as I had remembered reading in the reviews, yes rear leg room is perhaps smallest in class, and black interiors do void the car of airy feel. However I drive the car alone or 2 ppl 90% of the time. So this was not a deal breaker for me. Back in the front my leg had plenty of leg room both vertically and laterally with my leg not hitting the dashboard like Vento.
Took a test drive of the car and I was blown. This car was so mature on road that I immidiately started comparing the ride with VW Jetta.
I won't talk about the details test drive as I will cover it in my first impressions later in this thread, needless to say I was in Love again! It was love at first drive. I could care less about the resale, the fact that no one but me would buy it, the fact that my colleagues would say Honda City is better and bigger and now I am driving junk, it was a love marriage and there were bound to be obstacles, but I was sold when I took the test drive and tried hard not to show to the sales rep my true feelings so that I could negotiate a good discount.
The car was absolutely awesome. It had the best ride and grip of any car sound of 12 lakh OTR that I have driven till date. I might as well and say this, that this car may put many cars in 20 lakh bracket to shame with its mature ride and handling. It was like my car was singing to the road, "you and me baby we are stuck like glue".
The power was more than adequate for our City's and highways, yes you always want more, but it was not like Honda City with so many horses on tap and you can never use them as the car feels scare at speeds of 120+. In addition by the time Honda City generates power, there is so much noise that the co-passanger or my parents would always ask me to either change gear or drive slowly. In Fiesta, even at 120, it felt like we are doing 80 kmph. Total and absolute control.
Now mostly when folks buy car in any segment they compare features like bhp, music system, abs, ebd. But no one talks about quality of these things. Let me tell you Fiesta has very little localisation and very good build quality and thus the premium that Ford decided to sell this car at initially. This car has the best music system in this segment. I have two amps, a woofer, and what not in my City, but the vocals in Fiesta are much much better than my City and much pleasure to the ears. In addition even small things like wipers remind you of Civic and not City or Vento that provide Maruti like wipers (in looks and no offense meat to either car owners). And yes there is a price to pay for airbags/abs/climate control and the music system (you are saved the hassle of an upgrade).
The discounts were stuck and I decided to take the delivery of the car yesterday. I had managed to get a very good deal and the color of my choice in Fiesta Style variant in the blue color of my choice.
I thought I had almost got things covered, went to the showroom at 11:00 am with the special one and my dad. Saw the car in flesh. Saw the interiors of this variant for the first time. Oh My God, the sporty seats with awesome thigh support were not present on this model. I decided to upgrade to the Trend variant, only to find out that too didnt have those seats. Mom encouraged me to go for higher model but those cars were available in white and gray.
Almost decided the upgrade than I saw the car in flesh, in that color it reminded me of Figo from far... that was not a good thing. I said no lets stick with the decision we have made and go with the color of the boy racer in me (I have just crossed 30 but young at heart). However than another bummer.. no USB. So this was the final straw, decided to upgrade, only to find out that USB is only availabe in Titanium. So let me guess, 1 lakh for USB? Thanks but no thanks. So after 3 hours of selecting the model, the color, going to the yard in seeing different cars, we decided to drive home with my new sweetheart!
More to follow soon, my sweetheart has some new shoes!
The cars that I considered:
VW Vento came a close second.
Size comparision with my outgoing Honda City lining up the three:
To sum it up, there are cars and than there is Fiesta...
Few
observations after reading your posts so far:
- Folks dont like the choice of alloys. I had a few options but thought these are the only 1's that make the 15 inchers look close to 16 due to their long spokes.
- Going for 16 inchers was something that came as highly no no from reading the post in the forum. The 15 inchers look big enough on this leaving no gaps.
- Tire selection was Yoko S.Drive 205/55/15 as my brother has them on his car and swears by them. Heard that if you constantly drive at 180 kmph and these tires get hot, they become a sucidal tire. Well if you are driving at those speeds in India, I guess most tires would become sucidal and killer at the same time. I dont plan on doing those speeds in India. Safety not only for me but for pedestrians too comes first before any thrill of hitting 180 kmph for sustained period of time. Request all bhpians to keep their boy racers tamed.
Few more
Pros of the car that I couldnt highlight last night:
- The engine is very very silent on the inside and even suprisingly standard by diesel standards on the outside. The diesel clatter is not there, kudos to Ford. Being global engines, the NVH is fantastic.
- Fiesta is sold in US of A too unlike some other cars in this segment that are made for developing countries. Therefore rear seat space (leg room) cant compete with cars made for India. This is a drivers car.
- The MID display shows lot of things and settings. For e.g. Passenger Door is Open. Settings for how many times should turn indicators flash when changing lanes.
- Follow me home headlights. These operate even when you open the car at night. They will light up and show you the car. In addition when going out of the car at night too, these remain on.
- Dashboard plastic and texture are mixed bag. Some very good bits on top of the dash, very soft touch headlight button, all window buttons light up at night. The bad bits are the lower dash.
- Ride is absolutely pliant on bad roads and small speedbreakers can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Some bits that are
missing....
- Sorely missed the sporty seats. This car needs them badly considering the cornering speed it can handle. Not that the current seats in Style and Trend model is bad, but has less thigh support. These seats are only available in Titanium and Titanium +.
Miscellaneous Stuff
- The engine has more than enough grunt for the City at 205 NM and 91 PS. For a car thats just 70-100 kg heavier than the Swift Diesel (a perfomer in the hatch segment) this car has 15 nm more torque and 15 ps of more power.
- 0-100 kmph comes a little over 2 seconds compared to Vento. In real world conditions this doesnt mean much as no one is doing timed runs nor do we have the roads. However what this translates too is that thanks to the taller gearing and relatively less torque than Vento, you do require more gearshifts. However this will keep your wallet happy with even fewer trips to the gas station.
- This car can eat other cars in this segment even with this engine on the track. Maybe not on the straights, but the curves, this car just loves the curves.
- How the power is developed thats what makes it different from a Linea. As in, the car loves to be revved, its smooth and engine doesnt complain even at 4000 rpm. That is there is no noise/harshness/coarseness from the egine.
- Power on tap is ok for 100% of the time in City condition. When torque kicks in (no surge) just a petrol like refinement but just more solid. The torque comes in at around 1500-1700 rpm and this strength is maintained till the red line.
- The car feels like its at 80 kmph even when its at 100 kmph. This chasis begs for pushing you to drive at even higher speeds on the corners.
- In car audio has great vocals, adequate base and its not heavy on ears after prolonged listening like the cars with an amp and woofer setup.
- Even in the lowest model you get some features that many cars dont even offer in their top models (a.k.a Rapid) even today. The feature list of the base model includes:
- 2 Inch MID display
- Dual Airbags
- ABS and EBD
- Steering Adjustment
- Seat height adjustment
- Music System (that actually sounds worthy of a 10 lakh rupee car)
- 195/60/15 Stock Tires
- Steering mounted audio controls
- Mirrors mounted over OVRMs
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Hi Folks, As promised I am putting up the video road test of Ford Fiesta 1.5 Tdci. Hope you guys like it.