A NEW breed of customer has been beating a path to Bougourd Ford’s Grange showroom over the past month or so.
Mondeo, Focus, Galaxy and S-Max have made the maker’s range an increasingly strong one over the past decade and a bit.
Fiesta, too, has been a strong seller.
But apart from the Mk IV which, I always thought, had a bit of the cuteness that was later to surface in the smaller Ford Ka, Fiesta has been a good car rather than an absolutely desirable one – until now.
In the greatest broadening of a customer base since the current Honda Civic frightened the blue rinse brigade and wooed the youngsters, the Mk VII, fourth-generation Fiesta has been selling strongly to smart young ladies.
Of course, the knack is to keep most of your old customers while appealing to a new market.
The Civic managed it and the good news for Ford is that the new Fiesta is also long on appeal to grumpy old men – trust me, I know – as well as to smart young things and to all sorts in between.
Drive Bougourd Ford’s demonstrator and you will see what I mean.
For starters the colour – hot magenta – is very much right. It’s the one that is used in most of the promotional shots.
Some critics reckon that the three-door looks sexier than the five-door, but certainly in this colour there’s very little wrong with the stylish body that sits atop a chassis platform that first carried the Mazda 2.
The lines that debuted on Ford’s Verve concept have been carried pretty faithfully into production with their wedged waistline, raked A-pillars, rising bonnet and swooping roof.
Superminis have come a long way since Fiat and Renault created the class with their 127 and 5 – put that down to customer expectation and crash testing.
By current standards the Ford’s 1.1 tonnes and just sub-four-metre length are reasonably light and compact for the class.
That means that performance remains acceptable although the 1.4-litre powerplant, like that of the entry-level 1.25, is carried over from the previous model.
There is a new 120PS 1.6 petrol unit at the top of the range and 1.4- and 1.6-litre diesel options include one with ultra-low CO2 emissions of 98g/km that exempt it from UK road fund duty.
But with our lesser mileages and its lower purchase price and Guernsey’s cheaper fuel, the 1.4-petrol is likely to appeal strongly to local buyers.
Its power output is a respectable 95bhp and it delivers 94lb/ft of torque.
The benchmark sprint to 62mph still takes more than 12 seconds but while the acceleration is not going to pin you back in your seat, the free-revving engine and slick five-speed manual gearbox make for a far more satisfying drive than the stopwatch figures suggest.
All cars save the entry-level 1.25 Studio comfortably exceed 100mph – though wherever you do your motoring these days, that is, sadly, pretty academic.
Fords have earned themselves an excellent reputation for handling over the past few years and the Fiesta does nothing to detract from that.
Hustle the 1.4i Titanium along a twisty bit of road and you will find it an agile, eager companion with steering that remains pleasantly weighted, albeit now electrically rather than hydraulically assisted.
Of course there’s more to driver appeal than adequate performance and sharp handling: such as comfort and cabin ergonomics, for instance.
Even the mid-range Zetec offers drivers a height-adjustable seat which, combined with reach and rake adjustable steering and well-placed controls and switchgear, should allow pretty much anyone to get comfortable behind the wheel.
Likewise, most combinations of four people should be able to get into and out of the five-door pretty easily and travel in some comfort, too.
A fifth adult might compromise the quality of life in the back but we must remember that we are talking two sizes below the Mondeo and its rivals here.
The soft-feel, swooping dashboard and features such as climate and cruise control, power folding mirrors and automatic headlamps and wipers make it easy to forget that you are not in something altogether bigger.
That dawns only when you drive along Les Blicqs or the Brigade Road and realise at the other end that you have not had to pull the mirrors in.
Safety in smaller cars is now streets ahead of the standards of bigger cars of old and although Euro NCap lists nothing more modern than the 2002 Fiesta, the new car looks set to improve on that car’s four stars for adult occupant and two for pedestrian impact safety.
Back from the hope-it-never-happens to the daily grind. The luggage space is decent, though not spectacular, and while the rear seatback drops flat, the loadbay is not the most versatile.
That said, unless you have a particularly large family or – whisper it not to Jeremy Clarkson – go caravanning, a 1.4i Fiesta could be all the car you ever need.
For those who appreciate comfort and convenience – and feel they’ve changed gear enough already – it’s available in auto, which will appeal strongly locally.
For those who managed to stop at 2.4 children, it offers reasonably affordable transport that actually fits into school car park bays.
At the same time it offers downsize features that not long ago were the preserve of executive transport.
Add to that its appeal both to keen drivers – there is a still-sportier-handling Zetec S version if you must, but the consensus is that the standard car offers a better ride/handling compromise – and to smart young things about town (especially in the demo car’s colour) and it appears to have the makings of a retail winner.
So, you might say, the blue oval’s purple patch continues in magenta.
Don’t mind me. I’m colourblind.
Article posted on 6th November, 2008 - 2.59pm
