They think it’s all oval
Choosing between two hatchbacks wearing Ford’s Blue Oval badges is going to be tough.will it be the hugely popular Fiesta or the bigger Focus?
WE’VE ALL BEEN there. You enter a car dealership knowing exactly which model you want to buy, and yet barely five minutes pass before your convictions are shaken by an overly enthusiastic car salesman trying to upsell you into a larger model. “Something with more space, more equipment and more panache, sir or madam?” So, what do you do?
Well, a couple of decades ago, if you were on the lookout for a hatchback, dealerships would have had a far easier time getting you to fork out the extra cash to step up a class, such was the vast difference between small ‘runabouts’ and full-sized family cars. But that gap is a lot smaller these days.
Not only have small hatchbacks such as the Ford Fiesta, Renault Clio and Volkswagen Polo grown in size in recent years, but they also feel more grown-up to drive and many are impressively refined. Factor in a much cheaper list price than their larger siblings and it really does make you wonder if you need anything more.
The Fiesta, Britain’s best-selling car in any normal month, is a perfect case in point. You can have a punchy 138bhp 1.0-litre turbo petrol engine, plus a few niceties from the options list (such as a heated steering wheel and metallic paint), for around £2000 less than our favourite 123bhp 1.0-litre Ford Focus – a package that certainly sounds alluring. And unlike the Focus, you can still get the
Fiesta with three or five doors, depending on your preference; we’re basing this comparison on the more practical five-door version, even though the car in our photos has three doors. But the Focus, no matter how you cut it, offers more interior space, features a supposedly plusher interior and is the best-handling family car currently on sale. So, is it worth the extra outlay?
DRIVING Performance, ride, handling, re nement
Weighing almost 200kg less than the Focus (the equivalent of carrying around two burly passengers) and packing an extra 15bhp, it’s no surprise that the Fiesta is the nippier car, reaching 60mph from a standstill in just 9.0sec – a whole 1.2sec quicker than its bigger brother.
However, it’s the low-rev grunt of the Fiesta’s engine, rather than its peak performance, that nets it some serious points in the usability department. On a typical B-road, for example, the Focus will often require you to drop down a gear if you want to hang with the ebb and flow of traffic, while the Fiesta in the same situation is happy to pull a gear or two higher.
Don’t go thinking that the Fiesta is simply going to run away with this section, though, because the Focus has a trick up
DOWNSIZE OR UPSIZE?
its sleeve, and that’s its handling. That’s right: despite it being the heavier car, in many ways it’s more competent through the corners.
How so? Well, while the Fiesta’s steering feels a touch artificially weighted, the Focus has a setup that’s perfectly judged: light in town yet precise and progressive enough that you can place the front tyres with millimetric precision on faster roads. This, combined with the Focus’s almost balletic balance, makes it not only the more confidence-inspiring car to drive along a typical country road, but more fun, too.
And while it must be emphasised that, in the wider car world, we are splitting hairs a bit – both the Fiesta and Focus are the best-handling cars in their respective classes – what really marks the Focus out as a truly great all-rounder is its ability to blend such impressive handling with a ride that won’t jar your spine. Even in sporty St-line trim, the Focus deals remarkably well with nasty, sharp-edged bumps and potholes, whereas the Fiesta isn’t quite as composed and fidgets more over smaller surface imperfections.
The same goes for quietness, the Focus again having the advantage. Granted, when merging with traffic or going for an overtake, you have to use more revs than in the Fiesta, so you hear the thrum of its three-cylinder engine more often. But once you’re up to speed, the Focus is the more peaceful cruiser, with less wind noise around the door mirrors and very little tyre roar. If you spend a fair amount of time schlepping up and down motorways, the Focus will certainly prove less grating.
BEHIND THE WHEEL Driving position, visibility, build quality
Jump from the Focus to the Fiesta and you’ll immediately notice that the latter has a loftier, less ‘sporty’ driving position. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing – it depends on your personal preferences – and the driver’s seats in both cars feature similarly heavy side bolstering to hold you in place through corners. The only real disappointment is that the Fiesta’s doesn’t come with adjustable lumbar support in St-line trim, making it less comfortable on longer journeys.
Both cars have plenty of steering wheel adjustment for both reach and height, so it’s easy to get comfortable, whatever your proportions. In fact, you can tell how highly Ford’s engineers value a good driving position, because
INFOTAINMENT
The Fiesta has an 8.0in touchscreen with icons that are mostly fairly large and easy to hit, even on the move, while the menu structure is easy to get your head around. However, we do wish the screen responded a little more snappily to inputs and the graphics weren’t so basic. Plus, we’d like some physical shortcut buttons for hopping between the different functions, such as sat-nav to radio.
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the alignment of the steering wheel, pedals and driver’s seat in both cars is nigh on perfect.
In terms of visibility, both cars offer a decent view out the front, but over-the-shoulder visibility is marred by a shared bit of design that involves the rear window lines tapering up towards thickish rear pillars. That’s why you’ll make good use of parking aids in both cars; the Fiesta comes with rear parking sensors as standard, whereas front and rear sensors are bundled together as a £375 option in the Focus.
That said, if you’re a nervous parker, we’d advise going one step further and investing in the £750 Convenience Pack in the Focus and the £900 Driver Assistance Pack in the Fiesta, because these give you not only parking sensors front and rear but also a rear-view camera and a self-parking system to help guide you into tight spaces.
Poke and prod your way around the interior of both cars and you might be a little disappointed to find that the more expensive, supposedly more grown-up Focus feels barely any plusher than the Fiesta. Yes, the interior bits you touch regularly – the steering wheel, gearknob and indicator stalks – feel fairly upmarket, but you don’t have to go searching very far to find some iffy plastics. Indeed, the shiny cladding surrounding the heater controls looks positively Poundland. And while the Fiesta isn’t any better, these materials are more acceptable in a less expensive car from the class below.
SPACE AND PRACTICALITY Front space, rear space, seating exibility, boot
Up front, the difference in space isn’t as marked as you might expect. Despite its steeply sloping windscreen and slightly raised driving position, the Fiesta actually has plenty of head room, while those with long legs will be pleased to find that you can slide the front seats pretty far back. And although the Fiesta is far narrower than the Focus, there’s easily enough elbow space for two broad adults to sit comfortably side by side.
However, the difference is more marked in the back, because even by its own class standards, rear seat space isn’t the Fiesta’s strongest suit. Tall passengers will probably find their legs brushing the back of the seat in front, and while head room is reasonable, a tiny middle seat means fitting three across the bench is a real squeeze.
The Focus, by comparison,
is cavernous. It has more leg room than most other family cars, much less the Fiesta, and carrying three in the back is more comfortable, thanks to a broader middle seat.
Meanwhile, the Focus’s boot, despite being smaller than those of many of its closest class rivals, is far more accommodating than the Fiesta’s. There’s a little lip to negotiate at the entrance, but its square shape will easily hold a pushchair or up to six carry-on suitcases below the parcel shelf, compared with five in the Fiesta. Both cars have 60/40 splitfolding rear seatbacks, although it’s a shame that these don’t lie completely flat when dropped.
BUYING AND OWNING Costs, equipment, reliability, safety and security
This is where things begin to get interesting. As you’d expect, and as we’ve already mentioned, the larger Focus costs more to buy – around £2500 more, according to Ford’s website. And while you’ll get a decent discount if you buy via our New Car Deals service on whatcar.com or do some haggling with the dealer yourself, the same is true with the Fiesta. Either way, the Focus is likely to cost you a couple of thousand pounds more to begin with if you’re paying cash.
Look at the lifetime costs of both cars, though, and things start to swing back in the Focus’s favour. While it’s predicted to depreciate at a similar rate to the Fiesta, the fact that it’s cheaper to service and insure, as well as more economical in real-world driving, means that the Focus is actually likely to cost you less to own over a three-year period.
On the other hand, if you’re thinking about signing up to a PCP finance agreement, you can expect to pay a bit less for the Fiesta. Assuming a £2000 deposit on a three-year term (with a 9000-mile annual limit), you’d be paying
Buy this car at whatcar.com/new-car-deals
Ford Fiesta
For Cheaper list price; quicker; sat-nav is standard; cheaper monthly PCP rate
Against Tight in the rear; less settled ride; some crucial safety kit isn’t standard
Recommended options Exclusive Pack (£350), Comfort Pack (heated wheel and seats, £300), metallic paint (£250)