Ford Fiesta ST Review! Is a 3 Cylinder Hot Hatch Really a Good Idea!

The new Ford Fiesta S D is Ford's most recent super mini .

Now in its third generation , this new car is quite a gamble for Ford because instead of playing it safe and just improving the old engine and adding a couple more horsepower , they decided to install a brand new power unique featuring one less cylinder than the old one .

Add some fuel saving technologies and make it just 0.2 seconds faster .

Brave move .

But unfortunately , we've already seen Renault ruin its super mini while trying to reinvent it .

So did Ford follow in their footsteps .

I don't usually do this on my channel , talk about a car's design , but there's something about this Ford Fiesta S D I can't really put my finger on , but every single design element on it seemed to fit so well together and it's such a beautiful car to look at .

The whole S D body kit is subtle .

There's a more aggressive front end design , side skirts and a twin tailpipe exhaust at the back .

But my favorite design element of the car are the optional 18 inch wheels , Michelin pilot super sports on a Fiesta S T and don't think that you're getting these tires only on the optional 18 inch wheels because every single Fiesta S T comes equipped with this , the car is finished in a brand new color for the S T called Silver Fox and that's kind of it for the exterior bits on the inside .

The sportier thing continues with these excellent Ricardo seats , a flat bottom steering wheel and just a better interior overall .

But this car is not all about the looks .

The people at four performance , put a lot of effort and attention to detail into developing this new Fiesta S D .

It has an L S D at the front force vectoring rear springs .

It only comes with a six speed manual transmission and yes boys and girls , this car has launch control .

So let's first engage sport mode .

Now we go to the menu , engage , launch control first gear floor , the throttle , let go of the clutch .

Yeah , I'm not actually sure how effective this is , but I can tell you it's a lot of fun .

Yeah , but now that we've got that out of way , let's talk a bit about the performance up front .

We have a 1.5 liter three cylinder engine capable of producing 200 horsepower and 290 Newton meters of torque .

Power goes to the front wheel via a manual six speed gearbox .

The 0 to 100 kilometers per hour acceleration takes 6.5 seconds and the top speed is somewhere around 230 kilometers per hour .

But these numbers only tell half of the story because this car feels much faster than those figures suggest .

It's punchy .

It's got plenty of ground for its size and its relentless in its acceleration .

Although you can feel its struggle a bit over 5000 R PM .

And also it doesn't sound like one have a listen .

I it sounds exactly the same on the inside .

Unfortunately , that's due to the fact that the exhaust sound is pumped through the speakers of the car .

However , Ford insists that there is no fake sound going on and it's all just amplified exhaust sounds .

And I have to admit that I believe Ford on this one .

Plus , it also sounds less fake than the one in my BMW M two .

So I'm not going to complain .

The manual transmission is good and I applaud Ford for sticking to this formula , but it's not the best box out there .

The gear shifts are short , they feel good .

It's not as , not as I've heard other people report it is , but it's not precise enough .

I've often found myself selecting third instead of first when trying to roll away from standstill .

And in more than one occasion , I selected fifth gear instead of third when trying to shift up from second .

That being said , I'm glad Ford didn't follow Reynold's footsteps by feeding a subpar automatic transmission .

The manual is so much better having to work a little to get her fixed .

Love it .

Handling is sublime .

And before I go further , I have to tell her that this is the first ever Ford fiest is I drive .

So I won't be able to compare it with the old one .

But from what I've read about the previous car , this seems to be just as fun .

Very playful .

It's still prone to lift off , oversteer , the rear axle slips out of line just enough to minimize understeer .

And if you find a tight hair pin , you can get the back wheel of the car up in the air .

The suspension is very well set up .

It's not too firm , it's not too soft .

It's just right .

And I love the fact that it leans a bit in the corners like an old school hot hatch .

The S T S new dampers are semi adaptive , so to speak when they're on a rough road and the wheels travel a short distance .

But at a high frequency , the dampers go to their softer setting , but at longer low frequency wheel movements , the dampers revert to their firmer setting .

Clever stuff that said the car has tons of grip .

Thanks to these Michelins that it's fitted with and the front de on this Fiesta S T really works wonders no matter how much you apply mid corner , this car refuses to understeer .

It's incredible this thing .

It's so satisfying to very tall on the corner and feel your line tight on rather than the car washing wide .

This totally transforms the driving experience .

This steering is a bit weird .

It's probably the fastest rack I've ever tested on a car .

It's lining fast to respond to your inputs .

It's very precise , but it's just too eager to center itself out when you soften the grip on the steering wheel .

It feels like the steering wheel is spring loaded .

And as soon as you release it , it literally jumps in its initial position .

It sometimes feels even more pronounced when you push the and then let go of the wheel .

And unfortunately , in my seven days with the car , I can't really say I got used to it .

So , what's my conclusion regarding the Ford Fiesta S D ?

Well , I think it's great .

I like it a lot and it feels like a car that's been really well thought out , probably predicting the backlash they would receive once they removed a cylinder from the old engine , Ford decided to improve every single aspect of this new fit .

And I think they achieve that .

It drives really well .

It's fast , it's practical and it's very well priced .

If you ask me , this car's base price is a smidge under €20,000 .

And the one I'm driving right now costs about €25,500 which is not bad considering the amount of equipment added to this car still .

If you're planning on buying one of these .

I recommend you stick to adding the plus pack and the performance pack which get you the seats , the 18 inch wheels and the front de among others .

And you have a very well specked out car for a quite decent price .

So that's it for today's video .

My friends , I really hope you've enjoyed it .

If you did , please give it a thumbs up and subscribe to cartoon for lots more videos to come and until next time , take good care of yourself and I'll see you around .