Ford Fiesta Reliability Report

After using the Classic Titanium for a period of about two months and clocking about 3,000kms, Ford upgraded our drive to the Fiesta. We will miss the Classic sorely, but the new Fiesta long termer is a great welcome. The Classic is definitely a great no-sense driver’s car and our expectations with the Fiesta were a tad higher too.

The Fiesta was replacing a really amazing sedan, and one of the most successful sedans by Ford India. From now, we shall report about the new Fiesta and tell you how good or bad the things are. 

Report 1:

Starting odometer: 9950

Current odometer: 10400

Kms clocked: 450

Fuel economy: 15.1kmpl

The Fiesta is a great upgrade for the Classic. It does feel very Ford, but everything is so modern and the instrument panel is more contemporary. The feel of the plastics is much better than the Classic.

The front seats are much larger with much better support for your thighs. One of our camera crewmembers is 6’3” and he said comfortably in the co-driver’s seat. The rear seat is however short on knee room, the Classic has more space in the second row. But, the Fiesta has a bigger boot as well. 

The new instrument panel of the Fiesta looks contemporaneous. The twin dial instrument cluster is easy to read. The centre console gets the numpad and various buttons on it and the red backlite looks good at night. Too many buttons can look confusing, but it isn’t that difficult.

The electrically folding ORVMs are a great adding and the mirror curves out to get a better view of the next lane. The interiors of the Fiesta have definitely impressed us and we love most of it.

The voice command is a “cool” feature to have and one can flaunt to your friends. Another good bit is that the voice command doesn’t require an accent to understand the speech. The Bluetooth streaming is also simple and really quick.

The Bluetooth can also stream your mobile phone’s music, which goes missing on many other devices. In the next report, we will speak about the drivability and the performance of the Fiesta, in our daily life driving.

Report 2:

Starting odometer: 9950

Current odometer: 10895

Kms clocked: 495

Fuel economy: 16.5kmpl

The Fiesta has a 1.5-litre diesel engine that churns about 90 horses. This is the new generation engine from Ford that has been tailored from a 1.6-litre to get the additional duty cut for the Indian market. This is same engine that will also power the EcoSport as well. After the 1.4-litre TDCi, this is the next-series of engine.

The power delivery is pretty much linear and even the acceleration is good. The drivability of the engine is good in traffic, but somehow not as good as the Classic was. You do feel the need to downshift sometimes, especially at very low rpms like 1200. This engine is definitely frugal, as it returned a fuel economy of close to 20kmpl on our Mumbai-Pune commute. This included some cruising on the highway at about 90-100km/hr and also some bumper-to-bumper traffic in Pune.

All we wished that second gear ratio on the Fiesta was a bit shorter, this would have helped to reduce the lag of the engine and it could pull cleanly even at walking speed. Apart from that we have no complaints with the powertrain. The NVH levels are a tad loud, but there are many more diesel engines in this segment that have a noisier diesel clatter.

Wrap-Up:

Starting odometer: 9950

Current odometer: 11440

Kms clocked: 545

Fuel economy: 16.5kmpl

 

The upgrade from the Classic to the Fiesta has been phenomenal and we loved every bit on the new generation Fiesta. It doesn’t just look modern with its sleek headlamps and cab forward design, but at the same time it is more practical with a larger boot than the Classic. The Fiesta’s has bigger greenhouse area, which makes the cabin feel more spacious. The flowing centre console with numpad on it and red backlit screen adds to the ambience of the interiors. The twin dials on the instruments aren’t just easy to read but good to use as well. The features like cruise control, voice command and Bluetooth connectivity with audio streaming make a strong case for the sedan.

 

 

 

The front row seats of the Fiesta are large and have excellent thigh support. The rear seat kneeroom was one thing that didn’t impress us. The engine is also an upgrade with more power and similar fuel efficiency. The ride and handling both are good just like any other Ford and the steering wheel has also become lighter. The reliability of the Fiesta is good and we were smitten to the sedan that we sorely miss it. We clocked about 1200kms in less than 40 days. We have been really impressed by the Fiesta and this is one vehicle that we will recommend in the C+ segment.