GTP Cool Wall: Ford Fiesta S

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Ford Fiesta S


  • Total voters
    89
  • Poll closed .
Seriously uncool.

I don't care how new and funky it is in the States, it's still a Ford Fiesta. That means for every hip young thing driving it there are another ten old biddies bumbling their way to the Post Office each week to collect their pension and ordering it in colours like that bile green in the OP.

Not only that, but as I've remarked before on occasion, it's a terrible design. It'll look dated in absolutely no time and it also proves that Ford can successfully out-Korea the Koreans with their own five year old design language, at a time when the Koreans have moved on and actually started designing genuinely good looking cars.

I don't care how good it is to drive, it sucks to look at and it's a small Ford hatchback. Don't get me wrong, I like small Ford hatchbacks as a rule and I've previously owned a Fiesta, but even that one looked better than this thing. And there's no hot model to redeem it. It's uncool.
 
The new hipster car around here. For some reason, Ford has been going for the hipster demographic around here as of late.

Sorry, VW Jetta.
 
It'll look dated in absolutely no time...

It already does, and we've only had it for a year. Part of the problem is that the Focus is changing the design direction for Ford, and until it trickles down to the other cars, everything will look older. Even my beloved Fusion.
 
Cool. The fact of being sold in Brazil at a relatively low price (and nearly identical compared to the American) adds more cool.
 
I wonder why everyone but me missed the fact that you can't get the hatch in the "S" model...
 
That was my bad. I found a random picture off Google for the Fiesta, forgetting that fact. I'll change it now.
 
As smack bang in the middle a car as you could possibly imagine. You buy this car because you need something to keep the rain off your head and put your shopping in the back of, it carries with it no image, no character statement, it says that you had the money that this costs new but no imagination or pride to instead look into an interesting second hand purchase.

It will of course be driven by uncool people but that doesn't make it uncool, it's just not interesting enough to be anything other than meh.
 
That was my bad. I found a random picture off Google for the Fiesta, forgetting that fact. I'll change it now.

If it's the sedan we're voting for, my vote would drop from barely cool to off-the-charts uncool.

We get a 3-door hatch model called the Zetec S over here and that's what my vote was based on.
 
We get a 3-door hatch model called the Zetec S over here and that's what my vote was based on.

My trouble with the Zetec S is the heavy-handed bodykit that does nothing for the already awkward looks.

That, and it's not a particularly quick car. The Fiesta needs a hotter model, ideally, and I wouldn't normally be the one saying that as a fun car doesn't necessarily need more power. I'd mainly like to see what they do with the styling as the Focus looks better (well, the previous Focus - the new one is a bloody mess whatever you do with it) as an ST/RS.
 
Factory Barry :D

I think the present Fiesta (hatch) doesn't need a "sports" version. It's just not that kind of car - in much the same way the Strokeface wasn't either (though being mechanically almost indistinguishable from the Mk3 - with the XR2i, RS1800 and RS Turbo). It's a cutesy-cutesy, soft and cuddly, frugal hatchback - we actually have a 5 door ECOnetic as a company car and I absolutely hate it, right down to its nannying green "change up at 3k" arrow and the crapass little leaf on the back. But it's the sensible equivalent to alternative alternative fuels.

A sports version of that... nah. It'd be like a TRD Prius or a Spoon CR... oh, crap.
 
Call me sexist/ageist, but I've always thought this generation of Fiesta is aimed at women in their early/mid twenties as the car they but after the car they started driving in.

EDIT: My God what happened to the pic of the EU 5 door hatch? My point only stands for the EU car. The saloon picture up now looks even less cool.
 
Factory Barry :D

I think the present Fiesta (hatch) doesn't need a "sports" version. It's just not that kind of car - in much the same way the Strokeface wasn't either (though being mechanically almost indistinguishable from the Mk3 - with the XR2i, RS1800 and RS Turbo).

The looks of the Mk4 have actually grown on me since the Mk7 came out (or Mk6, if you don't consider the facelifted Mk4 to be the Mk5... but I do...). A Mk4 Si with the four-spoke wheels is actually a really nicely proportioned sporty hatch.

medium_ford_fiesta_1995-1999_2175.jpg


And of course, the Mk5 (or Mk4.5...) Zetec S looked absolutely brilliant. The bodykit on that one was really well considered. Less of a sulky front end which helps.

44634.jpg


And of course, they're still great to drive. The ride on new ones is probably better but it was never too bad, and you can't beat the low inertia of low weight when it comes to a small, fun hatch.
 
It's amazing what a facelift does. There's no sporty image to the Strokeface at all, but the Kittenface (yes, I count it as a Mk5 too) was just crying out for the Zetec-S and more. Why they didn't slot that 1.7 Yamaha VCT in from the factory I just don't know - the Zetec-S was warm (100hp, 10s to 60mph) at best, while being superb to drive.

And yet you and I know that the Mk3, the Strokeface and the Kittenface were effectively the same car underneath (with minor differences) and very closely related to both the SportKa and the Puma, the Strokeface just didn't physically suit a hot hatch - and they didn't even carry the 100hp 1.6 Si over from the Mk3, giving the Strokeface just a range of the 60hp Kent 1.3, the 75hp Zetec 1.25, the 85hp Zetec 1.4 and a pair of low power diseasels.


I'd still have an XR2i in a heartbeat. I may get one and restore it :D
 
I'd personally like to pick up a 3dr, 1.4 Si Mk4, ideally in red or that burnt orange metallic they came in, ideally with the four spoke wheels and ideally (and this sounds strange) with the unpainted plastic bumpers. The bumpers balance out the shape a little more on the 4 I reckon. But it'd be the best version of my first car, and I think everyone secretly wishes they had the top version of their first car, usually because your own car was a base spec model...
 
This is why the Fiesta will always be a shadow of it's former self.

1981-Fiesta-XR2-lg.jpg


I've always thought the Mk1 looked like it was RWD, though. But is actually one of the first FWD Fords. For me it's just a less cool Chevette.
 
Well unless you're thinking of some US Chevette I don't know, this:

1983-RAC%20Rally-14%20BrookesBroad-VauxhallChevetteHSR-SS6%20Bewdley-Vc817-1.jpg


I still love the fact that almost all production cars were RWD before about 1980-ish.
 
And the Chevette HS:

VX_HS_Chevette2.jpg


Along with the Talbot Lotus Sunbeam, the very first of the hot hatches.
 
My mom's first car was a Talbot Sunbeam. A beige one with a brown interior, and a chassis made of rust.
 
Voted Meh!

With this car segment 4 door sub compact they are all starting to look all the same to me. Toyota, Kia, Hundia, Honda etc. I know they are trying to be more aero dynamic and with the crash regulation for the front hood (Bonnet) they are all looking the same. Just my opinion.
 
They're actually the same car underneath, Jim.
 
its looks are enough to make it = Seriously Uncool

only fiesta's i've ever liked are the old one like Duffers917K posted a few posts above me
 
I thought you were talking about this Chevette:

1605685.jpg

Which was Chevrolet's first entry-level Brazilian car. Some crazy people even put a 4,1L inline-six into some of them.
 
^^ That...

Is a dreadful car, slow, ruthless, uncomfortable, noisy, hideous and every other disgusting adjective that comes to mind. :yuck:

Oh and on topic, if we're actually talking about the Fiesta sedan I would like to change my vote to uncool, it's hideous. Which in this price range completely eclipses all the good stuff in it, I'd rather have a Honda City.

The hatchback is pretty cool, though.
 
If we're talking about the EU hatchback, then I vote meh. It's a nice looking little car but it's far too common in the UK and as a result, has faded into the background now and lost it's uniqueness.
 
I thought you were talking about this Chevette:

1605685.jpg

Which was Chevrolet's first entry-level Brazilian car. Some crazy people even put a 4,1L inline-six into some of them.

Opel_Kadett_C_small.jpg


DSC00807.JPG


I kinda like the two door version of that model (Isuzu Gemini, Opel Kadett & GM- Buick)
 
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