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Road Test of the Ford Fiesta, sorta, on the streets of New York
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The Ford Fiesta has been touted as, among other things, a city car. Thanks to its compact dimensions, it is said it’s capable of easily navigating urban traffic. So when we were offered the opportunity to drive a Fiesta—not due here until summer, 2010—in Manhattan during the New York Auto Show press days, we got behind the wheel as soon as we could.
Did we say urban traffic? Within a tenth of a mile—from in front of the Javitts Center on 11th Avenue and a right turn onto W. 34th—we were stopped dead in the water. Well, not completely. After about four cycles of the traffic light—also known as a stoplight for good reason—we were able to turn the Ford Fiesta right onto the Westside Highway and up to about ten miles per hour for about five seconds, if that.
So far we’ve learned that the brakes work well, if a bit touchy on our test car. We had wanted to drive a manual transmission-equipped Fiesta because that’s just the way we are. Besides, the car with the stick had a relatively large 1.6-liter engine. That’s relative to our automatic which had all of 1.4-liters worth of motivation. The 1.6 wasn’t available at the moment, however, so we were stuck with the automatic.Lucky us. Really. It didn’t matter that the 1.4 was rated at only 96 horsepower. We could have put most of the ponies on furlough. Fuel mileage—the Fiesta 1.4 automatic has an EU rating of 31.7/55.3/43.5 (urban/extra-urban/combined)--was becoming moot. Fuel per hours of operation would have been more like it.
In fits and starts we made our way northward. At least the driver’s seat was comfortable and the instrument panel legible, not that we were using the speedometer very much. The center stack controls had flair, with the assorted buttons angled up on either side like chevrons. We couldn’t sure what any of them did, at lest while we were doing. Manhattan drivers aren’t known for courtesy, particularly in bumper-to-bumper, side-mirror-to-side-mirror driving conditions, and we didn’t want to send this Fiesta home dented and scarred.
What little of the steering we were able to experience suggested an overall lightness of operation, and although the Ford Fiesta soaked up most of the nastiness of Gotham’s abused roadways, “light” is the word we’d scribble into our notebook.
Realizing that another journalist would be waiting for his turn in traffic, we steered our Ford Fiesta off the Westside Highway and onto W. 42nd Street. It’s not much better. We’re backed up to the corner because we’re mired in “tunnel traffic,” cars and trucks trying to funnel into the Lincoln Tunnel. There’s a black Mitsubishi Galant with white sideswipe scratches the length its right side. We yield and it pulls ahead. Ah, the buff-colored license plate of a New Jersey driver. Figures.
The Ford Fiesta’s styling is inspired by the Ford Verve concept car, but even before that, Ford was researching the world markets, including that of North America, to develop a world car that could be adapted to local conditions.
View the photo gallery for more pictures of the Ford Fiesta.
“Style is king,” according to Ford’s Executive Director of Small Cars. “So in designing the Verve Concept – and ultimately the new Fiesta – it was a matter of judging the subtle differences in style preferences, rather than adjusting to completely separate treatments. The initial reception to the three Verve Concept vehicles said it all – the core design worked for everyone.”
But once that stylish Ford Fiesta made that right turn onto 11th Avenue and into the right lanes—tunnel traffic moved to the left—we were home free. A lucky few red lights gave us the opportunity to mash the throttle from a stop. And with three aboard, acceleration was, well, using the word “acceleration” is an exaggeration. Ford reports the Fiesta runs from zero to 62 mph (100km/h) in 13.9 seconds. We have no doubt. The 1.6-liter, not available with an automatic, can do the 0-62 mph sprint in 9.9 seconds. Not that we had that much time before turning back into the Javitts lower drive.But will it, as they say, play in Peoria? Ford hopes it will play on the internet, having provided 100 “Fiesta Movement” Agents with a Fiesta to use their social networking abilities to spread the word. Ford says about the Agents:
· Two applicants have more than 30,000 MySpace friends
· Six applicants are YouTube personalities with more than 20,000 subscribers
· Seven applicants are bloggers with more than 100,000 views per month
· Eight applicants have more than 2,000 Facebook friends
· Twenty applicants have more than 2,000 followers on Twitter
We think the Ford Fiesta should play well with the agents. It played well with us. We just hope they don’t have to play in traffic as much as we did.
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