Great car, if it moves you ...

AND IT WILL: FORGET ABOUT WHAT THE ‘EXPERTS’ SAY, THE FORD FIGO MAKES A LOT OF SENSE

The new model is good value for money and ideal for a small family.

It is understandable that motoring journalists are spoiled: they get to fly Business Class around the country, and around the world, stay in five-star hotels and drive top-of-the-range performance and luxury vehicles.

This, I’m afraid to say, has made many of them a tad superior when it comes to reviewing smaller, and cheaper cars.

One of the things which they will often cite as evidence of a car’s cheapness, is that the “plastics are hard”. That’s what some of them did on a recent Ignition GT programme, when reviewing the new Ford Figo. They bashed the plastic around the cabin, making drum-like noises and guffawing at their cleverness.

But, I want to ask them – and others who have been repeatedly using this cliché judgment of quality since British hacks first flighted it 30 years ago – why does hard mean nasty?

Sure, the dashboard of the Figo is not sinuous, from a tactile point of view, like a R2 million Porsche. But, seriously dudes, who goes around pressing the mouldings around the sound system to see if they’re soft?

It is true that quality has become synonymous these days with soft-touch everything – from dashboards to infotainment screens – but does that mean it will last? I have seen cars less than two years old whose luxury leather had already started to crack and fade, and once had a “soft touch” dashboard in an unlamented Opel I owned … and it quickly bubbled up with blisters in the African sun.

Not long after I saw the Ignition GT hacks chortling about hard being equal to crappy, I went for a run. And, on the way, I saw a Datsun 1200 parked on the street.

Not only did that car have ultra-hard plastics, it had a hellluva lot of exposed metal in the cabin. Yet, here it was, 45 years later, having outlived many of its more modern cars with their “quality” interiors.

So, I was not at all put off by the hard plastics and seeming “utilitarian” appearance of the Ford Figo sedan we had on test. Compared to that old Datsun, it felt positively luxurious.

And, it offered everything that a sensible urban motorist would want these days. There was a good aircon system, adequate sound system (I’m partially deaf in one ear thanks to an untreated infection years ago, so this is not really something which is important to me, it must be noted); even a trip computer.

On that subject, though, I am still angry. In this country, fuel consumption is calculated in litres per 100km. Ford even uses that in all of its publicity material for its cars (with the exception of the ones they tell us about from America, where the metric system is almost unheard of).

So, why oh why, Ford, could you not be bothered to get your suppliers in India (where the Figo is made) to put the correct units in the trip computer? The instrument shows kilometres per litre, so if you want to compare apples with apples (I do it all time when it comes to fuel consumption) you have to do the maths yourself. It is simply not good enough …

I discovered the Figo sedan was capable of giving around 5 litres per 100km on the highway and it settled at just under 8l/100km in the city. That is a bit higher than some of its competitors in the under-R200 000 affordable car category, though not by much.

What the Figo does do better than most of the others in the segment, is power. It’s seemingly unremarkable 1.5 litre, three-cylinder petrol engine doesn‘t have a turbo, yet it still makes an impressive 88kW.

Without the turbo you find on some smaller-engined, three-cylinders in this sector, the Figo does not suffer from maddening turbo lag.

It gets away crisply and revs freely to its 6 000rpm redline and the five-speed gearbox and clutch are light and easy to use. All the while, the three-cylinder motor sounds like “half a Porsche”, as someone described it to me.

The sporty nature of the engine is matched by the good handling of the Figo, which proves that Ford’s designers still show excellence in the field of sporty driveability. Brakes are what you’d expect – safe and reliable.

The sedan, with its large boot at the rear, also seems to be more settled, when it comes to ride comfort, than many hatchbacks are. The Figo sedan is a pleasant place in which to spend time. I also think the boot gives the design a touch of elegance which the awkward hatchback sibling doesn’t have.

At R188 900 for the car we drove, it sits in the middle of a five-model Figo range, which stretches from R186 000 to just over R207 000 for an auto version. That makes it good value for money. The Figo sedan is ideal for a small family – the large boot, good legroom and economy .

You won’t go wrong if you decide to put your money here – but you’ll have to ignore the “experts”, though ….