My colleague David Morgan drove this car some time before I did, and as he told me how much he liked it I noticed there was a slightly stunned look in his eyes, as if it had exceeded his expectations by a significant margin. During its first couple of days in my care, I have to say, I wasn't sure where the appeal lay. I thought the car was okay, but not much more than that.Well before the car left me, I had come to realise what Morgan was on about. This Fiesta - very much at the high end of the price range for Ford's supermini - is only moderately appealing to begin with, but gradually its charms become more apparent. I won't say I was heartbroken to let it go; Fiestas do not, on the whole, stir the emotions enough for that. But I do remember it quite fondly.Initial impressions are not good, to the extent that if I had been taking a dealer demonstrator out for a half-hour test drive I would probably have decided to buy something else within the first mile. For example, the 1.6-litre TDCi turbo diesel engine (a fine unit in many ways, as we'll see) makes its present felt at all times. By modern standards it's pretty loud at cold tickover, and it continues to sound relentlessly diesely even when cruising.It doesn't take long to notice that looking backwards is no easy matter in the Fiesta. In this respect the car seems to have been designed by students from the University of Appalling Rear Visibility. This is a general problem with superminis, but it usually applies to ones with three doors. The Fiesta has the worst rear three-quarter blind spots I have encountered in any five-door car of its size.The ride quality seemed very dodgy right from the start, too. Add to all this the fact that the space for rear passengers is strictly limited - how is that the Japanese are so much better at this than Europeans? - and you can see why I wasn't enthralled by the Fiesta in the early stages of this test. But the good stuff was still to come.Most of it centred on the engine. Ford's current-generation TDCi diesels are very impressive (outstandingly more so than the antiquated TDDi units they replaced), and although I occasionally wished the one in the Fiesta would shut up and stop bellowing at me there was never any doubt as to its performance or economy."How much power does it have?" someone asked me. "Er, about 105bhp, I think," I replied. (Don't ask me details about a car while I'm driving it - I can never remember that stuff.) Later, with the specification details in front of me, I realised I'd overestimated in a big way. The maximum output is actually a far more modest 89bhp.But maximum power figures can hardly ever be trusted, especially in the case of turbo diesels. I don't know what proportion of 89bhp is available at low engine speeds, but I do know that there's a decent amount of grunt from as little as 1500rpm, and that once you're above 2000rpm you're laughing. The Fiesta TDCi performs far better than the paperwork would lead you to believe.The combined fuel consumption figure is 64.2mpg, and I must admit I didn't come close to that, largely because I was having too much fun with the engine. But the trip computer told me I managed 50.8mpg over the course of a few days largely spent driving over fast but tricky country roads.This improved to over 52mpg thanks to another two days spent covering 1000 miles or so on motorways, during which I reached 53.4mpg on one tankful. I was fairly chuffed with this, since I'd been making no effort to drive economically, and I have no doubt that diesel consumption in the 60s is within easy reach.The ride quality remained a mystery. On first acquaintance the Fiesta seems unhappy over bumps, but it became more secure when I (a) started pushing harder, (b) ventured on to rougher road surfaces or (c) both. It's as if Ford's suspension people expect the Fiesta to be given a hard life and have set it up accordingly, though that seems a strange way of looking at things. I'd be more inclined to think that Fiesta drivers will spend most of their time in towns or on reasonably well-surfaced roads - exactly the environments in which it feels least impressive.The test car's list price was an eyebrow-raising £12,295 - you can get the high-performance ST model for not much more than that. Where does the money go? Well, the 1.6 TDCi engine accounts for a lot of it, and the Zetec trim level is reasonably generous, with air-conditioning, front foglights, a good audio system and smart 15" five-spoke alloy wheels all included as standard.Even so, it does seem quite a lot to pay, considering what else you can get for the same money. And although none of the extras fitted to the test car cost more than £350 individually (that particular sum being devoted to the metallic paint), there were enough of them to push the price up to £14,440.Some of these I would have left out of the specification. I'm no fan of aluminium gearknobs and handbrake levers (£100), because they're always the wrong temperature. Automatic headlights (also £100, in conjunction with automatic wipers) are an offence unto the Lord and ought never to have been invented. But I think I'd pay £275 for the extra airbags and the centre rear head restraint.I would also feel obliged to opt for the rear parking sensor. Excuse me raising the subject again, but Ford has made parking assistance almost obligatory by failing to provide adequately-sized rear windows. Which means owners really need to pay the extra £250 for the sensor. Hey, I think I might be on to something here . . .Second opinion: I quite liked this car, it was fun to drive and not bad to look at. Despite it being almost the same size as my brother's old Focus, there really wasn't a lot of room for people in the rear, so I'd suggest another car if you regularly have more than two passengers. I agree with David that rear visibility is pretty poor so I was grateful for the parking sensors, one of the few options on the car I would pay for. Claire Lumb. Engine 1560 cc, 4 cylinders Power 90 bhp @4000 rpm Torque 150.5 ib/ft @1750 rpm Transmission 5 speed manual Fuel/CO2 64.2 mpg / 116 g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 11.2sec Top speed 112 mph Price From £12802.00 approx Release date 01/11/2005
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