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Video: 2011 Ford Fiesta

03:25 min
By Cars.com Editors
May 13, 2009

About the video

From the 2009 Chicago Auto Show, Cars.com's Kelsey Mays takes a look at the 2011 Ford Fiesta. It competes with the Nissan Versa and Honda Fit.

Transcript

(rock music) Hi, I'm Kelsey Mays for Cars.com and we're at the Chicago Auto Show, checking out some cars to come. The Ford Fiesta has been a popular model in Europe for more than the last three decades.
This redesigned car's actually slated to hit US showrooms in early 2010. Does Ford have a winter on its hands? Well stick around and we'll find out. It's a pretty simple design. There's sort of a clean fender arch here. These lines kind of rise up nicely with the belt line toward the rear. In profile, not all that different from a five door Toyota Yaris, Nissan Versa. There's also going to be a four-door sedan offered. This is technically a European model, but a Ford spokesman told me that apart from some slight design differences, it's very similar to what we're going to see in the US. In the cabin, you'll see a lot of angular layouts, a different center control stack than anything else in Ford's current product lineup. It's immediately clear as soon as you sit down, though, that Ford trades quantity for quality. I just went and sat in a Versa, a Yaris, a Honda Fit. These are all competitors. Immediately, you get in, and there's not as much room as in any of those cars here. The seats feel a little bit narrow. The windows sit a little bit higher, the seat sits a little bit lower even when you have it raised all the way. There's not as much glass, not as much visibility around you. There's a center tunnel here where the manual or automatic transmission sits. In the competitors, they've kind of lowered that area so you knees have more space to spill out. On the other end, quality seems promising. The upper dash has soft touch panels. There's some attractive sheething around the center controls. Ford says that they've been designed to sort of mimic a cell phone interface so that young, cool people with cell phones can kind of understand them. No word on whether they'll play a Nokia ringtone when you get in. The back seat, like front seat, isn't particularly generous on room. This is where I'd sit to drive. I have decent foot room underneath the chair, but my knee room is kind of cramped up here, as you can see. Head room is okay, but just kind of barely. So the seat folds down in a 60-40 split, it does so pretty easily and you don't have to mess with a center seatbelt, it's hanging from the ceiling. This kind of anchors here, always a nice thing. The Fiesta will reportedly offer a host of upscale features, things like available push buttons start with keyless entry, 16 inch alloy wheels, cloth or leather seats, Ford's sync system to integrate the stereo with your iPod or other MP3 player. Expect safety features to include anti-lock brakes, stability control, and the usual compliment of front, side and curtain airbags. No word on engines yet, but the European Fiesta has a lot of very small four-cylinder engines that are very thrifty on gas mileage. So far, Ford hasn't priced this car yet either, but if it undercuts the Toyota and Honda and even GM competition coming up and they can get something close to the vaunted 40 miles per gallon figure that everybody seems to want to get these days, it could be a very promising choice, especially if you're willing to sacrifice a little bit of quantity in terms of interior space for quality. <v Announcer>For additional information on this car or any other, go to Cars.com and our blog, Kicking Tires.

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