>primitive and frantically buzzy
I'ts not only washing machines like the Fiesta which can feel like this if you're used to big, lazy cars.
When my Mazda 6 (2.0 petrol auto) was being serviced a few weeks back, they gave me a 1.6 manual Mazda 3 for the day. Not a small car by any stretch, but it felt gutless and buzzy to me. Didn't like it all. Had a hideously high bite on the clutch too, which was a bit of a problem coming out of an auto. Nasty thing. Certainly put to bed the thoughts I'd been having recently about downsizing due to the 6's enormous thirst, in the type of driving I mainly use it for. 275 miles out of 65 quid fill ups. Eek.
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I find car snobbery quite amusing really when you think ten years ago my dad was more than happy to be buzzing around in this because it was quicker than a bus. Sadly even though it had an MOT the local plod didn't quite agree.
i167.photobucket.com/albums/u141/amazingtrade/lada...g
I actually like driving my dads 13 year old Fiesta, it has a cornering abalility which no other car I have driven has matched. You just chuck into the bends and it follows neatly.
I can't see that Ford would emit sound proofing, is there a chance the hire car had been in accident and badly repaired?
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Rattle,
Cast aside the badged snobbery,
People forget, unless you were in the motor tade or worked in an independant garage, you will know that there is no real value for money when you buy cars at a set price, you may think you have a better bargain on that particular manufacturer because it is better equipped & feels more-or-less the same as the "more expensive" car you test drove previously but car manufacturers are out there to make money.
They have the costs of the parts/materials all mapped out well before the model is released on sale.
i.e Fords always seem better value for money over VAG/Vauxhalll as you think you are getting a better car with more toys to play with, so you can't help but love it. Then you get these car lovers & unofficial clubs who go one step further by wrapping their own ego's around their cars by praising them as if they are the god/godess of reliability/quality encouraging the world to switch to that particular car.
Every car has its fault & anything goes after a warranty when the car needs M.O.T's. Re-sale/Depreciation rates never lie...
If the car manufacturer is a known offender for producing fast depreciating cars then the parts/components they use are cheap Or if they switch to more expensive parts then they will start cutting corners on other things like sound-proofing & door seals etc etc. Things you don't usually notice or visibly see when you look at the range of "New & Improved models" Its just how they manage to stay afloat for all these decades.
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> Every car has its fault & anything goes after a warranty when the car needs M.O.T's.
> Re-sale/Depreciation rates never lie...
Resale values don't reflect quality, never have done.
You only have to look at the standard response to customer satisfaction and reliability surveys to see that: "I buy a car that I like".
Depreciation is a function of supply and demand, nothing more nothing less.
Being liked has very little to do with being well made. The two might occasionally intersect, but there is no causal relationship between the two.
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Can we wind back for a second to what Stu says in the OP:
You're 5'5", and your position poses problems for the back?!?!?
How on earth would I at 6'2" frame even fit into such a car?
I'm going to need at least an extra 7 inches of legroom and probably more when you take into account knee position etc. From what you're saying I'd struggle to even fit into the car.
How do they expect to get people out of larger cars when this apparent situation is taking over the mainstream?
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I am 6ft and have no issues at all in my Corsa B and its essentialy based on a 30 year old Nova floorplan.
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I am 6ft and have no issues at all in my Corsa B and its essentialy based on a 30 year old Nova floorplan.
Well yes I know, I've driven a number of small cars in the past; Micra, 106, Getz, Picanto, Corsa, couple of older Fiestas, Colt. None have presented much of a problem space-wise.
If a relatively short person has identified a legroom problem with this car there is something seriously amiss.
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Haven't tried the Fiesta but to their credit, both the courtesy biscuit tins had enough room for me behind the wheel - and I'm 6'5". (Contrast this with the 90s, when there was barely a mainstream model of any size I could get into. That began my fondness for Swedish makers.)
AE may have a point about gearing to do well in CO 2 tests, though; our 2000-vintage 1.4 Fabia was slow and thirsty but was at least reasonably quiet at speed.
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Im 6ft 4 and a big lad and can get in a mini those from the 70's feels funny driving them, no probs with the Ka or fiesta it's just your used to something else these cars are great for the majority who buy them and have done for over 30 years.
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>>>Haven't tried the Fiesta but to their credit, both the courtesy biscuit tins had enough room for me behind the wheel - and I'm 6'5".<<<
Why does height matter? Surely it is leg length ( or even arm length) that governs the driver seat position.
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Why does height matter? He's not going to be 6"5 and have v short legs is he.!
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Wife has a Fiesta, not driven it other than in and out of the garage.
Wife is 5 2" and I am 6' 2" and I don't have to move the seat to move the car - in most of the cars she has had I did have to.
How many Fieasta' do you see with more than 1-2 people in?
Hers is not especially loud, but it is a Titanium. I can hear her when whe uses the bluetooth phone.
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I've been a passenger in a friend's Fiesta a few times, and have had to sit in the back twice. That's two times too many - the lack of legroom, low roof and tiny windows make for a very uncomfortable and claustrophobic ride.
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I've been a passenger in a friend's Fiesta a few times, and have had to sit in the back twice. That's two times too many - the lack of legroom, low roof and tiny windows make for a very uncomfortable and claustrophobic ride
Get a Taxi instead then you can sit in the front.!
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>>This is a hire car so what car are you comparing it against what do you drive? <<
Well I drive a Daihatsu Charade but the car we have in for service is my wifes Sirion, which is hardly known for outstanding refinement although its not bad.
I think it is a problem centred on the engine itself as having driven it more, there is also a drone under load at 55mph which on undulating roads makes itself heard - sounde like the exhaust had started to go. It may well be that it is only with this engine in this state of tune ( the 80 BHP 1.25 ).
I guess I was just suprised because I expected more from an expensive mainstream small car. It is otherwise very refined, but the level of engine noise at motorway speeds would stop me point blank buying one.
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I've not driven a new Fiesta but these drawbacks don't amaze me. Time and again new models are better in many respects than the outgoing one but then in a few areas they go backwards and it is maddening if you want to stick with the make/model. Sometimes these issues are daft little things but you wonder why they don't make sure the new car is better in *every* respect.
I do think we are in an era when several makes are trading practicality for style.... but the thing is folks are buying into the idea so it must be the right way.
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I quite like, now, the appearance of the new Fiesta except for that horribly designed interior - so gimmicky and gaudy. As for legroom I can't comment as I have never driven one. However, my sister has the older MK6 Fiesta 1.4 Zetec and that's a dog. Its ride is horrenous and the funeral black interior is depressing. It's cheap and nasty and I don't care what people say about its road holding and handling as that is not the be all and end all, as far as I am concerned.
However its good to drive this type of car, occasionally, as it makes be appreciate my new Golf MK6 to much more - now, there's class!
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>>>However its good to drive this type of car, occasionally, as it makes be appreciate my new Golf MK6 to much more - now, there's class!
Now then oldgit, I see you like your new Golf. But surely you would have been better off buying a Hyundai or a Kia or a Skoda or a Proton.
A pal has got a VW with the new 1.4 engine, he loves it.
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Something to do with the Koreans? Now that Kia and Hyundai have lost their stigma (although there's always Chevrolet if you really want it), perhaps practically minded buyers are choosing them where they'd once have automatically picked a Fiesta. Ford knows it can't compete on price, which leaves it trying other tricks to make the Fiesta desirable, hence the (over-)styling and the bizarre colour palette. (I know I've grumbled about five-shades-of-grey Toyota but some of those Fiesta colours are too much even for me!)
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My wife came up with a few other criticisms on the way to drop it off...
Door mirrors are terrible as they are a silly shape, which gives you poor rear visability in a car that already has large rear blindspots and a small rear window.
The interior is jarring - too many different surfaces, in different colours, some of good quality and some clearly bargin basement.
I also noticed that my shoulders were level with the top of the backrest on the drivers seat, something that I havent experienced since my Reliant.
Something that annoyed my wife was that the handle for closing the boot on the inside, is halfway up the bootlid, so not very good for your average short of stature woman ( presumably men aswell but her words )
The longer I drove it, the more we found we didnt like. Positives, and yes I found some - its good looking, no doubt about that. The steering is fantastic, direct and a joy, as is the handling. The gearbox is also light and has a sweet change although you could beat the sync going 1st to 2nd quite easily and no matter what I did, couldnt get reverse without a crunch either.
I think overall, for the sheer size of the car, its disappointing as they made a big car ( for a supermini ) and then endowed it with the handling of a hot hatch but neglected to use the space they had efficiently - they may aswell have lopped 12 inches off the length and really focussed it as a drivers car because it is a patchy success as a small family car which the best superminis are capable of - in this respect the Grande Punto does it much better.
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Door mirrors are terrible as they are a silly shape which gives you poor rear visability in a car that already has large rear blindspots and a small rear window.
Thats the case with a lot of new cars not just the smaller ones, the door mirrors on a lot of them presumably are only for show, they are of little use for anything else.
Interesting view Stu, i dislike intently these new wedge shaped cars, in comparison to the outgoing models they're usually bigger overall but with no increase in interior space, sounds like Ford have managed what Citroen did with the new C5, to keep the overall footprint the same as the old model but reduce interior space....not as it matters, apparently they look good and thats all important.
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"Now that Kia and Hyundai have lost their stigma (although there's always Chevrolet if you really want it"
What's a Chevrolet Stigma like then - can't find a road test :-)
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I think it is a problem centred on the engine itself as having driven it more there is also a drone under load at 55mph which on undulating roads makes itself heard - sounde like the exhaust had started to go. It may well be that it is only with this engine in this state of tune ( the 80 BHP 1.25 ).
It's all very subjective this but the last ford I owned was an N-reg Fiesta 1.25Si back in the late 90s and I was surprised how refined the Yamaha(?) engine was, nice and smooth, so I can't imagine where they went wrong. I think this is still the same one? Mind you whenever I have to hire Focuses these days I dread it, the general racket of engine and road noise is utterly depressing.
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I am 6ft and have no issues at all in my Corsa B and its essentialy based on a 30 year old Nova floorplan.
I am about 6ft 3 and used to drive a mk2 nova, okay the seat was all the way back but I still had enough legroom. A relative drives a 58 reg corsa D and I doubt I could drive that judging by how little leg room I have in the front passenger seat of it.
Modern small cars do not seam to make good use of the space available, so much plastic trim and the dash. I supose you are losing some space to improve saftey, but I'm sure alot of it is styling.
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One disappointing feature of most of these new superminis is their larger external size compared with their predecessors. I must be one of the ever diminishing number of people in this country who use their garage, not for junk, but for garaging the smaller of the cars in our possession but all these new models are defeating us with that wish now.
The 'new' Renault Clio is hugue as is the new Polo and Fiesta thus making their ownership a no no. The main problem is the width of these cars, especially at the door mirror extremities. Some of the Far East cars are a bit better such as the Hyundai i20 and their ilk.
Should we decide, say, to buy a VW Polo then it would have to be the current old one as it is narrower than the very newest one.
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There's a lot of talk in the motoring press about people downsizing, and manufacturers allegedly responding to this by making superminis that were as capable as their bigger counterparts, and when I changed car a few weeks ago I was tempted to downsize this much. But TBH I didn't see much evidence of this, even the new Polo, touted as a scaled-down Golf, wasn't a patch on a proper Golf. And as for the Fiesta, I think that mobile phone-inspired interior is horrible and tacky.
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It always amazes me when a so called supermini is brought out.
The other day I saw the latest Corsa parked next to a 51 plate Astra. The Astra looked so much smaller. Manufacturers seems defeatist on small car syling by making the baby model so damn huge with each revision.
It can't be safety that's the issue because BMW's new Mini managed to be neatly packaged and safe. Then they mullered it with the mk2 'New Mini' which to me looks like a stupid pastiche of a small car with oversized wheels.
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>> I am 6ft and have no issues at all in my Corsa B and
...... I supose you are losing some space to improvesaftey but I'm sure alot of it is styling.
And gross styling at that. Too much metallic bling that causes unwanted reflections, for a start especially on those horizontal surfaces. The new Corsa was guilty of that unless you bought a variant where the bling was toned down a bit.
Even my Golf is guilty with having rather too much metallic trim surrounding certain air vents thus reflecting in the side windows - totally unnecessary in my opinion.
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At the end of the day the Fiesta is a shopping cart. At this end of the market I am at a complete loss as to why anyone would treat a car as anything other than a white good.
Styling, dynamics, badge, can't see the point in any of it. It's got a 1.2 engine and goes from 0-60 in half an hour.
So does a Proton Savvy quite frankly.
I just don't see the appeal.
IMO Ford should go back to the practical, basic cars that did it so well in the 90s. I find no real difference between a Fiesta and a similar Kia, and believe that those who do are trying to justify their overpriced purchase.
It's not an Alfa. Why pretend that it is?
Whatever's cheapest when it comes to small cars for me.
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At the end of the day the Fiesta is a shopping cart. At this end of the market I am at a complete loss as to why anyone would treat a car as anything other than a white good.
If I'm paying X of my hard earned cash for a car, I don't care which end of the market it's in - I want driving it to be as pleasurable and fun as possible, and there can be a big difference between different models. I'm at a complete loss as to why anyone would treat a car as just a white good! :-)
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The Fiesta has, since the mk4 of the mid 90's, been synonymous with being better to drive than its market segment really demands. That's what I've always liked about it. Snobs stick their nose in the air, and go and buy a Polo. We had both, and frankly the mk4 Fiesta was ten times the car the same aged Polo was, not only in terms of the way it drove, but, if our experience was typical, in terms of running costs, reliability and build quality. Not that the Fiesta was stunningly well built, but the Polo was genuinely awful.
We've owned two Fiestas - a 2000 mk5 Zetec-S, and some years later, a 1997 1.4 Zetec. The Zetec-S was one of the best handling cars I've ever driven, but was let down by its engine which never really seemed as "up for it" as the rest of the car. Far better was the 1.4 Zetec, which, although hardly exciting to look at or sit in, still handled, steered, and rode better than some cars costing four times as much, and had an engine which like all the best small petrol engines made up for its lack of grunt with sheer enthusiasm. It really was an object lesson in how a small capacity petrol engine should be. Frugal (genuine 40 mpg) when pootling about, yet responsive, free revving and eager when pressing on, with a lovely, almost Alfa-esque sharpening of its responses, and "OK, let's go" feel to it in the upper half of the rev range. The 1.6, although torquier, somehow seemed more breathless and less willing to work hard. Had the Zetec-S had the engine to match its chassis, I'd probably still own it now.
Both cars steered with a level of feel and precision that no car I've owned or driven since has got close to (and I include current generation BMWs and Audis in that list), and turned into corners like a go-kart. A real drivers car, hiding under an anonymous shopping car body. Although the bespoilered Zetec-S was hardly anonymous
Plus both models ticked all the "white goods" boxes in that they were unfailingly reliable, sipped fuel, cost pennies to insure and service, were a doddle to drive with beautifully light, precise clutches, and single finger slick gear changes. Both still cleaned up and drove like new when sold on (the 1.4 had done 100k by that point). Both SWMBO and I have commented that we've missed them since selling them on.
Edited by DP on 03/02/2010 at 10:17
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Like others here, I am amazed at how big small cars have become. When i see the now rare original minis, I am suprised at how small it is. Ditto the Fiesta Mk1, Polo Mk1,
When one looks at a older id sized car, say an Escort Mk1, even this looks small now compared to a "supermini"
The worse car in this respect in my view, is the BMW mini. Its rather a big car with not that much space inside.
SWMBO is now looking at a new Polo. I havent checked the sizes but it clearly feels bigger than the Mk1 Golf. Which in my view was probably the ideal smaller car package.
Edited by Altea Ego on 03/02/2010 at 10:27
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I really liked the '98 Ghia X 1.4 we had. Lots of urge in that engine, as you say, and economical too. The car seemed pretty well built, although rust was a bit of an issue.
However, the 2006 Style 1.25 the MiL owns turned me off the Fiesta entirely. What a load of rubbish. Cheap and nasty in every way. It looks and feels like it's been built to last all of 5 minutes. I've never seen a 4 year old car with such faded exterior trim since...em late 90s Ford Kas...
The refinement and comfort are nowhere near as good as our old 90s Fiesta either. Ok, it's a lower model in the range, but it seems like the bean counters have been heavily at work here.
I can only hope the materials are better on the newest Fiesta. It certainly looks a lot smarter than the last dreary effort.
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I'm interested to read stunorthants26's comments. I've not driven the new Fiesta myself, but await the opportunity to do so with interest.
His comments about noise are somewhat surprising. HJ's review (admittedly of a different engine) was positive about the car's refinement, and WhatCar (I know, I know) says " The Fiesta is one of the quietest cars in the supermini class. The engines are extremely smooth, and there?s only a hint of wind noise down the side of the car at the national limit. As for road and suspension noise, they?re so well contained that you?d swear you were in a much larger car." And I'm sure that I've read that these comments apply to the 1.25 engine.
I wonder if there was something amiss with the vehicle that stunorthants26 was driving.
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>>I wonder if there was something amiss with the vehicle that stunorthants26 was driving.<<
Well this was a car with just 4400 miles on the clock so I should hope there wasnt.
Overall it IS refined, thats the silly thing but at certain revs, especially under load, it makes quite a racket.
The speeds I noticed this was uphill at 55 mph in 5th, even on moderate hills and also at 75 on a normal throttle opening - at 70 its ok at at 80 aswell, so there seems to be a spot in the rev range which which has something of a reasonance issue - it may well be that the engine lack torque so needs wider throttle openings to maintain speed on undulating dual carriageways like the A14 that I drove it on.
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"At the end of the day the Fiesta is a shopping cart."
For some people it may be but for a lot of households it is their multi purpose vehicle used for everything from shopping to holidays. The purchasers therefore expects a reasonable amount of driving pleasure as well as utility. Ford have always been good at this compromise although I have fallen out of love with them after my disastrous CMAX ownership experience. I would have to admit though that the CMAX was superb to drive even though it was just a people carrier. From the reviews I have see Ford have continued this approach with the new Fiesta and from the sale figures it look like it will be a huge success.
On the size issue of course cars lie the Fiesta have got bigger over the years- THis is what the customer wants. For those wanting a smaller car there is a whole class of mini cars out there that never when the original Fiesta was launched. If the Fiesta is too big buy a KA
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PD "At the end of the day the Fiesta is a shopping cart."
CGN: For some people it may be but for a lot of households it is their multi purpose vehicle used for everything from shopping to holidays.
Quite. I have been on several motoring holidays to the continent and to Ireland in a Fiesta. Were the Fiesta just a shopping cart, I should have been reluctant to do so.
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Quite. I have been on several motoring holidays to the continent and to Ireland in a Fiesta. Were the Fiesta just a shopping cart I should have been reluctant to do so.
But, in general, if you were buying the car, you wouldn't buy a 1.2 car for driving pleasure surely?
I would throw back to the oft-used cliche at this point -- "buy a second-hand Focus instead of that cheap brand-new box".
A 1.2 Fiesta, in common with all small-engined cars is slow, buzzy and noisy relative to any proper driver's car. So why would you even want to drive for a prolonged period -- I know I wouldn't.
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"But, in general, if you were buying the car, you wouldn't buy a 1.2 car for driving pleasure surely?'
If I lived in and urban environment and did most of miles around town that is exactly what I would buy for driving pleasure. Its not much fun driving a large powerful vehicle in an environment where you can't exceed 40 mph. The Fiesta is great for this type of driving and is a capable vehicle for the occasional longer journey and holidays etc. What exactly is "a proper drivers car" anyway . It surely depends on where you want to drive. For many the Fiesta is the ideal car. They will surely sell a lot more Fiestas than that great success the Primera :-)
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"If the Fiesta is too big buy a KA"
Ka still doesn't have a 5 door option, which IMHO is a mistake.
The first Fiesta to have five doors was the same length as the current Ka.
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In the interests of "safety" as well as an unhealthy obsession with panel gaps it's no wonder a lot of modern cars are getting so heavy they have to run fairly short gearing with the small-engined versions.
Safety has turned into an arms race, It's all very well driving a 2 tonne behemoth - pity the poor supermini driver you collect with it - however tangle with another 2 tonne behemoth and then work out just how much energy you are trying to dissipate in that accident...
If all cars were lighter then safety would improve by nature of less kinetic energy going into each accident, the savings in fuel would be substantial too. Why we are concentrating on meaningless plant food emissions as cars get heavier and heavier I do not know. Passing laws to drastically limit the future weight of vehicles will cut down on energy used to build them and will lead to safer cars in the long run.
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"Passing laws to drastically limit the future weight of vehicles will cut down on energy used to build them and will lead to safer cars in the long run."
We've got enough laws, rules, and regulations as it is. Do we really need laws about the weight of vehicles?
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Passing laws to drastically limit the future weight of vehicles will cut down on energy used to build them and will lead to safer cars in the long run.
Interesting idea, but would that be a blanket limit, or different weights depending on some criteria eg. number of seats? Sounds difficult to implement, or in the case of a blanket limit, pretty drastic and hence unlikely to get accepted.
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Well, surely you could regulate it by a measurement of its dimensions against its weight, with some for of limit on its overall weight per square inch or something along those lines.
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Well surely you could regulate it by a measurement of its dimensions against its weight
Ok, a sort of 'density' value.
Edited by Focus {P} on 03/02/2010 at 14:18
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Yes exactly. This would allow for larger cars but everyone across the board would have to meet a minimum target for the density of the car, maybe with a VAT tax break for cars which more than meet that target, to encourage people to 'go light'.
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Hmmm.. there's something in this. Perhaps high density (in the broadest sense of the term) drivers should only be allowed low density cars?? More economy... better safety.
Edited by M.M on 03/02/2010 at 14:51
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Surely the simplest way would be to base the maximum permissible weight on seating capacity?
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Surely the simplest way would be to base the maximum permissible weight on seating capacity?
But that's the same (ie. 5) for the vast majority of cars, isn't it?
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I watched an old style Ka come bowling round a roundabout yesterday while I was waiting to join it. It contained 5 big fellas in what seemed to be black puffa jackets. It was coping admirably with the load but for all the world it looked like a huge great black airbag had gone off inside it. Hope none of them had indigestion.....
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But that's the same (ie. 5) for the vast majority of cars isn't it?
Absolutely, it would mean it would be cheap to make a small car meet the maximum weight limit, bigger more exotic cars would require (currently) more expensive and lighter materials to meet the weight restriction, perhaps you could have a seating capacity with a multiplier based on the physical size of the car.
Say 200KG per seating capacity times a multiplier based on the length of the car.
Arbitrary Multiplier (AM) = 4
Seats*200kg*(Length/AM)
A Fiesta (5 seats, 3.9 metres) would give a max weight of 975Kg
A 7 Series (5 seats, 7 metres) would give a max weight of 1250Kg
I know these calcs are obviously flawed as they're off the top of my head but somebody could come up with something suitable in a few hours. Obviously there would be a minimum and maximum requirement (of say 600kg and 1600Kg) overriding the calculations or a SMART fortwo would have to weigh 312KG!
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Absolutely Say 200KG per seating capacity times a multiplier based on the length of the car.
So you're suggesting a combination of capacity and 'density'. Personally I think the density alone should be sufficient, as it takes into account length, which is generally linked with capacity I expect.
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Im very much in favour of density control as lightening cars is already on the way, such as in the Mazda 2 and its a trend that has alot of mileage in it I think.
It even works with supercars because if you want reasonable economy and great performance, you can reduce weight rather than increase power, especially as this improves handling at the same time quite often. Lotus do well in this respect with what are quite low-powered cars.
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>>How do they mess it up so badly?>>
Frankly they haven't!
It is generally reported as the best in class currently, I have driven a 1.4 Zetec and it lived up to the reports.
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Well, drive the 1.25 then, which is the model that I am talking about and which has been made clear from the beginning. The 1.4 is irrelevant.
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Well drive the 1.25 then which is the model that I am talking about and which has been made clear from the beginning. The 1.4 is irrelevant.
Basically the same engine, just a capacity difference and 14 bhp.
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Basically the same engine just a capacity difference and 14 bhp.
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Is the gearing and/or bulkhead soundproofing the same?
I've only driven one new Fiesta, the Zetec 1.6 - it was a cracker of a car. Reminded me of a decent first generation hot hatch in terms of driving enjoyment - only better!
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Well it must have been a figment of our imaginations, go Fiesta :-)
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On a serious note, I checked the reg number as I suspected it wasnt the 80 bhp model id been told by service staff that it was ( it was dog slow above 50 unless you ragged it ) - it wasnt, it was the 60 bhp model. Dont know how much difference that makes.
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Dont know how much difference that makes.
Well it adds 3.5s to the 0-60 - 16.5s sounds like hard work
www.honestjohn.co.uk/road_tests/index.htm?id=346&s...e
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Just when we thought the days of tinny rust buckets were over, a thread develops which seems to be saying "bring them back". Try asking the Mums' on the school run to buy lighter and more vulnerable! If it weren't for the fuel costs, they'd all be in Range Rovers.
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>...It was the 60 bhp model. Don't know how much difference that makes.
As I recall, my 1989 Escort 1.3 had 63bhp and was no rocket ship, despite weighing a mere 830kg. (It did routinely give me 42mpg, though, despite having only four speeds.) Presumably today's Fiesta weighs a fair bit more than that, so it seems quite likely the gearing has to be low to get it to move at all.
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Try asking the Mums' on the school run to buy lighter and more vulnerable!
Ah but that's the challenge - make them lighter without affecting the NCAP rating. Carbon fibre?
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