Ford Fiesta 1.4i Zetec review

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Ford Fiesta 1.4i Zetec Road Test

Test date 15 October 2008 Price as tested £13,545

For Class-leading ride and handling, sound interior ergonomics, smooth engine

Against Average performance, less spacious than rivals, not the cheapest

Few cars have so rich a history as the Fiesta. This is the seventh generation since its launch in 1976 and more than 12 million have been made during the past 32 years.

The first generation was originally produced in Valencia, Spain, before production expanded to Cologne and Dagenham. But while the latest model will also be made in Cologne and Valencia, production is expanding again, to plants in Nanjing, China, and Rayong, Thailand.

When some cars are launched, so discreet are the design changes over their predecessors that you wonder whether you’re looking at a mild facelift of the earlier model. There will be no such trouble with the new Ford Fiesta, which is as distinctive as the previous version was not and which we are road testing here in 1.4-litre petrol, five-door form, in middling Zetec trim.

The new Fiesta is the seventh in the Ford supermini’s lineage and Ford wants it to be its most significant supermini yet, representing as it does the rebirth of the global car; that means Fiestas sold in Europe will be ostensibly the same as those sold in the Americas and those in Asia and the Pacific rim. Some Ford executives are even referring to the Fiesta’s rollout as Ford’s most significant car since the Model T.

Even if that turns out to be an exaggeration, this latest Fiesta – given the number of markets in which it must sell, and sell well – will be of no small significance to Ford’s prosperity over the next decade.