Category: Superminis 
Price Range: No data available
Excellent interior space, practical, good safety features, good handling.
Most engines could do with more pep; hard seats, noisy diesel, excessive road noise on big wheels, one or two inconvenient features.
Sensible and fun to drive on the right road, but a bit dull; it also feels a little cheap and flimsy.
The new Fiesta is certainly a step up from the old one. Its interior is constructed from better quality materials and the entire car has an impressive air of solidity about it. The impression of quality is heightened by the use of aluminium on the interior door handles, the gearknob and around the air vents and gearlever.
Yet these highlights fail to dispel the air of cheapness that pervades the car - it just doesn't feel as solidly constructed as, say, the new heavyweight Clio, or as precisely finished as a Yaris or Polo, despite the freshening-up of interior plastics it has received for 2006.
In terms of general reliability, it's been rated averagely in customer satisfaction surveys, but as a Ford, should be relatively simple, straightforward and cheap to maintain - an independent garage will be able to work on it if the main dealer service charges are a bit too much to stomach.
Early faults reported have included poor seals on the pollen filter, ECU and electrical glitches, heater problems and, in 1.4 TDCi models, broken fuel pipes - but all fairly minor stuff and par for the course in a newly-launched mass-market car.
