Re: Ford Fiesta : Test Drive & Review Seen and felt – The New Fiesta
Happened to be near a Ford showroom and dropped in to have a peep at the New Ford Fiesta. Spent a few minutes with it. A lot of things stated below may be personal and for my body size (am 6’ and biggishly built); some things like looks etc are anyway personal. No offence meant to anyone. Thoughts and observations:- Looks from front : Quite handsome. Prefer it to the Fluidic Verna from the front.
- Looks from the rear: Bulky. Too much metal without enough breaks. But well, it may just be a matter of getting used to things (we did get used to the Santro, didn’t we?)
- Side and overall : Quite good. Simple. Not as much attention seeking as the Fluidic. May have a longer lasting appeal.
- Ingress and Egress was quite easy.
- The dash was a bit in your face. Too many buttons. Cluttered and not immediately easy to live with. But what the heck, after a few months, we all get a bit too used to the dash and rarely even notice it (unless it is exceptionally good or exceptionally bad). Not particularly impressed with the design of the dash.
- The finish of the dash was pretty ordinary. Nothing to complain at all. Nothing to write home about either. The Fluidic was way better.
- The steering felt quite good to hold. Sporty feel.
- Seats were the kind which wrap around you. Wrap around even more than the Fluidic. They give you a sporty feel and will hold you if you try to test if this one is on rails. But over long journeys (say 7-10 hours), it may not be too comfortable, as it is not contusive to changing sitting position. There is really only one right position to sit and one can’t sit like that over long journeys. Such seats are also usually suitable only for a certain size of body structure. They were quite small for me and I didn’t fit well into them. Though, after some more time in the seat, it felt significantly better, though still not good enough for me.
- The seatwas height adjustable and it took a while to find a comfortable sitting position. As soon as I was physically comfortable with the seat, I realized that I was sitting pretty high up (the seat height also has an effect on the angle of the seat base). The upper end of the windscreen was very much in my eye-line. I had to lower the seat for this reason and then it became physically a bit uncomfortable. But overall was not bad at all. Not what the doc ordered, but surely not a deal breaker either. It anyway changes a lot based on one's body.
- The lever to change the recline is a knob. Allows a more graded and precise recline; but in the Maruti 800 days, it was something one was weary of, as they would tend to break with pressure, and that was very risky. Hope these ones are better. Far better.
- There was ample knee room and the console wasn’t obtrusive. Not as comfortable for the left leg as the Fluidic was, but comfortable enough.
- There was a dead pedal like space, without the rubber one expects in a dead pedal. It wasn’t as wide as one would want. Overall the foot well was just about adequate, but significantly better than the Manza (the only gripe with Manza’s space was with the cramped footwell). IMO dead pedals are a must. Still don’t understand why it is not considered an essential while designing the car.
- The OVRM control didn’t feel intuitive, but is a very minor point, as one should get used to it over time.
- The width of the car felt just about adequate in front.
- In the rear, the seat was a lot better than the Fluidic. But if you try to carry three adults, you will have to screen them for size! LOL. Unhappy seating for three for longer journeys. Really is a two seater (and a kid) bench. The console extended a bit to far back intruding into the rear bench's foot-room making seating three an even bigger pain.
- It is by no means as claustrophobic as the Fluidic Verna.
- The headroom was only about adequate at the rear. The car hitting an unexpected hump may mean my head hitting the ceiling, which would happen in many cars. The headroom was more than the Vento (bear in mind that this is beyond just the measurement figures – how the seats and their recline etc are designed also play a role).
- One 6’ person behind the another? No! Just adequate for a 5’10” behind a 5’10 IMO. Adequate, not comfortable. Two 5'9" should be comfortable.
- The boot though deep and quite wide had a pretty narrow opening – not suited to put those biggish suitcases vertically. One can only stack them one over the other and put other stuff around them. Quite a waste of space, in a sense. And we didn’t even get a beautiful looking rear end to justify this.
- There was that ‘almost there’ thud feeling on closing doors. Almost, because there seemed to be a tiny issue with the door alignment. Or maybe it was to do with the rubber dampening. I didn’t really inspect.
- Overall the cabin felt smallish. However, given it’s size was not claustrophobic, despite the black interiors. Light colour interiors may not have looked as sporty, but would have added a much greater sense of space.
Closing Remarks:
IMO it very much seemed like a car made for singles or small families of more developed countries, where this would be an entry level sedan.
It should be a car where two adults are to be in front and kids in the rear. The occasional journey with adults would also not be an issue. Doesn’t seem to be suited at all, in case you are to be chauffeur driven (no surprise here).
The cabin though not claustrophobic, wasn’t really airy either. Just made across the acceptable limit, for me. I personally like airy cabins a lot. Foot note.
A diesel cabin to be driven in? Well, we still don’t have much better than the Manza in the sub 10-12L range. (not counting the Optra). A 1.6L engine with a 50-80k increase in price and some more confidence in it’s reliablility and the Manza could really do well, IMO.
For petrols, it seems the Honda city is yet to get any real competition in cabin design, besides the rather unpopular petrol models of Optra and Manza.
PS: Had written this for the Driven! and Spacious Diesel Sedans thread, however thought I'd post this here and the TD could be on those threads.
Last edited by Poitive : 13th July 2011 at 12:18.
Reason: Formatting, footroom in the rear
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