Ford’s Fiesta was always a very popular car, both at the entry level and as the XR2 hot hatch in the West and particularly in Europe. The model had been freshened and face-lifted many a time in the past and one of these found its way to India albeit as a special engineered-for-India three box saloon (the original Fiesta being a hatchback) and under a different name ? the Ikon. The Ikon, too, received some freshening with the NXT version being introduced a couple of years ago. Thanks to its driving dynamics, the Ikon really made people more aware of ride and handling as well as terms like chuck-ability.

Now Ford has finally brought the Fiesta to India, though not as a successor to the Ikon. Instead, it’s a completely new car, developed and engineered for India and very thoroughly too ? 46 prototype vehicles were built as well as 90 pre-production units. The total testing distance covered was 700,000km and was done in nine countries including Australia, Belgium, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Spain, Sweden and the UK. The fact is that the launch marked the world debut of the car and Bill Ford himself was present to unveil the all-new Fiesta. Work on this model started about two years ago when the first ‘attribute prototypes’ were tested in June 2003.

At first glance, one is tempted to think of this car as a revised Ikon, with softer and more rounded lines. It has large quad headlamps with integrated turn signal indicators, fog lamps in the lower portion of the air dam-type of front bumper and of course, the trademark diamond mesh grille with the Ford Oval in the centre. The boot lid dominates the rear view ? the bottom edge of which goes right down to bumper level, making it easier to load the boot.

Coming to dimensions, the Fiesta is 4282mm long, 1686mm wide and 1468mm tall. That makes it longer, wider and taller than the Ikon, the Hyundai Accent and the Tata Indigo. The Fiesta’s wheelbase measures 2486mm and it weighs 1,130kg or 1,150kg depending upon whether it’s a petrol or a diesel version.

Moving within, the fascia inside is an expanse of grey with a chrome-dominated centre console that goes right back to between the front seats. Both the gear shift lever and the parking brake lever are short and stubby with economy of movement. While the seats are of the anti-submarine type, the dials in the instrument cluster have a nice retro look ? taking one back to the Fords of the years gone by. The instrument binnacle incorporates an electronic speedometer, a tachometer as well as gauges for temperature, fuel and coolant. What’s more, the meter needles are LED illuminated and right in the centre, there’s an LCD panel that displays a useful distance-to-empty reading. In other words, it glows at 100 per cent brightness during the day and at 80 per cent at night. The instrument gauges ? again very retro looking ? have chrome surrounds.

Ford has always given their cars pretty decent audio systems and the Fiesta is no exception. It comes with a dual option ? a single DIN, single CD player and a two-DIN unit with in-dash six-CD changer. In cars with the latter, it dominates the dash-portion of the full-length centre console, which also features slide-out cup-holders, ashtray, power outlet and more.

Both the Ikon and Mondeo are excellent drivers’ cars and the Fiesta promises much of the same. The power train is what most drivers will be interested in and the Fiesta’s is quite appealing ? both diesel and petrol versions. The diesel, called Duratorq, is a 1.4-litre turbo-charged, common rail diesel unit. It has an 8-valve SOHC aluminium alloy head and block with cast-iron cylinder liners. It develops about 65bhp (max) at 4000rpm and 160Nm (max) at a low 2000rpm. That’s certainly more torque than in some upper-class models!

The petrol engine is a 1.6-litre unit with 16 valves, dual overhead camshafts and sequential electronic fuel injection. Peak output from this engine is about 100bhp at 6500rpm and 146Nm at 3400rpm.

The throttle is a drive-by-wire type, which means there is no mechanical linkage between the accelerator pedal and the throttle. There is a starter control too ? as soon as the car start after twisting the key, it shuts off the starter motor ? pretty good, as this prolongs the life of the motor. For both engines, power transmission is via the same gearbox ? a Getrag-Ford IB5 five-speed manual transmission ? and a hydraulic clutch.

The Fiesta has independent McPherson struts at front and a semi-independent twist beam at the rear. The dampers are gas-filled all around. Braking is effected by ventilated discs at front and self-adjusting drums at the rear ? which seem to indicate that this isn’t a performance package. Tyres are tubeless, and of 175/65R 14 size, mounted on alloy or steel wheels.

The Fiesta is bigger than the upper C models but smaller than cars like the Skoda Octavia, Toyota Corolla and Hyundai Elantra. Ford wants to open up a new segment, just like the Skoda-Toyota brigade did with the Upper C and D segments. Will it be successful? Well, the Fusion is still trying...

My dream car

Gauhar Khan
model

My first car was naturally a Maruti 800. I bought it when I was 19 with my own earnings. For my second car, I wanted a luxury car so at the age of 20, I bought my second and dream car, a black Hyundai Elantra. I had a choice of whether to buy a house or car, most people would choose the former but I wanted the car first.

The Elantra is a very comfortable car. When I did my research, I saw some of the other cars in the same category but none of them had the space that the Elantra has and the seats were not as comfortable. With the Elantra, every single feature is electronically operated, whether it is the rear or sideview mirror. So it’s nice and handy. I’ve had it for a year-and-a-half now — I have the Maruti too, though I passed it on to my brother first and now my dad uses it for his business in Pune. I drive the Elantra myself if I’ve got a shoot close by but if I have to travel a long distance, I take my driver. I’m sticking with my Elantra for another three years at least till I buy my house.