Ford had a huge task on its hands to follow up the old Fiesta ST, a car which ranked consistently as one of, if not the, best hot superminis on sale for the entirety of its five-year lifespan. By and large its performance division has delivered once again. The new Fiesta ST changes recipe significantly with the adoption of three-cylinder power and it’s not quite as hard-edged as before with a more pliant ride. Importantly though it still shines as a no nonsense hot hatch package, delivering on performance, agility, honest driving fun and value for money. The Fiesta ST ticks all the right boxes and largely avoids the superficial ones.
The Ford Fiesta is one of the most common sights on British roads, and by and large the ST version will slip by unnoticed, as its sporty design shares much in common with the popular ST-Line version of the regular car. There’s a honeycomb grille up at the front with unmistakable red ST badging, but aside from that the only noticeable changes are black inserts on the sporty front bumper, the ST’s unique alloy wheel design, a lower stance, a subtly different rear bumper and a twin exit exhaust setup.
Access the cabin and the changes are more evident. You can’t miss the huge Recaro bucket style sports seats, while elsewhere there’s faux carbon-fibre trim on the dashboard, an ST emblazoned steering wheel, a chrome effect gear lever and bespoke instruments.
Sat-nav, stereo and infotainment
While the basic ST-1 comes equipped with a 6.5-inch touchscreen display boasting Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as standard, with the large majority of ST sales to be made up of ST-2 and ST-3 cars, a larger 8-inch unit will be much more common.
This upgraded system is responsive, clear and bright, so it’s pretty easy to use. As it’s a ‘floating’ style setup there’s nowhere to rest and steady your hand if you use it on the move, but all of the buttons and icons on screen are big and hard to miss. The menu layout is logical and sensible, but there’s no physical home button to bring the setup back to square one – instead, it’s an icon buried in the top left hand corner. If you opt for navigation, maps are displayed sharply and accurately, and are very easy to read.
The old Ford Fiesta ST was always going to be a hard act to follow, and with such a substantial change under the bonnet, Ford has taken the opportunity to reconfigure the Fiesta ST’s character a bit.
Open the door and it all feels familiar – you’ll climb into deep, figure hugging Recaro bucket seats that feel huge in the cockpit. Fire up the Fiesta though, and you’re immediately introduced to the main event: the engine.
With three cylinders on board rather than four the engine note has changed drastically, though Ford’s engineers have attempted to compensate for the loss of a cylinder. Unlike the outgoing car with its predisposition to rev freely, the new Fiesta ST’s engine note is much bassier, and the torque curve means there’s little to gain from pushing it beyond 5,500rpm. The exhaust now crackles when the car is toggled into its Sport or Race driving modes though, and the Fiesta ST is much more vocal from outside – you’ll definitely notice one passing.
Overall it’s a brilliantly punchy unit with more torque than before, mated to a six-speed manual gearbox as slick in operation as you’d hope it to be. The Fiesta’s steering remains sharp and nimble, creating the desired impression of an agile, small car with bags of grip. There’s less jarring through the wheel on rough surfaces, but it’s just not quite as communicative or natural feeling as the setup in the older car.
The softer steering is joined in the ST by a more supple suspension setup. On the face of it, the alterations impress and this is a much more comfortable car, both around town and on long journeys, than before. The new car doesn’t feel quite as raw and connected with the road as its crashier predecessor, but the ride is still firm, composed and ensures the car flows down a typical B-road superbly.
The Fiesta ST is the best in class in terms of ride and handling balance, thanks mainly to its brilliant damping. The system is called Ride Control 1, and it’s a passive setup that can firm things up during hard cornering but ease off when less demand is placed on the car’s grip reserves. Edge the Fiesta ST into one of its racier driving modes, and the ESC will relinquish a bit of its hold on the chassis and throttle allowing some slides.
You can now skip the Fiesta’s decent torque vectoring setup and opt for a proper mechanical limited slip differential, too - thus unlocking even more front-end grip and adding another dimension to the car’s stellar handling characteristics. The Performance Pack it is grouped into also includes launch control and a shift prompt light on the dashboard.
Engines, 0-60 acceleration and top speed
A new 1.5-litre three-cylinder turbo with cylinder deactivation technology makes its way under the Fiesta ST’s bonnet and is a key element of the overall experience. It’s bassy and sounds distinctly more imposing than the old 1.6-litre on start up. Overall, it makes much more noise, even though it doesn’t rev out quite as hard at the top end.
Ford quotes 197bhp for the unit, which is the same figure as the previous car on overboost. Importantly though, there is more torque. 290Nm is on offer, and that’s an impressive figure in a car of the Fiesta’s size which means it feels on edge and urgent when the turbo is in play. Power is delivered low down and stays on call until around 5,500rpm, with the 6,000rpm redline arriving not soon after.
Tested in 2017, the regular Fiesta received a maximum five-star safety rating from Euro NCAP. However, an asterisk has to go next to the ST’s name given that it isn’t available with automatic emergency braking at all. It’s part of a specification pack offered on the regular Fiesta, but you can’t spec it on the ST.
Six airbags are equipped, as is electronic emergency brake assist. Standard assistance features include automatic headlights, lane keep assist, and an adjustable speed limiter. Other features, such as traffic sign recognition, blind spot assist, rear cross traffic alert, and adaptive cruise control are either on the options list or standard on the ST-3 car.
Warranty
The Fiesta is offered with Ford’s standard warranty. That means the car is covered for three years or 60,000 miles (whichever comes first) with unlimited miles in the first year.
Servicing
The standard service plan on the Fiesta ST comprises of a two year/18,000-mile, one service deal, priced £260. Plans are flexible enough, with high mileage options offered too, including a three-year, four-service deal.
The Ford Fiesta ST is credible as a performance car, and it should prove to be a fairly straightforward supermini to live with day to day too, given the base car has already proven itself in this regard. The availability of a five-door ST is a welcome addition, and it’s probably the Fiesta we’d recommend – so long as you don’t mind spending a bit more cash and sacrificing a little style.
There are more practical superminis out there than the Fiesta, but not many of them are available in hot hatch form. As such, the ST squares up against the Volkswagen Polo GTI, MINI Cooper S, Renault Clio R.S, Peugeot 208 GTI, Suzuki Swift Sport and Audi S1. In that company, it looks roomy and functional.
Size
The Fiesta is 4,068mm long, 1,469mm tall and 1,941mm wide, so it’s right on the money for a car in this segment, and you’ll feel little difference between the Fiesta and the rest of the class. It’s not as wide as the Polo GTI though, which feels a bit more spacious inside thanks to its additional shoulder room.
Leg room, head room & passenger space
The Fiesta ST boasts a decent amount of room overall. Up front driver and passenger will find plenty of space, and visibility all around is good. The only sub-optimal areas being the slim rear window and thick C-pillars that hinder the view out to the rear. We’ve found the Fiesta to boast more room in the rear than the MINI Cooper S, though compared to the regular version of the supermini a little legroom in the back is lost to those large Recaro seats up front. ISOFIX points for child seats are equipped.
Boot
The Fiesta’s boot sizes up at 311 litres with all seats in place. It’s a useful size and larger than the boot in the hot MINI, Polo and Clio, while the space and boot opening are user friendly too. Fold the rear bench flat and the Fiesta opens up to accommodate 1,093 litres.
The Fiesta’s downsized engine, compared to the four-cylinder norm in this class, means that it boasts some impressive fuel economy figures, and in the real world it’ll definitely be cheaper to run than its predecessor. Officially, Ford claims that the new Fiesta ST will return 47.1mpg, with CO2 emissions of 136g/km. In real world conditions, and as we’ve found on test, fuel economy in the mid 30s is what you can expect. Ford’s official figures are consistent across both three-door and five-door cars.
A cylinder deactivation system is present on this car. This means that, given the chance, the new engine will actually shut down into two-cylinder mode. While that might sound a little off-putting if your primary concern is driving fun and instant response from the unit, you’ll be pleased to hear that the deactivation and reactivation of the third cylinder is seamless and virtually undetectable from behind the wheel.
Insurance groups
The Fiesta ST occupies insurance group 28. That puts it on par with the MINI Cooper S, but two above the latest Volkswagen Polo GTI. Regardless, it still should be reasonable to insure thanks to the competitive list price of the car.
Depreciation
Sadly, one area where the new Fiesta ST doesn’t quite stand out is its residual value. Our experts anticipate that it’ll retain around 42.1 per cent of its value over three years and 36,000 miles. You’re likely to lose less money with a MINI Cooper S.
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