Video: 2014 Ford Fiesta SE

The 2014 Fiesta, which went on sale this past spring has a new face, a remodeled dashboard and new drivetrains. All of that added onto the fact that there's sedan and hatchback body style, it brings us to our test car, a mid-level Fiesta SE hatchback. We'll cover what's new and we'll talk all important affordability and MPG for Ford's entry-level car here in the U.S. As automotive nosejobs go, the Fiesta's is pretty compelling. Front and center is this new grill, it adopts an Aston Martin-like trapezoidal shape that's similar to Ford's sharp looking Fusion family sedan. It gives the Fiesta a bit more visual width, which is important because this is still a pretty small car in its class. Overall, bumper to bumper length for the hatchback under 160 inches, competitors like the Nissan Versa Note, the Honda Fit, the Hyundai Accent hatchback. Those are all more than 160 inches, two or three inches longer than the Fiesta. That shows on the inside where overall passenger volume in the Fiesta hatchback is only about 85 cubic feet. That's about five to as much as nine cubic feet less than those competitors. The backseat is pretty snug. If you fold those seats down, maximum cargo room is only about 26 cubic feet, and by the numbers, that's less than half the space that you would get in a Honda Fit hatchback with its seats folded down. It continues up front here where there's a lot of space taken up by the doors and kind of a thick center console here for your knees to go. If you reach over to adjust the climate control, you might end up touching your passenger's knee, which can be kind of awkward depending on who your passenger is. Definitely not high marks here for Ford, like in the Focus and all the way up to the Taurus, their full-size car. For space efficiency relative to the class, that kind of continues to be a Ford issue, but we do see very high quality in this car. There's things like generous padding along the arm rest along the doors. There's even padding along the dashboard, if that matters to you. Attractive silvers here along the steering wheel and along the door handles. New this year, and a big aspect of this redesigned dashboard is MyFord Touch, it adopts a 6.5 inch screen here, a little smaller than the eight inch screen in other Ford vehicles with MyFord Touch. Works reasonably well, less lag than in earlier additions of MyFord Touch, but in part, because the screen is smaller, there's a lot of really tiny buttons that you have to get to. There's a little hood that sits over the screen for MyFord Touch here, it does cut down on glare, but if you elevate your seat, depending how tall you are, it can obscure things like the time of day, kind of an important thing to notice. Now, one editor drove this car more than 400 miles on the highway, and she said, the seats pretty awful. The seat cushions were too narrow, the backs foam-less, they didn't have enough padding to them. Overall, the seats caused a lot of butt fatigue, she said. Take that for what it is. During that drive though, our test car got 40.2 miles per gallon, according to the trip computer, pretty good numbers, considering that with the 1.6 liter, four cylinder and five speed manual transmission, which our test car has, the Fiesta is EPA rated at 27 city, 38 highway, fairly competitive with the class, the automatic dual-clutch six speed auto is rated at 29 city, 39 highway, and an available SFE automatic version bumps that up to 30 city, 41 highway, again, pretty competitive numbers there. There's also a forthcoming three cylinder turbocharged engine, as well as a Fiesta ST whose turbo four cylinder makes 197 horsepower. What's really compelling about the Fiesta though, is how well it drives, it rides and handles like a car that's pricier and bigger than the car that it is, pretty good there. Our only complaint really is with the available dual-clutch automatic, which we'd driven in years past. It's about as smooth as a kid trying to pick up the ladies in high school chemistry class, but it does get better mileage, as we said, we don't know if Ford has fixed that for 2014, 'cause we haven't driven it yet, so we'll have to wait and see. The Fiesta hatchback starts at around $15,500 with the destination charge. Add in everyday conveniences like an automatic transmission, power windows, keyless entry, and Bluetooth, and you're looking at about an $18,000 car, that roughly matches the Accent hatchback, it beats the Fit and Chevy Sonic hatchbacks, but the roomier Versa Note starts at more than a thousand dollars cheaper, again, with similar features. Still the Fiesta packs driving refinement that goes beyond what the Nissan offers, it has yet to be outpaced by any of its competitors. That means if you're willing to sacrifice a little bit of space, the Fiesta is worth checking out. (car engine revving)