Ford Fiesta Zetec S > Reviews (21)

In March 2006 I took delivery of our second car a brand new 2006 Ford Zetec S in metallic grey. The 2006 model cars can be identified from previous models externally by the new "Nissan Micra" style bubbled lights on both the front and back of the car, which my partner and I think looks really good. So far we have only done 700 miles in the car so this review will be a work in practice. Here are my first Impressions of the car:

1) Exterior Looks

The car looks absolutely fantastic in dark grey paint, which compliments much of the grey exterior plastic on the bumpers and side door stripes, making it appear that the grey plastic was specifically designed to go with the grey paint (which it of course was not). The 16 inchalloy wheels look very nice and fill the wheel arches quite well. They are of a multi-spoked type and are the standard wheel for the car. The "S" also comes with a rear roof spoiler and different front and rear plastic bumpers to other models in the range. Overall the look of the car is excellent and looks very much like the more expensive (and powerful) ST version.

2) Interior

The interior has changes a little from previous year's models, but not a great deal. I think that the centre console where the heating controls and CD player can be found has been changed a little. One big change from previous years models in that you can now specify part of the dash board to be in soft-feel copper coloured plastic or traditional black. This is a no cost option on the "S" and I selected the copper coloured option and what a difference it makes to the inside of the car. Instead of being drab black in colour the black and copper colours compliment each other very well and I would highly recommend this to anyone buying the car. Other plastics on the doors are not of such good quality and appear to mark a little easy when people brush their hands against them. Overall the interior of the Fiesta is not a bad place to be.

3) Driving and Performance

The 1.6 S comes with a 100 BHP engine which I think is the best compromise in terms of price and performance in the Fiesta range. I've drive both the 1.25 and 1.4 engines and the 1.6 is far superior - although the 2.0 in the ST is even better. You can hit 60 mph in just under 10 seconds and the car feels very sure footed and handles very well indeed. Not a hot hatch by any means but certainly a warm one and with insurance group of 6 this is not too expensive to run. The car is a little noisy however especially at high motorway speeds. The longest journey we have done in the car is about 50 miles and I am not sure I would really like to do a long motorway journey in this car - time will tell. Around town and country roads however the car is really rather good and I must say I am quite impressed.

4) Economy

With a 1.6 engine in a car that you want to drive hard is not going to return the best fuel economy figures. However, things are not that bad. Around two I have been getting around 28 mpg, in the country about 35 mpg and on a motorway run 39 mpg.

These figures may improve as the engine beds in of course. Interestingly the car comes with a trip computer which allows you to determine your current mpg, available range and a number of other things. I am still determining how accurate this computer is.

5) Summary

This is a very good car. So far I have been very impressed with this. The build quality is not quite as good as say the new Toyota Yaris or the Honda Jazz. However it is not bad and for the price I think the car is actually very good.