I just came back from a test drive of he 5MT Fiesta SES. I've sat in them a number of times, but this is my first ride and drive with it.

Other than the Euro ride, which is slightly more compliant than the Fit Sport, and consequently slightly less road noise, I don't know why one would consider it over the Fit.

The steering, though quick, is light, vague, not connected to the road, like the Fit's. This is especially evident during hwy driving. The Fit's is like guiding a missile.

Same with the stick and clutch - clunky, long throws. The Fit's clutch and shifter are rifle bolt in feel by comparison.

Handling was weird. Unless the car's alignment was off, it was very wiggly. Not sporty at all.

Acceleration takes a lot of revs, unlike the Fit. It was noticeably slower and not fun to rev the bejesus out of every gear just to get up to speed.

Those that have driven one, I'd like to hear your thoughts.

 

Oh, and on another note, I've been taking my Fit up to the canyons for some canyon carving, and boy howdy is this chassis sublime. Very balanced, unlike my Mugen RSX. Very playful, tons of grip, great engine howls, etc. And I must be getting at least 40 mpg on those runs, including hwy. Talk about having your cake and eating it too!

Not that I want to do so, but if you were to install some decent summer tires, and beefier sway bars, it would be a serious canyon attack machine.

 

Yea i looked at one in a parking lot the other day no room in them at all. And if im right there not cheap at dealers

 

Better economy, better features, better front seat legroom, less conservative design. Different things matter to different people. If you're looking for an efficient runabout as a second vehicle, cargo space and even rear seat space are likely to be low on the priorities list. The road noise issue I could see as a major concern depending on where you life. Around here, it's not bad, and in Florida, all roads were whisper quiet, but I've driven some roads in Texas that sounded like an F-16 flying overhead (usually when they use cheap chipseal instead of high quality pavement).

I really hope the Fiesta does well... really well. The more cares are sold in this segment, the more it keeps Honda on its game. An unchallenged market is a complacent market - note the Big3 stepping up their game in pickups lately with Toyota and Nissan making inroads in the standard size pickup market.

 

ive sat in fiestas at work, they are junk and the quality control is garbage. junk cars

 

It's not balanced. It's horribly imbalanced. If I recall, the weight balance is something like 63 front/37 rear. The wrong wheels power it. It's got electric power steering. It's nose-heavy, with a twist beam in the rear and mundane McPherson struts up front. Everything about it is set up all wrong... and yet, Honda somehow took these liabilities, and still made it FEEL balanced, FEEL engaging, handle well. It's like they sat there and said, "No we're going to make this out of canned ingredients and velveeta, and it's still going to be gourmet tasty."

And THAT is freakin' amazing.

 

I'm interested in quality to the point I didn't check anything else.

 

Occam, a balanced chassis means the car (chassis) turns, stops, accelerates well. IOW, good handling. Not weight distribution. It's a subjective thing, meaning you feel it, rather than it showing up on any data.

The Fit has a balanced chassis.

Also, the front seats on this Fiesta were surprisingly bad, mostly the seat backs. I felt the seat cut off around my shoulder blades.

 

Hmm i will say this the Fit handles very well and i have owned some of the best handleing cars out there i would say. My last to good cars was a Evo and a S2000CR. And the fit does handle well i would say

 

It proves that you can't drive a spec sheet.

 

Now go throw a Mazda 2 into the mix. The car the Fiesta could have been.

My wife and I have both a 2010 Fits Sport MT and a 2011 Mazda 2 Touring MT.

Both are neat cars with lots of little differences. But no gobs of chromed plastic as found in the Fiesta.

The latest issue of Car & Driver has a short comparison of the three.

Their results were Fit, M2, Fiesta---1,2,3....

John

 

I walked over to the Ford dealership while I was having my oil change and tire rotation today, and sat in a Fiesta. I was quite impressed by the ergonomics - it has WAY more leg-stretching room than the Fit, though it comes at the expense of rear-passengers. That said, if you tend to slide/lean the seat back, and frequent rear seat use is a major concern (for anyone but children), you probably aren't going to buy a B-class hatchback.

The seat also seemed way more supportive, but the Fit's seat was way more supportive when it was brand new. It's gotten quite a bit squishier over the past year.

 

I test drove a Fiesta a month ago with the new dual-clutch transmission. I was psyched to finally test it out since I read some great reviews raving about it. The styling is great in my opinion, and Microsoft Sync is a nice feature to come standard.

It was, however, by far, my most disappointing drive of the day. There was a clear disengagement between the driver and the road, and even more so with the transmission. I felt the tranny didn't know what I wanted it to do, and when I floored it, it didn't respond except to make a lot of noise. Very disappointing. I think it would be better mated with one fewer gear, or maybe more aggressive gearing.

When I got back to the showroom floor, they asked me what I thought.. and I just honestly told them the flaws I saw, and the manager agreed with me. It was kind of funny. He was saying that the Fiesta is oddly placed because it is priced higher than a Focus but below the Fusion.. and he sees it as a hard sell to convince someone to jump up from the Focus to the Fiesta, and with options, watch out. They add up fast.

I drove the Honda Fit right after, and the 5AT is sooo much more responsive. There's really no comparison for all-around best deal. Supposedly 40MPG with the 6-DSG on the Fiesta, but man, it took the joy out of driving.

 

I'm just a bit annoyed by all this...

When I bought my Fit in fall of '09, there weren't this many great options. The Yaris was out... I mainly crosshoped the Fit and Cube, with the Scion xB tossed in at a distant third.

If I'd had the Fiesta, Mazda2, and Juke to add to the tossup, who knows what I would've bought.

 

You did well with the Fit imho. The Mazda2 would prob. be sportier through the turns (haven't driven it), but the Fit is no slouch either -- and there's no comparison when it comes to storage space. I also have the Mazda2 being a good 1/2 second slower from 0-60, just as slow as the Fiesta.

The Juke looks.. hmm. Ugly. And it's a little more expensive than the Fit Sport (and a lot more than the Mazda2). That CVT would be worrisome to me. It's maybe better to compare it to the Mazda 3, MINI, and Impreza.

 

I likely would have bought another Fit thanks to good experiences with Honda. Still, the Fiesta would have been very tempting, especially with better interior ergos. As far as the Juke's price, an "S" model is a bit more than a Fit, and offers more amenities... it's hardly an expensive car that one aspires to, ya know?

 

If I had those three choices plus the Fit... I probably would've ended up with the Fit anyway.

1st off, I don't like the look of the Juke.... I just don't. Between the driving lights and the bottom "grille"... it makes me want to throw up. Aside from from that, overall, it reminds me of an SUV... and I am tired of SUVs. so its gone.

2nd to go, Mazda 2. It actually doesn't look to bad. About the only thing it really loses to the Fit is the cargo space (spec sheet wise). But that's not really why its off my list... I've had a limited experience driving a Mazda. It was a Mazda MPV... the transmission snapped in half on me as I was backing out of the drive way. And for me, things like that make me biased against them.

3rd and final to go... Fiesta. Actually, I dislike the styling of the Fiesta about the only thing I do like about it, the headlights (even though its not much different from the Maz2 overall). The only reason it didn't go before the Maz2 is because of the MPV experience. However, I've had a bit more Ford experience, and it ain't all pretty either. While the Ford Escort was my "little hatch that could" and gave me a few fond memories (why I chose to buy a hatch now)... it had some annoying flaws.

No radio. Granted, that wasn't exactly the car/manufacturer's fault since it was stolen. But still annoying.

Broken driver side key lock. I have no idea who's fault that is (potential thief, SAME thief?!?)... but seriously, it's a PITA having to open the passenger's door first, reach across to open the driver's side. I bet my passenger's were a bit annoyed too, thinking I was being courteous only to watch me climb in instead.

Messed up heater. I could make it to school and in class before the car warmed up. Not something you want for Chicago winters. BRRRRRR.

I also drove a Ford Taurus Wagon. One fond memory of that was squeezing by a car that was turning and a parked car, while going 40 mph. My passenger said I had less than an inch between me and the parked car (I swear, I thought it was more than that!!! It looked the same on both sides too!). But only a few minutes before that, I did something else that scared the beejebus out of them... I crossed an intersection (going 25-30 mph?) to park on a dime, but all while going in reverse. But dealing with the leaking transmission and messed up windows also left some unpleasant memories.

In any case... like I said, those unpleasant memories have colored me in such a way, it would take a LOT for me to really consider those cars.

Oddly enough, Honda isn't innocent either. In an Accord, I drove on a flat, and THEN got embarrassed because I couldn't take off the security lug nut to change the tire (key was at home?), only for the Caltrans guy to show me how simple it was without the key. Sometime later, I blew the top off the radiator... no, not the cap, the actual top section of the radiator. And the driver's side window was dying a slow death (motor was dying and I think the rubber wasn't allowing it to slide up easily enough).

One, um, interesting memory was in a Prelude (old, OLD one).

I took this girl out for a drive while her folks and my folks stayed home and chatted. We had hung out before, so it wasn't anything new. The interesting part was right afterward, I fellow friend told me that she had told her that we were dating. I was like... "WTF? Why didn't I know that! I had a girlfriend and didn't know it?!? dang."

The next time I saw her, I asked her about it... we "fought," she got drunk and told me she was engaged to get married later that same day... then I was like... "I got dumped and didn't know it, again!"

That was a short relationship.

HAHA, that memory will forever be linked to the Prelude (and by extension, Honda)... hence my non-technical biased for Honda.

Edit: whoops, pretty long post there. >.>

 

If you're giving it any sort of throttle while "canyon carving", I can assure you that you're not getting 40mpg...

 

Since canyon carving is mostly about curves, heavy throttle is not necessary. That said, keep in mind that these canyons come with good stretches of downhill coasting as well as some inclines. Plus the aforementioned highway sections, my mileage was near 40 mpg and climbing.

 

Well the new Focus is coming that will put it above the Fiesta and below the Fusion. The current N/A Focus is built on a 10+ year old chassis and has been cheapen so much over the years. Of course it's going to be cheaper then the all new Fiesta.