Ford Fiesta Zetec S - A (very) brief review

I've had to hire a car whilst the maintenance on the 330D Touring is completed. The cheapest I could find in Rugby were Enterprise who have loaned me a new model Fiesta 3 door with 446 miles on the clock.

Today I've done about 250 miles and have found the following (in no particular order);

Good

• Ride is excellent on most surfaces, though (occasionally) high frequency ridges get transmitted to the cabin, which made my head wobble about.
• The engine noise is quite low and doesn't really intrude in to the cabin.
• The car looks very smart in black with the body kit, alloy wheels and blacked out rear windows. 
• With all the snow & ice around, I've been very circumspect, but handling is good.
• Seats - even with limited adjustment are comfortable - except the headrests, which are very hard.

Bad

• Plastics in the cabin are hard and cheap.
• Cabin is very noisy at motorway speeds. Mostly tyre roar.
• There seems to be very little performance from the engine. The optimum is 2900-3200 RpM in 3rd.
• Having long doors can be a real hindrance in a car park. You have to open the door a long way to generate enough gap to get out.
• Seat headrests too hard.
• Rear 3/4 view is obscured by the very thick rear pillar.
• The water is not cleared well from the mirror glass in the rain, which affects visibility.

Odd

• The mirror glass had been put on the wrong sides. The glass with the curved outer surface (for wide angle visibility) had been fitted to the passenger's side and the drivers side was plain.
• The windscreen wipers are dramatically different in size, with the passenger blade being about a 1/3 the size of the main blade. At first it looks quite comical, but they work effectively enough.
• The rear brakes are drums, which makes sense from an engineering & cost perspective, but still looks cheap & nasty in the middle of an alloy wheel.

Having said all this, I've had to remind myself that this is a Fiesta and should really be judged in context. From this point of view, it is very good. I can't help thinking that if Ford had put some more effort in to NVH and the cabin materials, then (in the current climate) they would be taking sales from classes above.