07:22AM - 28.10.'13
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News Source: autoblog.com
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You might not be interested in owning a subcompact (B-segment) hatchback for $20,000. Let's be clear from the get go here: there are any number of reasonable arguments for staying away from the highest-content versions of these small cars. Ford's player in the B-segment arena is the newly updated 2014 Fiesta, and the Titanium trim represents the most luxurious instantiation of the model. We recently were loaned a Fiesta Titanium for a week, whose final sticker price hit $20,390, with navigation being the only standalone option added to the bottom line. By way of comparison, the most basic version of the all new, one-segment-up Mazda3 hatchback costs $19,740 with delivery and destination accounted for, and no options added on. Hold on to that thought for a moment, we'll get back to it. Ford has done some seriously good work to update the Fiesta for 2014, though a lot of the effort has gone into making an already good-to-drive car look a lot better sitting still. The most immediately recognizable change to the car has been wrought on the front fascia, where Ford's newest corporate face means the Fiesta sports an expansive new grille. The hexagonal kisser lends the same sort of Aston Martinesque vibe to the Fiesta as it did to the new Fusion, and the Titanium's standard multi-spoke, 16-inch aluminum wheels help to complete the idiom. In fact, when we started lining up the front-facing photographs of our Storm Gray tester we were struck that the '14 Fiesta would have made a convincing case as an alternate-reality Aston Martin Cygnet, had Toyota not secured that gig for its Scion iQ. We're not sure that counts as a missed opportunity for Ford, but the point remains that this '14 Titanium trim is worn quite well. Open the driver's door and you'll see that some small-car-premiumness carries on inside the Fiesta cabin. The standard leather seating and steering wheel wrap are touches that felt like a huge win for the segment back when Fiesta launched, and they still help to set the Titanium apart in 2014. Crosstown rival Chevy Sonic can be had with leatherette seating, but not the real cowhide, and the Hyundai Accent will wrap your steering wheel in leather if you opt for the SE trim, but not your seats. The Ford chairs are the sort of flat-bottomed variety, with not much in the way of thigh support, that you'd expect in a car worked to maximize space for drivers of all sizes. Your author found the head and neck support to be impressive (I'm super tall, too), but the lateral hold to be below average. In addition to looking spendy, the new-school integration of a MyFord Touch-enabled, 6.5-inch touch screen does a lot to clean up the tiny-button-strewn mess of the out-going Fiesta's control center. Our car offered SYNC as well as the optional ($795) navigation system, and we found all to be reasonably easy to use, honestly. The display screen proved bright and simple to read, and the touch controls slightly faster to react than we'd expected given previous disappointments with MFT. As a whole, the soft-touch plastics, brushed metal and gloss black accents, and big bright gauges all worked in harmony to make the Fiesta Titanium seem pretty upscale while in use. But the biggest 'premium' differentiation for the car when compared with its competition is the quiet, controlled ride. Ford has gone to a lot of effort to make the Fiesta feel a lot like a bigger car, including modulating the ride quality to filter out bad road surfaces, and deaden tire and wind noise to the point of class leadership. While our personal preference is to have more steering feedback from our small cars, we'll admit that the Fiesta's slightly light, filtered feel through the tiller is well matched to its overall package. For a small, short-wheelbase car, the hatchback feels more at home cruising than it does nipping from one corner to the next. Sure, the structure of the car is plenty rigid, and should you feel the urge it'll do just fine being lobbed around a groovy piece of tarmac. But the low levels of tactility and the hushed confines of the Fiesta really put the driver in more of a mind to meander than to attack corners. |
