Ford's new Fiesta comes in as the smallest car in its current line-up, yet brings a feeling of quality that should satisfy many customers. With European-design roots, the Fiesta shows that an economy car doesn't have to be dull.
Wayne Cunningham
Wayne Cunningham reviews cars and writes about automotive technology for CNET's Roadshow. Prior to the automotive beat, he covered spyware, Web building technologies, and computer hardware. He began covering technology and the Web in 1994 as an editor of The Net magazine.
Ford is counting on its new Fiesta to give it a major chunk of the U.S. small-car market.
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The Fiesta was designed in Europe, with the sensibility that small cars can be desirable.
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The ride quality in the Fiesta is really quite good, with a softness you don't expect from an economy car, yet responsive handling.
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The Fiesta won't win any drag races: its 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine struggles along with 120 horsepower.
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There isn't much cargo room in the Fiesta, although the back seats tilt down to offer a little more space.
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We didn't expect burgundy leather seats in the Fiesta, but our tester was a high trim version.
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The Fiesta uses electric power steering, which doesn't fade at low engine speeds.
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As a European quirk, the voice command button is on a stalk, not the steering wheel. There are also no volume controls on the steering wheel.
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This car came equipped with a dual-clutch automated-manual transmission, which combines efficiency and convenience. But we would have liked a manual mode.
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The button cluster on the dashboard was inspired by cell phone design.
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The center display is much bigger than a typical radio display, and gives access to a connected MP3 player's music library.
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Sync gives voice command over a connected MP3 player's library, letting you request music by artist and album name.
