By David Colman

Hypes: Cute, Practical, City Parking Champ
Gripes: Auto Gearbox Kills the Buzz

The newly reissued Fiesta is small, practical, affordable, and cute. But along with those virtues, it also never lets you forget that it is cramped and underpowered. On the positive side of the ledger, the Fiesta is short enough to slip into any parking spot you can find. It’s even a pleasure to parallel park since side and rear vision is unrestricted. Its diminutive 98 inch wheelbase is 6 inches shorter than that of the Ford Focus, which itself is hardly a limousine. Hence the agile Fiesta is a lot of fun on twisty roads, willingly following your steering wheel command to flick it from side to side. Appealingly grippy performance rubber – 195/50/R16 Hankook Optimo H426 tires – underline the Fiesta’s innate balance and proclivity to carve corners.

The interior appointments of the top line SES model are soothing and handsome. The cloth trimmed seats feature tone on tone inserts that look like they belong on a tapestry in the museum of modern art. Their branch-like patterning contributes an air of Zen simplicity to the cabin. Even the pebbly dash top finish, which resembles compressed shipping cardboard, does a good job of quelling reflections and looking starkly modern. The center stack of the dash, constructed in a V-pattern to replicate a smart phone faceplate, works well with one exception. There’s a center volume control knob for the entertainment unit, but no matching knob to access station settings. This lack requires you to resort to an infuriating scan of the various push buttons, none of which accomplish the simple task of changing radio channels.

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Ken Block, Ninja Warriors, Jaws, and Bacon Strips

Like any good sequel, the action gets bigger and bigger as Ken tries to raise the bar with his Gymkhana videos promoting his DC Shoes brand and high powered Ford Fiesta. Now close your office door, crank up the speakers, and prepare for some high-octane Hollywood fun.

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Honda CR-Z Consumer Reviews	Ford Fiesta Consumer Reviews	Mazda MAZDA2 Consumer Reviews

By Kurt Gensheimer

Back in the early 1990s when I was a few years away from my first driver’s license, one of the hottest cars you could own was the tiny little 1991 Honda CRX Si in yellow. It was small, quick and had an obnoxiously loud paint job that called attention to itself wherever it was. I’d sit in the back seat of my parents’ car as they chauffeured me to and from school, fogging up the window as I gawked at that yellow CRX which was always parked in some lucky guy’s driveway. I saved every waking cent until the day I was old enough to drive and flush enough to buy my own yellow CRX. It never happened. By the time I had enough money, my tastes had changed, and the CRX had morphed into the less desirable Del Sol.

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By Alex Kramer

What a difference a decade makes. Ten years ago gas was cheap, the SUV was king, and fuel efficiency was one of the last things car buyers were concerned about. Surprisingly, it was also ten years ago that Honda and Toyota introduced a seemingly radical technology that involved strapping batteries and an electric motor to a gas engined car, creating the first hybrids.

Fast forward ten years and the traditional SUV has all but died out, gas is $3 per gallon, and hybrids are as common as apple pie. More importantly, awareness of global warming and our dependence on foreign oil, along with a depressed economy, has made fuel efficiency a far more important criteria for car buyers. This, in turn,  has spurred the automotive industry to pursue smaller, cleaner and more efficient designs. The result is a plethora of choices for buyers seeking a more fuel efficient, greener set of wheels.

Although hybrid cars are perhaps the most effective way to significantly increase fuel efficiency, with 9 out of the top ten most fuel efficient cars featuring a gas electric drivetrain, not everyone will be happy with the increased cost and performance sacrifice that often comes with hybrid ownership. Luckily we now also have a new generation of clean diesels that are nothing like the noisy, smoke belching diesels of the past, instead providing excellent performance along with hybrid worthy fuel efficiency. And for those who are wary of all of this alternative technology, there are finally plenty of efficient, well made small cars available in America.

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By Alex Kramer

Pros:

• Exceptional ride quality for an economy car
• Precise steering and capable brakes
• Smooth clutch action
• Cheerful exterior design
• Solid build quality

Cons:

• Could use a few more horsepower
• Tires start to protest way too early
• Interior is a bit cramped, even for a subcompact
• Exterior might be a bit too cute for some

Small is the new black, at least when it comes to automobiles. With the economy still lagging and consumers adjusting to what looks to be permanent $3 per gallon gas, the days of selling millions of large SUVs per year are over and small cars may just become the hottest segment of the market.

For once, American car manufacturers appear to have taken notice. Chrysler dealers will soon start selling the pint sized Fiat 500 and GM has several new small cars in the works, but it is Ford who is probably most well positioned to capitalize on this trend, with the new for America Fiesta subcompact now available and a fully redesigned Focus coming next year. We finally had the chance to thoroughly review the new Fiesta and although we aren’t completely bowled over, we could see quite a few people finding plenty to like in Ford’s European best-seller.

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Driving Sports TV Episode #26: – Ken Block is well-known for his Gymkhana videos where he took his Subaru Impreza WRX STI rally car and effectively went all out, drifting, power sliding and doing all sorts of crazy things in specially designed locations. Now, Block wants to turn Gymkhana into an actual motorsport, and has announced the Gymkhana Grid and the Ken Block Invitational competitions. Plus, Ryan flies to San Francisco to test the all-new Ford Fiesta on an autocross course.

Driving Sports is an online publication and video series that strives to entertain, inform and engage. Click in every Wednesday at 10pm PST at drivingsports.com to watch a live streaming broadcast. If you can’t watch live, view the archives posted at drivingsports.com as well as their various syndication partners (YouTube, Streetfire, etc.)

Driving Sports is a registered trademark of MediaSpigot LCC.
Content is copyright 2003-2009 Driving Sports. All rights reserved.

By Alexander Kramer

Pros:

• Stylish exterior design
• Impeccable road manners
• Silky smooth clutch
• Modern, well-appointed interior

Cons:

• A bit pricey for a subcompact
• Could use a few more ponies under the hood
• Final US version could be watered down

Small is the new black
For Americans, bigger is often better, especially when it comes to automobiles. It’s no surprise, then, that American car manufacturers have generally avoided producing the kind of practical and efficient small cars that are so popular in the rest of the world. That is, until now. The folks at Ford believe there is a significant shift occurring that will make small cars as successful in the next decade as SUV’s were in the 90’s. Don’t believe it? Here are several factors that could lead to our parking lots looking a lot more like those in Europe.

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Tough economic times require new innovative forms of marketing, and that’s exactly what Ford Motor Company is doing by shipping 100 European Ford Fiestas to young Americans throughout the country and soliciting their feedback about the vehicle.

That’s right—FREE cars! Why didn’t they do things like this when I was young? (about 25 years ago!)

The promotion is part of Ford’s mission to appeal to “Millennials”–people ages 14-30, who represent the future buying power of not just the United States, but the world.

The 14-year-olds in this group won’t be able to drive for a couple of years, but when they do, Ford wants to be there with the Fiesta in the forefront of their growing minds. It’s a smart move—getting into this age group early on helps build brand awareness that the carmaker hopes will last a lifetime.

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• Ford’s new-generation global small car to be previewed at 2008 Geneva Motor Show. Its worldwide name is confirmed – Ford Fiesta.
• New Fiesta is the first product of Ford’s new global product development process, with versions due for launch also in Asia and North America between 2008 and 2010.
• European production of new Fiesta begins in fall 2008.

COLOGNE, Germany, Feb. 14, 2008 – Ford’s new small car family will use the Fiesta name around the world, the company confirmed today.

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