Category: Superminis 
Price Range: £11,295 to £15,945
Fun to drive; cheap to buy and run; comfortable and refined; good engines; sharper design.
Rear-seat space not great; no flat-folding/tumbling/sliding rear seats.
The Fiesta is back at the party; a super new supermini that would merit the full five stars if had had a little more load-space versatility.
This lighter-but-stiffer Ford Fiesta hasn't been through the Euro NCAP crash tests yet, but the structurally-similar Mazda 2 achieved the full five stars for overall adult occupant safety, four for child protection but just two for pedestrian protection. However, NCAP is revising its overall rating system to put greater weight on child and pedestrian protection, and introducing some new tests including whiplash assessment, so we'll have to wait and see if the Fiesta turns up with a five-star score.
It's well-equipped, though: all versions have front, side and new driver's knee-protecting airbags, with full-length head-protecting curtain airbags optional, plus three-point seatbelts for all three rear seats and Isofix child seat mounting points.
The front seatbelts have pre-tensioners and the side airbags cleverly deploy from the seats' side bolsters. And if you should hit an unfortunate bystander, Ford notes that the redesign of items such as bonnet hinges, windscreen wipers and bumpers should help limit the damage. Security devices include an immobiliser and 'smart' key, double locking (except on entry-level Studio models), ID-marked components and, for Zetec S and Titanium-spec models, an alarm.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Ford Fiesta
wrote on 22 11 2008