My Overall Grade: C
- Exterior: C-
- Interior: B-
- Cool Factor: D-
- MPGs: 25 - 35
So back in November, I had to venture out to Cleveland, OH, the land of many underachieving sports teams. Since my trip was booked in advance by my company, I already had a rental already lined up for me; a silver 2012 Ford Fiesta.
I recall the first thing that ran through my head was, "Oh dear god...maybe should ask for something else." I mean, I had a feeling of what I was getting into, but I never actually driven one before so I decided to give the go-cart a chance and see what this remake was made of. Talk about regretting that decision. Have you ever drove on the Ohio Turnpike at 5:30 in the morning while its still pitch black outside? Normally not fun, but especially not fun when you are driving in between two semi-trailers in a car no bigger than a football yet barely has enough power to get up and go...anywhere. Powered by Ford's 120-HP 1.6L Duratec I4, there were times I prayed for my '95 Camaro Z28, my '10 Dodge Ram, or even my old '89 Acura Legend as all I wanted to do was get away from these stupid semis. I honestly thought I was going to have to experience what an aluminum can feels like upon being recycled....CRUNCH! Luckily for you all, I survived, although when I reached my destination, I wasn't too pleased that the others had seen what I pulled up in....
As for the interior, I suppose its alright in its own quirky way. The interior of the car kind of looks like it came out of a sci-fi movie, but maybe that's what they were going after. And for such a small car, there are a lot of buttons. Most of which I have no idea what they do. The options I did need though (wipers, radio controls, heat, etc) were easy to find and use, so no real complaints there. The seats were comfortable, but felt extremely low even in that car. I thought my ass was going to bottom out after hitting a few bumps in the road. One cool, yet useless, feature the Fiesta did offer was it allowed the occupant to control the ambient lighting of the interior. By pressing one of the 100's of buttons in the cabin, the interior lighting could be switched from red, to purple, to dark blue, to light blue, to yellow, to....., and finally to off. But as cool as it is though, once you find the color you like, why would you ever change it again? (Ironically, in this rental vehicle, this button was the only one that looked liked it was consistently used as the label had been worn off of it.)
Overall, the only thing I could really appreciate about this car was its MPGs (which in my opinion, for a car of its size, is nothing really THAT special.) I believe driving a mix of HWY and city, I average around 32 MPGs which is a nice contradiction to my truck's 17 MPGs. The cargo room was minimal, handling was what you expect from a car in this class, and road noise was somewhat annoying. While I am a bit biased towards bigger cars and trucks, there's no way you'll find me near one of these Fiestas again. Good luck to all you who own one of these contraptions.
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