MOTORS REVIEW: Ford Fiesta ST Line

In many cases, it’s a car that delivers a package which makes it worthy of genuine consideration.

In others, like the Ford Fiesta, it’s a car so well-conceived that the consideration boils down to why you wouldn’t buy one.

Believe me, I tell you this from the position of a keen petrolhead who would prefer to shy away from the obvious choice wherever possible and one who is not a huge fan of Ford in many cases.

Considering just how good the latest Fiesta is only makes vehicles like the disappointing EcoSport and Edge more of a bizarre anomaly.

My latest experience of the Fiesta came in the shape of the three-door ST-Line featuring the brand’s rightly award-winning one-litre EcoBoost, complete with a one-litre turbocharged petrol engine in 123bhp guise.

The price will challenge the sensibilities of many Fiesta buyers — a £17,660 list price hiked up to £19,760 with a smattering of choice options, an already sporty trim, which features a roof spoiler, more aggressive bumpers and side skirts, the new Fiesta’s eyecatching LED daytime running lights and 17-inch alloys, further embellished with an optional B&O stereo (£650) and larger 18-inch alloys (£600).

In short, it looks the part.

Every bit the junior ST hot hatch.

Inside, sports seats and stainless steel pedals greet you after you’ve stepped over the ST-Line etched aluminium kick-plates and you settle into the embrace of an easily tailored driving position.

The Fiesta has come on in leaps and bounds in its latest generation largely thanks to the introduction of a touchscreen infotainment system which is actually large enough to see (the previous system was tiny and outdated with its pixelated display).

The system in the ST-Line features sat-nav and all the other modern accoutrements of Bluetooth smartphone connectivity and music streaming.

Cheap, hard plastics line the doors and lower reaches of the dash, but where it matters, the overall feel of the cabin is fairly tactile and the very fundamentals of the Fiesta feel so right.

The seating position, those seats and the interior quality are all unexpectedly good from a vehicle produced in such vast numbers.

Once out on the road, it quickly emerges that those fundamentals extend to the driving experience.

Although the ride is firm, and those giant optional alloys don’t help here, the balance between control and comfort is expertly struck, slick damping bringing to mind far more expensive BMW products.

Ford claims that the 123bhp EcoBoost engine will propel the Fiesta to 62mph in a respectable ten seconds and on to 121mph, while delivering the possibility of 58.9mpg fuel economy and 109g/km CO2 emissions.

So capable is the chassis and so abundant the available poise and grip that the Fiesta actually feels underpowered at times, however reasonably swift it may be.

That EcoBoost engine is a gem, though.

The forerunner of many a small capacity turbocharged petrol engine now available from other brands, it is smoother than any other.

Only the PSA Group’s 1.2-litre unit comes close.

Power is delivered in a linear, predictable fashion and refinement is a real strong-point of the Fiesta, too.

It’s hard to admit when you spend much of your time trying to find the hidden gems in various sectors to recommend to car buyers that the biggest seller, and by virtue the most common, is actually the best.

In the case of the latest Fiesta, though, it just happens to be unavoidably true.

Ford’s sweet spot is truly sweet.