2007 Ford Fiesta LX 5 door 1.6 Duratec from Australia and New Zealand

Summary:

Brings the road alive with passion!

Faults:

Nil.

General Comments:

This car is amazing; small, but lots of room inside.

Leather wrapped steering wheel feels great to drive with, corners like nothing I've ever driven before, and the engine just keeps pulling on the highway.

The seating is perfect, the gearbox feels amazing, and the brakes are strong.

The gear ratios are perfect, the exhaust sings like a choir, and the interior is well fitted and high quality.

Driving this car brings the road alive, you will just be so eager to drive it down a road full of corners and obstacles, because the car entices you to.

Best small car ever!

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 20th November, 2007

7th Jan 2013, 23:08

I have had my 2007 1.6L. ex rental Fiesta for four years now. It's the most standard one made I think, and I still love it. Nothing has gone wrong with it, and it still holds its own as a great handling car, and is so fun to drive.

You do need to be careful with what tyres you put on it. I just put 4 new Goodyear Fuel Max tyres on it, and they are very loud on NZ roads. I'd go for local Firestones next time.

2007 Ford Fiesta ST 2.0 petrol from UK and Ireland

Summary:

Cheap little hot hatch - and it shows

Faults:

When I picked the car up from the dealer, the exhaust manifold gasket was blowing.

After them telling me there was no fault with the car, I got the "technician" to put his nose behind the air filter on the engine so he could smell the exhaust fumes coming from the engine.

When they repaired the manifold gasket, they damaged the NO1 HEGO sensor, so I then had to drive around for two weeks with the MIL on, which has since damaged the catalytic converter, so it now constantly stinks of rotten eggs.

I have never had a car that squeaks and rattles so much; almost every fitted trim component rattles.

I have had to apply my own anti-squeak tape, as the dealer was saying it's a Fiesta characteristic to:

The door frames

The instrument cluster

The face vents

The seats

General Comments:

The performance is quite bad considering it's supposed to have 148BHP. It feels no quicker than my old Focus 1.8 Zetec.

The gearing is all wrong (too short), which doesn't help.

There is no low down torque, and there's a bad flat spot between 3,000 & 4,250 RPM.

Between 4,250 & 5,500 RPM, the car is like a little rocket, but who drives round at those revs all day.

The brakes are frighteningly bad; if you need to press on hard below 60MPH they are fine, but if you have to brake hard at motorway speeds, then they suffer from terrible fade to the point where I though I was going to snap the pedal the one day.

Also, when braking hard at speed, the rear end of the car wants to step out, which can be very un-nerving.

The front suspension is also way too hard for British "B" roads, to the point where it will try to take the steering wheel out of your hands.

For a 2.0 petrol though, it has quite good fuel economy; I get around 30MPG.

The paint finish is also quite good.

The only real good point was the price; I suppose you get what you pay for!

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 31st August, 2007

4th Oct 2007, 10:41

I saw the Fiesta ST at the Frankfurt motor show (IAA) in September and I must say I quite fancy one. But I know that owning a new car that rattles and has pieces fall off, spoils the ownership! My current car, a FIAT Punto Sporting, also suffers from the odd rattle, which caused me to remove the headlining to locate the source of one annoying noise. But on the whole my model and year of Punto is actually built quite well. I thought the newer version, the Grande Punto Sporting, is far less well built than mine. The Fiesta seemed OK and maybe a compromise, as I would really like the Focus ST. But reading reviews that mention rattles and poor build will make me think twice.

View 12 more comments