Baby car is just too thirsty...

FIESTA 1.0L: PRICED AT R310 600 BUT HAS BEEPING SOUND WHEN REVERSING – THAT’S CHEAP The taut road handling is impressive and all the bells and whistles are available.

Ihave been long overdue for a nice long ride into the boonies. My son now lives in the Northern Cape and as I was offered the new Fiesta to test, I thought it would be a great idea to use it to head to quieter climes.

My daughter decided she wanted to go with on the trip.

I was curious whether the new 1.0 litre turbopetrol motor would be able to better my older 2008 Fiesta 1.6 on fuel consumption.

A funny thing happened some months back: I bought an aftermarket imported air filter element (R69) for my 10-year-old Fiesta and was pleasantly surprised to find a change for the better in its fuel consumption ability. In fact, it’s best since new. I was able to get it down to 4.8 litres per 100km.

To put things into perspective, a few years back I tested a 1.0 litre manual Fiesta with a 92Kw motor (this new one is an auto with a 74Kw motor) on a run north of Brits in the North West. Running on a trailing throttle at 100km/h, I was able to achieve 3.5 litres per 100km.

So, when I drove the new Fiesta, I put it on cruise control at 120km/h and the consumption hovered at 7.0 litres per 100km mark. I was disappointed to say the least. I had heard that running on cruise control was a thirstier exercise, so maybe that was it.

By the way, the terrain from Gauteng to the Northern Cape through Potchefstroom, Klerksdorp, Bloemhof and Barkly West is flat. It should have been ideal to achieve some best figures. Sadly, not to be.

On the way back, my daughter drove and as she prefers not to use cruise control, I wanted to see if her driving style would beat mine. The consumption also hovered around 7.0 litres for 400km, only touching 6.9 in Klerksdorp.

Some folk from Ford suggested if I wanted to see it drop below 6.0 litres per 100km, I should drop the speed to 100km/h or 110km/h.

Okay, so enough about consumption, how was the car?

My daughter was impressed with the taut road handling, but wondered why the car had cloth seats whereas her earlier Fiesta – the 2012 1.6 model – had a full leather interior. This test car is a

four-door Titani- um, while her 2012 Titanium was a two door. Another plus was the entertainment centre. It doesn’t have a CD player, instead a USB port for one to plug one’s own music in.

I found the navigation layout simple to use and it was accurate leading quietly through the boonies.

For a car priced at R310 600, I found the reverse beeping cheap. A reverse camera would have been much nicer.

Other cool features are the paddles for manual shifting on

the leather-trimmed steering wheel when set on Sport. There is also the Auto Stop-Start and front foglamps with cornering lamps.

There are usual features such as EBA, electric power steering, ABS/ ESC/ traction control, Hill Launch Assist and Daytime running lights. Being the Titanium model, the car has many standard features.

Is it worth over R300 000? The cheapest baby car is more than half that ... but you decide.