A 1-litre car will normally elicit jokes about not having enough power to pull a frog off a water lily.
Try to explain that you’re replacing a four-cylinder 1600cc engine with a three-cylinder 999cc and raising the car’s price – as Ford has done with its Fiesta 1.0T – and consumers may understandably get a little tetchy.
Most people accept that with today’s hi-tech engine technology, cubic capacity isn’t always king, and that smaller turbocharged engines deliver terrific all-altitude power and fuel economy.
However, as we awaited delivery of our Fiesta 1.0T Titanium test car, we did harbour a fear that the 999cc EcoBoost engine might just have taken downsizing too far, leading to an overstressed little engine that needs to be thrashed mercilessly to extract its performance. Even if it did win the overall 2012 World Engine of the Year award. We’re happy to report our fears proved unfounded once we got behind the wheel, and that little EcoBoost engine is a pleasant surprise both in terms of performance and refinement.
ALMOST AN XR6
Equipped with modern mojo like direct injection and a turbocharger, the tiny mill delivers very respectable outputs of 92kW and 170Nm, making it more powerful than the normally-aspirated 88kW/152Nm 1.6-litre it replaces in the five-door Fiesta range. In fact, it’s not that far behind the 103kW Ford Sierra 3-litre XR6 of the ’80s.
In performance terms, the 1-litre Fiesta really does punch above its weight and in our Gauteng tests the car zoomed from 0-100km/h in just 10 seconds, which gives it more gusto than most normally-aspirated 1600s at altitude, and remarkably, some 2-litre cars too.
Best of all, it’s a user-friendly power delivery that doesn’t require frantic revving. At altitude there’s a little turbo lag and you need to ensure the revs don’t drop too low lest you get stuck in a dead spot, but the engine never feels like it needs to be worked hard. It delivers the goods in a silent and refined fashion, and at 120km/h in fifth gear it’s loping along at a leisurely 2 600rpm. It’s perhaps almost too relaxed, and shorter gearing would probably have added a little more zing to its overtaking performance.
The rather tall gearing was probably an effort to keep fuel consumption down, along with the fitment of a stop-start system. Our test car achieved a 6.7 litres per 100km average in a mix of town/freeway driving, which is slightly lower than the old 1.6 but much higher than Ford’s very optimistic 4.3 litre claim.
Along with the introduction of the EcoBoost engine the entire Fiesta range has been given a mid-life make-over, which included a facelift, new gadgets, and an upgraded chassis to improve the ride quality.
FUN TO CHUCK AROUND
The ride’s pretty decent for a compact car and it’s only on badly scarred roads that it becomes jittery. The Fiesta’s always been fun to chuck around and the car feels very alert and flickable in the corners.
With its visual make-over, which includes a distinctly Aston Martin-like new grille, the Fiesta’s one of the better-looking cars on the compact-hatchback catwalk. The sassy styling continues in the cabin with its appealing mix of classy surfaces, sporty flair, and ergonomics. Learning how to operate the Fiesta’s toys – and the car has a lot of them – is intuitive on the neatly laid out fascia.
The Fiesta 1.0T Titanium sells for R231 500, which, despite all the good things we’ve said about the performance, is still enough to make your eye twitch nervously. But the top-of-the-range Titanium comes very well specced for a B-segment hatchback and its bag of toys includes 16” alloys, seven air bags, ESP stability control, keyless entry with start button, leather steering wheel, hill launch assist, rain sensing wipers, and cruise control, among others.
Hi-tech gadgets include Ford’s Sync infotainment system that communicates with most smartphones and MP3 players. It recognises voice commands and will read your text messages out to you.
The upgrade included the addition of Ford’s MyKey system which allows parents to set items like music volume, speed warning and maximum speed before handing the keys over to their teenager.
As before, the Fiesta is offered in Ambiente, Trend and Titanium derivatives and all versions come standard with a four-year/120 000km warranty and four-year/60 000km service plan.
VERDICT
Discard your cubes-are-king prejudices. Proof that size doesn’t always count, the 1 litre Fiesta’s a flyweight with a middleweight’s punch. The pace comes with impressively silk-coated refinement, even though the fuel consumption doesn’t quite match the lofty claims. -Drive Times
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