Fiesta proves to be a real doctor’s delight

Ian Donaldson finds that a medic is enchanted by Ford’s feisty new Fiesta

If you want to make a hardworking doctor smile in the midst of organising a vaccine blitz, chuck him the keys to a powerful version of Ford’s mega-selling Fiesta.

After a week of masterminding anti-Covid jabs for hundreds of his patients, our medic was ready for a drive to turn his thoughts to other things.

Like discovering a car that simply devoured the sinuous side roads this doc usually takes to the surgery in his rather more chunky daily transport - a bulky 4x4 that’s great at swallowing the family but not so hot on corners.

“What a lovely car, made my own feel very big indeed,” he said after a test run. So thank you Ford - and your generous insurance policy - for making an NHS neighbour just a bit more relaxed on his day off.

He was driving the poshest version of the Fiesta, a range that starts at £16,640 and climbs to the heights of the luxury focused and Vignale-badged test car, with just an even faster ST version to top them all.

Beating with a happy throb beneath the bonnet is a tiny 1.0 litre engine, producing a very solid 153 horses and giving this small hatch enough performance to make you surprised at the figures the speedo displays on a favourite stretch of road - which our happy medic will second.

It really does gobble up the tarmac, all the while riding the worst a British main road can throw at it with a shrug of its not-too-firm suspension. It’s a properly sorted mix of sporting control and comfort, of the sort that some rivals simply don’t get.

Feelsome steering and a decently positive gearchange add to the fun - and 42.7mpg on the dash after a week’s hard work has its own satisfaction too.

Opting for a Vignale edition brings loads of goodies from fine head-up display in the windscreen and punchy B&O sound system to heated seats, steering wheel and windscreen to adaptive cruise control and wireless phone charging.

What it doesn’t do is make this swishest of Fiestas feel properly posh; it’s too easy to find finger rapping sold plastic where you’re hoping for something plusher. It feels as though Ford spent its budget making the car fun, which is fine with me and the doc.

You can have this top Vignale’s performance engine in a lesser Titanium version and save £3,325. You’ll miss some of the goodies but shouldn’t feel shortchanged in a car that still has sat nav, cruise control, rear parking sensors and manual air conditioning.

Both will also have controls that hang on to proper switches for important functions other makers now put on a touchscreen - which might look cool but can be a distracting danger on a bumpy road.

You can also easily disable the ‘nanny knows best’ lane keeping function that modern motors come with and sometimes need a degree course to switch off.

Good old Ford. A doctor’s delight, and a driver’s too.