Lunch break with the Ford Fiesta

Folks over at Ford Philippines invited us over for lunch in Tagaytay the other day and they gave each one of us a Ford Fiesta S to drive.

I’ve test-driven the Fiesta before (the Manual variant) and I was pleased with how light and easy it was at city driving. So when we were all given the Fiesta Sport, I expected the same if not better.

The climb up to Tagaytay was quick and easy (used the Mamplasan exit to avoid traffic in Sta Rosa). I drove the red/orange variant, which is a 1.6L AT. The blue one with a double white stripe in the middle is the more sporty-looking one, giving it that Mini-look.

The fairly capable 1.6L engine and the light form factor of the compact car made it pretty easy to ride — effortless at the 70-80kmph speed range, still smooth at 120kmph and goes up to 160kmph without any problems.

Acceleration isn’t very strong — I think it needed like 2 to 3 seconds to overtake a car moving at 80kmph — but there’s enough power once you step on the gas really hard.

One of the features that Ford is really proud of with their fleet is the Voice Control (a scaled-down version of the Ford Sync in the US). We’ve seen it in action before (back in 2010) when they first introduced the Fiesta in the Philippines.

Connection to the device (phone, mp3 player or tablet) is via Bluetooth. Pairing is pretty quick and easy and you can even control your media playback using the embedded controls on the steering wheels.

The scaled-down Voice Control does not have internet connectivity like the Ford Sync in the US (pretty much obvious since our 3G internet here isn’t that good/stable enough to support Sync).

The Ford Fiesta is the top selling car in the company’s line-up — they send out over 350 units per month in the Philippines.

The Ford Fiesta starts at Ph670k and tops at Php826k for the 5-door 1.6L Sport 6PS variant.