[singhupinder]

Thank you Rehaan for a nice detailed review there. Having owned a Ford Ikon 1.6 in the past, I am a tad disappointed to learn about the new petrol mill.

@Ford : Please bring the "JOSH" back in your machines. Let the diesel please the masses and the petrol thrill the enthusiasts.

[Surprise]

Originally Posted by Mustang.101

details to be announced between June 25-31 Launch is expected to be by the first week of July.

Originally Posted by siddutta

the other said 2nd week of July.

Originally Posted by NoRules

Siddutta, Second week of July 2011 is correct.

Looks like this is where they will end up w.r.t to launch dates, 15th July 2011. Got this info from a FORD guy.

Heard from another source, that prices & variants will be announced by this month end & launch will happen around 15th July 2011. Any specific reason that they take 2 weeks between price announcement and launch? By launch do they mean that customers can see the car in flesh & test it out

Edit: Might get an opportunity to TD this new fiesta...heard that my friends uncle, who works for FORD, brings this car once in a week to his residence. Waiting for my friend to revert to me

[Twiny]

Was just going through the Autocar Magazine's cross country drive of current Fiesta.
The 1.4D Fiesta returned a FE of 32.38KPL for over 20000km, Average Speed ranging from 32.7kph to 46.0kph.

Any guess what would be the FE going to be, with the new Fiesta 1.5D on such a drive

[souravc]

Originally Posted by Twiny

Was just going through the Autocar Magazine's cross country drive of current Fiesta.
The 1.4D Fiesta returned a FE of 32.38KPL for over 20000km, Average Speed ranging from 32.7kph to 46.0kph.

Any guess what would be the FE going to be, with the new Fiesta 1.5D on such a drive

32.38 kpl over that distance, that too on a road !!! Did they hitch a ride midway ?

[shivasuma]

Originally Posted by souravc

32.38 kpl over that distance, that too on a road !!! Did they hitch a ride midway ?

Its hard to believe but I think it might be achievable with some careful driving. I have achieved 25kmpl on my I20 (no a/c, max speed of 80kmph). But most of the times, we do not have the patience to keep the car below 70kmph, especially if it has a powerful engine.

[aravind.anand]

Originally Posted by Twiny

Was just going through the Autocar Magazine's cross country drive of current Fiesta.
The 1.4D Fiesta returned a FE of 32.38KPL for over 20000km, Average Speed ranging from 32.7kph to 46.0kph.

Any guess what would be the FE going to be, with the new Fiesta 1.5D on such a drive

That is staggering And with taller gearing and a much better ARAI figures, I think if ACI were to repeat this trip with the new Fiesta, we would be very pleasantly surprised err... shocked

[Twiny]

^^ And in the same drive, 1.6Duratec returned FE of 21.27KPL

Guess we should test our patience to achieve these figures. Once my NHC-Vtec returned ~23.5KPL over a distance of 200km highway drive, with 2 persons on board and just 2 backpacks in the boot and engine RPM maintained around 2000.

[souravc]

Originally Posted by shivasuma

Its hard to believe but I think it might be achievable with some careful driving. I have achieved 25kmpl on my I20 (no a/c, max speed of 80kmph). But most of the times, we do not have the patience to keep the car below 70kmph, especially if it has a powerful engine.

Your case is very much belieavable because your span would have been much shorter distance !
The reasons why its unbelievable is because of the following :-
1. Cross country ride and not a test circuit ride
2. 20000 km ride and not over some 100-200 km distance
3. If this is a ride over 40-50 days [ seems like, given the average speed] then there would be at least that many accelarations [ 0 - x ] and decelaration [ x-0] which takes in more fuel .

Was this audited by KPMG ? It would be interesting to read their scope and the exclusions !

[Geo_Ipe]

Originally Posted by Twiny

Was just going through the Autocar Magazine's cross country drive of current Fiesta.
The 1.4D Fiesta returned a FE of 32.38KPL for over 20000km, Average Speed ranging from 32.7kph to 46.0kph.

That was a pure mileage run. Not standard driving conditions.
Means that's the max anyone can extract outta that car.
Even TATA conducts such runs with only FE in mind, only for advertising purposes.
Dunno how much importance to pay to these kind of reports.

[Surprise]

Autocar-Fiesta Cross Country Drive | Autocar India

The Fiestas are well over the halfway mark on the mammoth 21,000km drive, having covered 13,000km so far. Except for a puncture on the petrol Fiesta, the cars have performed flawlessly. Mileage has, in general, exceeded our best expectations. And despite the battering on damaged roads, they have emerged unscathed. Stay tuned for more details.

All-new Ford Fiesta driven - Exclusive drive of all-new Fiesta - First Drive : Overdrive

Its overall design makes the Fiesta a highly aerodynamic car with a drag coefficient of as low as 0.33.

drag coefficient

However, there are other important aspects of aerodynamics that affect cars designed for high speed, including racing cars. Notably, it is important to minimize lift, hence increasing downforce, to avoid the car becoming airborne. Increasing the downforce pushes the car down onto the race track—allowing higher cornering speed. It is also important to maximize aerodynamic stability: some racing cars have tested well at particular "attack angles", yet performed catastrophically, i.e. flipping over, when hitting a bump or experiencing turbulence from other vehicles (most notably the Mercedes-Benz CLR). For best cornering and racing performance, as required in Formula One cars, downforce and stability are crucial and these cars must attempt to maximize downforce and maintain stability while attempting to minimize the overall Cd value.

[architect]

Thanks for (another) great review. Rated 5 stars.

Few points that I noticed:

a. The temperature gauge is gone. Somehow, car companies believe you should know only when the car HAS overheated, not before.

b. Ford clearly expects Ajay to be in the driver's seat, but our friend Ajay is now very FE conscious considering not only fuel prices but also the general inflation for a house-holder nowadays. It is clear that both the petrol motor and gearing are tuned for economy.

c. Does the 90HP diesel pack more punch than the Linea? I understand it is more linear in its power delivery. Discounting the Vento, the Linea Multijet is the major rival for the Fiesta diesel in the same performance category. Both also have similar specs and figures on paper.

d. I am impressed by the amount of space they have managed in the car for a Ford.

Clearly, Ford has been listening to the market very carefully. There are some obvious pointers like EPS, more space than the Fiesta classic and a fuel efficient petrol engine.

What has gone, in the process, is perhaps the hopes of getting another out-and-out drivers' sedan in this segment from Ford. Now only the Linea T-Jet holds fort, and we all know how practical a proposition it is own one nowadays with the way Tata-Fiat support is. (but, come to think of it, the Fiesta Classic 1.6 SXi is still a great buy at that price, right? I hope there are more discounts in the future!)

[mayankjha1806]

Great review, just the review i was waiting for. Will have to wait for the pricing to compare it to the Verna.

[Jammy28]

A FORD guy called me last week and asked me for the mail address to send the NFS brochure. He added that the car will be launched in the second week of July. However, he refused to comment on the price range.

I will scan the brochure and post it, once I receive it.

[rock22]

Originally Posted by architect

b. Ford clearly expects Ajay to be in the driver's seat, but our friend Ajay is now very FE conscious considering not only fuel prices but also the general inflation for a house-holder nowadays. It is clear that both the petrol motor and gearing are tuned for economy.


....What has gone, in the process, is perhaps the hopes of getting another out-and-out drivers' sedan in this segment from Ford....

Hello Everyone!

This is my first post to the forum, but on a slightly sad note...

About 8 months back I somehow landed on this forum when I was about to buy my second car. I had been looking for a good looking family car which is fun to drive as well and I had almost decided on Fiesta (now Classic) SXi petrol. The earlier thread helped to postpone my decision and have been anxiously waiting since then for the New Ford Fiesta. When it was unveiled last month, my sons were thrilled to see the kinetic looks and the array of features and gizmos on offer... and we waited for the exclusive Team-BHP review !

Rehaan's review was simply SUPERB, covering almost all the aspects of the new sedan in detail. But the not-so-peppy petrol engine has left me greatly disappointed. Just hoping that Ford is listening, and the actual production version would come out to be better than the review vehicles

[Cooltronics]

Thanks a lot for such wonderful review Rehaan. I happen to take a small TD the Diesel Fiesta since its still not launched and I was simply taken away by the refinement of the Diesel engine and the torque it generated. This was based on a very small TD and I might be wrong. What I liked about this car was the shape and its curves, quite different from the crop of cars we see on Indian roads. It looked jaw dropping from front but the happiness didn't last long as I sat inside. Interiors are quite refreshing but the legroom and shoulder room is extremely disappointing. Rear seat is quite cramped especially when a 6 feet tall person is driving and I'm sure it hurts after paying a bombshell for a premium segment car. I could compare the rear leg room with that of Polo. I found the Fiesta Classic more roomy. Diesel engine seemed flawless and I found it again a driver's car but not a family car at this price seeing the rear seating space.