2011 Ford Fiesta test drive

Drove a 2011 Fiesta today.

It sure ain't what Fiestas used to be!

Nicely finished, very comfortable, great interior features. Interior cabin was impressively silent, seat gave adequate support (for a commuter, not a racer). Stock sound system and electronics were quite nice.

Responsive, though slightly twitchy steering. Capable suspension/ handling.

The one thing I was unimpressed with were the shift points. The 6 speed auto trans was in 4th gear when I hit 32 mph. Then 5th gear stretched all the way to 55 before the overdrive kicked in. Basically, the car NEVER revs. Of course, that is what it is designed to do, in order to get the proclaimed 40 mpg. It short shifts through the first 4 gears, then accelerates like an electric car through 5th gear.

No getting past it. When I stomped on it, it didn't really care.

I actually think this car would have some decent potential with a 5 spd. Unfortunately, the manual trans versions are NO WHERE to be found. Can't even drive 4 hours to test drive one.

The one I drove was a coupe, and had a cavernous trunk, but zero legroom in the rear seat. I think I'd like the hatch better, but that's just because I like hatches.

It's a capable little commuter, and the MSRP of $13,300 is enticing. Of course you can't BUY it that way (the one I drove was $16,700 out the door).

I'd give up a little fuel economy to find some meat in the powerband. If I can find a 5 spd, I'll test drive it again.

SVreX wrote: The one thing I was unimpressed with were the shift points. The 6 speed auto trans was in 4th gear when I hit 32 mph. Then 5th gear stretched all the way to 55 before the overdrive kicked in. Basically, the car NEVER revs. Of course, that is what it is designed to do, in order to get the proclaimed 40 mpg. It short shifts through the first 4 gears, then accelerates like an electric car through 5th gear.

After that 4 speed Yaris- that's what I want to focus on when I get a chance to drive one. I'm kind of nervous about it, but knowing some of our adaptive shift stuff, I wonder if you drove it a lot more, would it change? (I don't know the answer, BTW)

I drove the manual hatch, it has lots of character as a zippy little about-town car.

I drove a 5 speed sedan and agree, it seemed peppy. I asked the Ford rep about how the automatic compared, to which he responded "oh, the Siesta?"

Sorry you can't find a "stripped" Fiesta, 3 or 4 of the local dealers have those $13,000 specials, or I should say Are Supposed To Have Them. FordDirect.com lists nearly every dealer here as having one....soon. Only thing is, ALL of these stripped cars are blue sedans.

I haven't verified whether any dealer here has any, yet. But as an owner of a 1st gen. Fiesta I am interested.

Yes, this is one of those cars where the AUTOMATIC does get better mileage (at least according to the EPA) than the manual. And to get those numbers (actually, the Ford website says ONLY 38 mpg) you have to have really "relaxed" gearing.

Wait for the manual transmission, or if necessary order one, it will only cost you about 1 or 2 mpg and the cost will be recouped by the cheaper transmission.

Fiesta or Mazda2 could be on my future list, but why can't they put four wheel disc brakes on US cars? I guarantee Europe and Japan get discs all around.

They can't always put four wheel disc brakes on cars like this because the manufacturers think (correctly?) we won't pay the higher price for them. Besides, say you are building a car to a price....where are you going to cut corners in today's ultra competitive car market? Do you "shave" a few bucks in the interior....where every potential buyer will see it? Or under the car? where no one will see it and few will feel it.

Go to Edmunds.com and look at the comments/reviews left by owners of the Fit. NO ONE says, "thanks Honda for the 4 wheel discs", but many say "gee, Honda, what a cheap interior".

SVreX wrote: The one I drove was a coupe,

?

zomby woof wrote: ?

??

In reply to SVreX:

I just looked on fords website. I only saw a sedan or 4-door hatch. No coupe for us. :(

My Fiesta in Forza 3 is quite the hoodlum!

2002maniac wrote: In reply to SVreX: I just looked on fords website. I only saw a sedan or 4-door hatch. No coupe for us. :(

That's what I meant. Didn't think there was a coupe.

integraguy wrote: Go to Edmunds.com and look at the comments/reviews left by owners of the Fit. NO ONE says, "thanks Honda for the 4 wheel discs", but many say "gee, Honda, what a cheap interior".

I realize 99.99% of the people won't care, but I still hate the de-contenting we get in the US. Every Fit in Asia I saw had rear discs. I would never buy a new car with rear drums, but hey Ford is going to lose any money over my opinion.

GTwannaB wrote: I would never buy a new car with rear drums.

I agree with this. I hate drums. I guess if I was buying a truck it wouldn't matter, but I really hate drums on cars. Discs make servicing just so much more easy.

zomby woof wrote:

2002maniac wrote: In reply to SVreX: I just looked on fords website. I only saw a sedan or 4-door hatch. No coupe for us. :(

That's what I meant. Didn't think there was a coupe.

Oh yeah.

ignorant wrote: I agree with this. I hate drums. I guess if I was buying a truck it wouldn't matter, but I really hate drums on cars. Discs make servicing just so much more easy.

This............

I was recently talking with a nephew (an engineer for Honda) and noted the fallacy that they are still using rear drums on lower-end models. His response confirmed that he agreed, but the bean-counting pooh-bahs weren't letting it happen.

Sometimes a head nod and silence can explain a lot of things.

GTwannaB wrote: Fiesta or Mazda2 could be on my future list, but why can't they put four wheel disc brakes on US cars? I guarantee Europe and Japan get discs all around.

American car companies are based in Detroit, and there (like here just a wee bit down and to the right) rear discs on a light nose-heavy car are a huge liability, unless you like replacing rotors all the time because they never get hot enough to burn off rust, and they end up thumping.

Small cars need small drums back there. Discs are fine on larger ones, though... as long as the parking brake is not part of the caliper.

Yes, I hate rear discs with a passion.

In reply to GTwannaB:

Not sure about Japan, but the Mazda 2 in europe has rear drums. I saw one at the beach in England last month. I gave the car the total once over, really like it! much nicer then the Yaris.

Chris Rummel

oldsaw wrote:

ignorant wrote: I agree with this. I hate drums. I guess if I was buying a truck it wouldn't matter, but I really hate drums on cars. Discs make servicing just so much more easy.

This............ I was recently talking with a nephew (an engineer for Honda) and noted the fallacy that they are still using rear drums on lower-end models. His response confirmed that he agreed, but the bean-counting pooh-bahs weren't letting it happen. Sometimes a head nod and silence can explain a lot of things.

yEAH... but the cars with rear discs get about 25-30k miles before they need pads. I'm much happier with my rear shoes getting 100k before replacement.

My ZX2SR has the original rear rotors at 75000 miles. still in fine shape. I will be getting a 2011 Fiesta 5spd hatch in a couple of weeks. I will update reports.

How is interior room? I find the yaris roomy and versa is almost as spacious as our 4th gen Taurus.

Interior space was very good.

Front seat is spacious, almost like a small minivan. This ISN'T what I prefer when I am racing, but good for a daily driver.

Bucket seat was OK- nothing special.

Rear seats- I'm 6', and so was the salesman. With the driver seat in my driving position, salesman sat in rear with a couple of inches to spare.

Rear cargo is cavernous (for it's class).

I want to update this with my own experience.

I called up the closest Ford dealer that had a Fiesta manual in stock and set up an appointment for later that day (yesterday) to test drive it. When I get there, it had already been sold and was gone off the lot. When I had called, they hadn't even finished the PDI on the car.

The car tested was an automatic SE sedan model with a few options.

The automatic transmission was the biggest complaint here. Sometimes it would shift well and when I wanted it to, sometimes it would just sit there with me revving before actually going into gear. It made what I would call a zippy car way too soft around the edges.

I felt the car needed more rear bar as it tended to understeer quite a bit around a roundabout. The tires on the example I test drove also seemed inadequate for anything other than driving the kids to school.

The interior felt ok for the most part, but the dash felt cheap. Everything was screwed together really well for such an inexpensive car. The seats needed more support and longer bottom cushions.

The exterior looks good from almost all angles. The test model was a nice deep shade of blue. The sedan doesn't look as good as the hatchback from what I can see, but I only saw the hatch in passing.

The trunk was adequate, enough to hold a weekend's worth of luggage for the Consumer Reports crowd, big enough for a set of tires and a tool kit for the weekend racer.

The whole car felt very European, much like our current 2008 Saturn Astra, with seemingly few design changes for the US market. This made the car feel like a more expensive car than the sticker suggests.

I have myself on call for the first available leather equipped manual transmission hatch. I'll take that car on the same test drive loop to compare.

Good luck on finding that leather-manual transmission combo in a hatch...anytime soon.

My experience so far? Automatics FAR outnumber manuals, and leather, while available as an option on the hatch and sedan, is currently seen almost exclusively in sedans.

VanillaSky wrote: I felt the car needed more rear bar as it tended to understeer quite a bit around a roundabout. The tires on the example I test drove also seemed inadequate for anything other than driving the kids to school.

I'll second those points.