Test drive Ford Fiesta
What you need to do with the Fiesta right after the purchase, how much does the Sony console cost and how not to get confused in the options of the state employee ...
The plan is as follows: withdraw $ 6 from your account, go to the salon and buy a new Ford Fiesta. Then you drive to the nearest store for good tires, even better - complete with 903-inch wheels. Yes, there are people who drive large SUVs with all-season tires for three years and are quite happy. But rubber, which turns a perky novelty into a very noisy state employee, striving to fly out at any turn in the vicinity of Kazan, is the only factor that can drag the novelty to the bottom of the market.
The rest of the Fiesta is very good. Take, for example, looks. New - Aston Martin (from comparisons with this brand, "Ford" cannot escape because of the wide radiator grille with chrome horizontal stripes) of its class. Even the bright Kia Rio fades against its background. And if the Fiesta sedan looks unusual and not entirely organic, then the hatchback is indeed a very beautiful car. Plus, Fiesta in Russia has already gained the fame of a car that is perfect for both a novice driver and a person who loves active driving.
Speaking of Rio. If Kia with a discount on trade-in costs at least $ 6 and Hyundai Solaris - $ 573, then the Fiesta sedan, which will argue with these models for the buyer, with all possible discounts (recycling program and Ford Credit) can be bought for $ 6 ... Regular saloon price is $ 521 hatchback - $ 5.
And this despite the fact that there are much more technologies here than competitors. For example, for the first time a car of this class can boast an automatic braking system (Active City Stop). It is effective at speeds from 15 to 30 km / h and helps to stop the car in front of a standing or slow moving obstacle using a laser rangefinder that constantly measures the distance to the vehicle in front at a distance of up to 12 meters. There are also LED running lights, and a SYNC multimedia system with navigation and voice control. But most of these "chips" are available in the Titanium configuration, the price of which starts at $ 9. And even here you will have to pay $ 849 for Active City Stop.
The simplest and most affordable version of Ambiente is equipped with only two airbags, electric drive of all windows and side mirrors, as well as a full-size spare wheel. For $ 460. to this set you can add an air conditioner, an MP3-capable CD player, a multifunction steering wheel, a jack for an external device and a six-speaker audio system. All this is included in the "optimal" package.
But exactly those buyers who choose an affordable package will receive the most original center console, similar to a mobile phone keypad. This was on all the machines with "mechanics" presented in Kazan, and the versions with PowerShift received an optional Sony console (included in the $ 618 option package) - undoubtedly very stylish, but not so original.
Most of all concerns were initially caused by the Powershift box (you can buy a car with a 5-speed "mechanics"), which was very slow on earlier Ford cars. During the Fiesta update, the transmission was seriously modified: the interface with the engine was improved, the clutch discs were changed, and other software was installed. As a result, the "robot" switches almost without delays and fully reveals the potential of the engine (it is one for all Fiesta - 1,6 liter gasoline Ti-VCT and, depending on the firmware, produces 85, 105 or 120 horsepower).
After the European restyling, the Fiesta versions intended for sale in our country were adapted in Kazan to meet the needs of the Russian market. The car was equipped with a heated windshield and side mirrors, heated front seats, the engine was adapted to the consumption of AI-92 fuel, other silent blocks were installed, the suspension settings were changed in the direction of rigidity, and the ground clearance was increased by 20 mm (up to 167 millimeters).
In order to achieve higher ground clearance, Ford engineers had to change the size of the springs and the elasticity of the dampers. Representatives of the company assure that the increase in ground clearance did not affect the car's handling. Indeed, the Fiesta steers well: it holds the road well at speed and almost does not sway in corners. The sedan and the hatchback have different shock absorbers, and the five-door variant felt more focused and stiff to me. The new Fiesta, despite the fact that it has become noticeably more comfortable (including due to the large rubber bushings for the rear solid axle suspension), is still capable of providing driving pleasure.
But rubber... With Kama Euro tires, with which absolutely all Fiesta that left the factory in Naberezhnye Chelny are sold, the car behaves unstably at highway speeds, terribly noisy and sways. “We have some obligations to our partners,” Konstantin Timatkov, product marketing manager for Ford Sollers, explained at a press conference. The version with 16-inch Michelin tires is a completely different car, sticking to the road like scorched eggs in a frying pan, even at speeds of over 120 kilometers per hour.
Speaking of overclocking. The car we got behind the wheel, barely getting off the ramp of the Moscow-Kazan plane, already at a speed of 120 km / h issued a warning that it would soon reach its maximum speed (according to the passport, it is 188 kilometers per hour). After 140 km / h, the Fiesta stopped responding to pressing the gas pedal: the engine sounded louder, but the sedan refused to accelerate.
As it turned out, this is not a glitch in the system, but the result of the fact that dealers who have tested new Fords before us experimented with the MyKey system (included in the Trend, Trend Plus and Titanium trim levels). It limits the speed and maximum volume of the audio system. In this case, the artificial limit was not needed, but imagine that you bought a new Fiesta for your child. Having programmed certain settings on his key, you can be sure that he will not squeeze the maximum out of the car and be distracted by the audio system.
The new Fiesta has everything to become successful in Russia. A stylish interior with a cool dashboard, high-quality finishing materials and unusual solutions such as lighting the pedal assembly or a pronounced visor over the speedometer and tachometer - these elements are made so well that you don’t want to find fault with the functionality. Although the profiled seats here, of course, are not very comfortable (not from the point of view of the load on the lower back, but from the point of view of landing) and the performance of the air conditioner is obviously not enough: even working at full capacity, it could not cope with the 30-degree heat.
Ford is confident that the story with 970 cars sold in a year, after which the company stopped selling Fiesta in Russia, will not repeat itself. Looking at the updated hatchback (sedan to a lesser extent), you believe that the car, which was in the top 10 best-selling in the world (in 2011-2013) and Europe (in 2012-2015), can also attract Russian buyers. The main thing is not to forget about changing the rubber.
