As you may know, I just recently purchased a 2015 Ford Fiesta ST. My whole life I’ve been driving very cheap automobiles. My most recent vehicle was a 1992 Jeep XJ Cherokee, which I drove for the last year.
Coming from cheap crappy vehicles, the Fiesta ST is very foreign to me.
The Fiesta ST has been praised by automotive journalists for being fun to drive since it came out. It’s lightweight chassis and torquey engine were major selling points. It’s been hyped up to be this amazing benchmark for hot hatch performance.
But does it live up to its own legacy?
Interior
Initially getting into the interior of the Fiesta ST I noticed one thing, nothing was broken. Everything worked, including heat and A/C! The seats were incredibly comfortable, and the factory Sony sound system sounded great.
The Ford entertainment system took some getting used to, although I was familiar with Mercedes’ entertainment system so I wasn’t completely lost.
Interior quality is pretty good, but it’s not something like a Mercedes. The seats are pretty comfortable, but the one we tested wasn’t optioned with the Recaro bucket seats. Once you start looking around you’ll notice almost everything is made of plastic.
The touch points all feel good, but the non-touch points are where Ford saved money on this car.
Interestingly enough the Fiesta has more interior space than you might expect. I’m 6’2 and I can comfortably fit in the front, and fit in the rear. Although the rear is slightly cramped, I could definitely sit back there for quite a while.
Overall the interior of the Fiesta felt like a very nice place to be. Especially coming from old Jeep interiors.
Exterior
The exterior styling feels like a small WRC hatchback. It’s the same feeling you get when you look at a WRX hatch. It just looks like a pissed off little rally car. It shares the same sea creature looking front fascia with the Focus.
The body lines are also pretty similar to the Focus, but the Fiesta just looks anger.
What’s interesting is that standard Fiesta hatchbacks really don’t look that good at all. Ford did a really good job making the ST stand apart from its base counterpart. The front grill looks much more aggressive, and the body kit screams rally car.
I’m not sure if the rear wing actually provides any real downforce, but it sure looks cool.
Practicality
The Fiesta is also very practical. It gets pretty good fuel mileage, can seat four adults and has a decent sized trunk. Like I mentioned above, I’m 6’2 and I can fit behind myself in the Fiesta. But it wouldn’t be very comfortable for longer drives.
In the first couple days of driving the Fiesta ST I was averaging about 25 mpg. I couldn’t keep my foot out of the throttle and ultimately my mpg suffered. After I reset my average mpg and driving a little less crazy everywhere I was able to manage an impressive 30 mpg combined.
That 30 mpg also includes the canyon driving featured in the video below.
Performance
The whole reason anyone buys this car is for its performance. Although I’ve driven faster cars, I’ve never driven a car so frantic and fun. Everywhere you go the subtle turbo noises egg you on the go faster.
When boost comes on you can’t help but put your foot into the throttle farther.
You can fling the little Fiesta into a corner at ridiculous speeds and it just loves it. The Fiesta is like a little puppy that just wants to keep playing. It always wants to go fast, it always wants you to push harder and harder.
At my absolute personal limits I could tell the Fiesta was nowhere near its limits. It will definitely take a few Autocross events to find the Fiesta’s limit.
Summary
This car had a lot to live up to after all the good things I’ve heard about it online. Quite frankly it’s even better than I expected. I never knew you could have so much driving a front wheel drive hatchback.
The tiny turbo provides tons of torque way down low in the RPMs, and the amazing suspension setup allows it to corner like a dream. I liked it so much that I actually ended buying it.
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