re: I am in love again...with the New Ford Fiesta :: Text + Video Review! Thank you all for your wishes. 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
Last edited by aseem : 6th February 2012 at 19:27.
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