5 Years Later...
I came across this thread the other day by accident, and I thought it would be fun to do a five year update.
I have now lived with my Fiesta SE for five years, taking the car on multiple 1500-mile road trips, hauling all sorts of things, bouncing down country two-tracks, and driving year-round in some very nasty northern Michigan winters. Last fall Lady Blackadder and I sold her ailing old Subaru Forester, so we've been relying entirely on the Fiesta since then. Mileage is at about 85,000.
So how has it been?
Living with a Little Hatchback
Most people (in the US) snort at a little Fiesta as a car for people who cannot afford anything bigger. And that would be a huge mistake. It's small, yes, and there are sacrifices with that, but most people spend most of their tome driving by themselves and I'm not hauling an extra 2,000lbs of steel around like I would If I was driving a truck or large SUV. Fuel economy remains excellent - typically 37-39mpg on a tank in real-world driving conditions, without babying it - and remember that is on 87 octane. Not diesel, not premium, and this is the cheapest car Ford sells, so not a hybrid either. It has SYNC, USB, and hands-free phone connection with Sirius, so it's plenty modern in that department.
And the heated seats are great. ALWAYS get heated seats! The seats were never going to trick you into thinking you were in a Rolls Royce, but they have held up well so far.
The hatchback can swallow a lot of cargo and carrying two passengers for short trips (under two hours) is perfectly comfortable.
Driving
To start with, the car is still just as fun to drive as it was when I bought it. It's small and nimble, the chassis likes to be thrown into corners and it is a great car with which to dodge through urban traffic. It's also surprisingly good on the highway once you get used to the relative lack of torque. The engine is smooth and revs freely enough, without offering any evidence it's done over 85k miles.
I do live in a region with some very bad pavement, and it is only fair to point our that a small car with a short wheelbase, as the Fiesta is, can be a bit harsh when the road gets rough. This ain't no Buick. But I think, given the size of the car, the suspension strikes the proper balance between comfort and handling.
The OEM Hankook Optimo H426s were good tires, reasonably grippy and quiet. I replaced them with Optimo 727s which cost more, were noisier, and had notably less grip. Back to the H426s for the next set, if I can still get them.
Probably the biggest revelation with regards to driving came when the winter hit... the all-season tires were useless in Upper Michigan in the winter, so I bought a set of steel wheels mounted with Blizzak snow tires and wow...I would never have expected the car to be so good in the snow. It was definitely not able to accelerate as well as our AWD / limited slip-equipped Subaru was, but with the Blizzaks it could maneuver and stop every bit as well (which is, frankly, more important!). The traction and stability control are effective even in heavy snow, as long as you use your head and don't act like you're in a Land Rover. This car is plenty good in the snow.
Reliability
This was the one imponderable factor when I bought the car. How well would it hold up?? Since purchase I've spent just over $3,000 in maintenance/parts. Most of that was spent on
- Front pads and rotors replaced with an oil change at 45k miles: $350
- Winter tires and wheels: $850
- New summer tires at 50k miles: $430
- New front rotors and pads at 79k miles $413.93
The rest of the maintenance costs are covered by oil changes, wiper blades, and a couple full wash and interior/exterior detail jobs.
That last brake work job was a bit odd - I started hearing some noises from the brakes while on a road trip early this spring, and when I had a mechanic look at it he found that the calipers, rotors, and pads all had a lot of corrosion on them and the brakes were seized. Michigan uses liquid salt solutions on their state roads and this is very nasty stuff for cars. He lubricated the calipers, replaced the rusted rotors and pads and the car has been fine since. This one I chalk down to harsh conditions, not a reliability problem.
Other issues:
- There is a squeak developing where the soft touch plastics meet at the lower righthand corner of the instrument binnacle
- A slight rattle has developed behind the HVAC control bezel - it sounds like a wire might be tapping against the plastic there. Only audible on bad pavement
- The automatic electric window up function stopped working on the driver's door after the dealer did some recall work on the front door latches. It took it back and they fixed that (and lost the little cover for the crew hole on the door panel in the process).
Here I should mention the ineptitude of my local Ford dealer. Utter morons. They would pass us the usual maintenance worksheet after each service interval, showing us a bunch of stuff (like changing air filters) checked off on the form that they clearly never actually did, as I discovered when I ended up with cupped tires at one point because they were lying about rotating them on the checklist. When they did work on the car (there have been three recalls) they always left tools, dirt, and lose screw covers or loose screws in the car. I soon tired of their incompetence and took the car to my trusted local mechanic.
Reliability has been excellent. The engine has hummed along with no complaints, the clutch still feels strong and all the electronics still function perfectly well.
Conclusion
Overall, my expectations have been met and then some. Despite being a small, "cheap" car, the Fiesta is well built and excellently engineered. It is economical, fun to drive, reliable, efficient in its use of space and inexpensive without feeling "cheap". I recently drove a friend's $45,000 F-150 and the interior felt cheaper than my Fiesta's. Most of the interior materials are the same as used in the Focus and Fusion and other Ford cars, so you aren't sacrificing quality by going with the smaller car here.
In sum, I can heartily recommend this car. But you'd better hurry if you want one, at least in the US, because Ford is killing it in the US after 2019 (according to the latest reports I've read). Ford is currently offering $3,000 off sticker or 0% financing, so you can pick one up for peanuts at the moment. As a final comment, I don't think the current facelift looks as good as my '13 with it's "Euro" (?) grille (except the ST, which looks suitably aggressive).
I put my money where my mouth is on that - Lady Blackadder just purchased a brand new Fiesta ST, my Fiesta's sporty, turbocharged sibling. I've barely driven it yet, but my first impressions are that it has all the good qualities of the 'regular' Fiesta with the addition of big healthy dollops of torque and grip. Lovely.
