Initial impression-pretty good. Review on Ford Fiesta

16/07/07 I purchased the Fiesta 1.4 ZXi petrol on 12/07/07. It has run only 200 kms and writing a review at this point would definitely lack certain aspects. To begin with, my experience with the dealer 'South City Ford, Delhi' has been very good indeed.(Special mention for Janesh & Deepak).

The engine starts with very little sound, . Although it can't have the pick up of 1.6 L but it puts in an amazing thrust when the engine just crosses 2000 rpm(you can really feel it). The ride is fabulous, the engine highly responsive. The handling and cornering shows the great finesse that the engineers had while designing the vehicle. In city conditions, the gears have to be shifted, I tried a few times without them but then you can't have the power of a 1.6L or 1.8 L. The AC is fabulous. The cup holders area and front console is pretty good. The areas where it can't surpass the great Honda 'City' are of course, the rear leg room, possibly the interiors and of course the mileage( though this is a new car, but I feel that the fuel consumption is much higher than what I had expected). Fiesta owners may please advise me on this as they must have gone through this stage and what they experienced.

The fuel indicator is bad. The DTE meter gives reading which are definitely not accurate. Ford technicians and engineers should properly advise the new car buyers on how to interpret it.

I also feel that the ground clearance should be a little more, although Delhi roads are much better than the rest. SX4 rules in this part.

The steering is also pretty good, not much difference with City but City's gear shifting maybe more effortless.

Looks of a vehicle can be relative. Though this one is pretty good-looking, I feel that the Aveo scores higher in both interiors & exteriors and City & Verna scores higher in the interiors in this department.

At this point of time, saying anything more would be biased.or wrong. Let me touch 3000km and I will write about other things.....

*27-09-07

Till now,  I have covered 3000 kms and thought it to be a good time to write my 2nd review.

The car has a great steering response and great manouvering capabilities at high speeds. The pickup is excellent at 3rd and even 4th gear but there is a definite let down at top gear, the rpm increase is proportinately less too. I will ask the technicians to do some fine tuning in this regard in my next servicing.

The AC is too good and comfort level is also pretty high as compared to other cars in this segment, but still can't match with the ergonomics of City especially in the rear seats.The boot space is also good but lesser than SX4, Verna & Logan.

The ground clearance may be better than City's but a little more would have been great, I had written about this before...in the meantime it has hit the bumps a couple of times. The bonnet opening switch at the other end of the driver's seat is also not a nice thing.

The turning radius is again great, one of the best in this segment undoubtedly.

There have been a lot of complaints about the expensive parts and servicing costs of Ford India. I am yet to encounter that...but there is definitely a lot of truth in them. One more thing I like is the dashboard but the DTE meter may not be accurate one as I had written before.

I have driven this car a lot on highways...one word for drivers here...please shift a gear or two back while overtaking. It is pretty poor in this at top gear. I have felt some vibration above 120 km/ hr speed. Can't conclude just at this stage, will ask the technicians for some fine tuning.

The car has great road grip but one very interesting thing is, on bad roads, I mean, on badly finished turf, there is a considerable amount of cabin noise.

The car has a great cornering ability at high speeds, I have tested this quite a few times. Though the brakes are good, I expected them to be a little more accurate and responsive at high speeds

Lastly, talking about mileage..I haven't got anything more than 11.5km/ litre on highway and for city conditions it is only 10.5km/ litre at this stage. I can't say, how much this can go up with higher kilometres run and subsequent servicings but this figure is not what the dealers commit.

I have tried to be as honest and unbiased as possible and hope it is useful to the readers and prospective Fiesta buyers. Please give your comment if you feel like and some specific queries are also welcome.I will write more after I cover a total of 10000kms.

Cheers

Arijit Ghosh

New Delhi

*22/10/07

There is definitely some reality on the poor after sales services of Ford India, I had some experience myself.

On 13th October 2007, I had given my car for servicing in South City Ford Noida workshop.

It took full one hour to open a job card....

They took at least 5 hrs to do the basic servicing of a 2nd service. There is a lot of rush but very few people to attend. Even the car was left dirty when I took the keys for delivery. On request they did clean it.

The very next morning, I noticed that the wheel cover of front left tyre was not there. I called them up immediately pointing out the same. I admit that I had not noticed it during delivery but the reason being the left side of the car was parked along a wall and that is a thing you hardly notice.

Here I must thank the workshop manager Mr. Puneet who was courteous enough & assured me that a spare one will be fixed at no extra cost which he did after I went to the workshop a few days later