Ford Fiesta ST

The hot hatches fans have received one more reason to celebrate. The Los Angeles Auto Show will have the first official appearance of the new sports version of Ford’s most successful compact hatchback, which will feature all the benefits of the modern technology in a new variation whose performance is comparable to many bigger vehicles’, not to mention some of the muscle cars from forty years ago. This version also brings the whole Fiesta family’s 2013 facelift, so how about to start with meeting its urban siblings?

Fiesta has been in the current generation for four years by now, but it became one of those really well-designed cars which age much slower. Until the last decade, Opel Corsa B and VW Golf 4 were very good examples of that, leading to believe that the “secret” for that was using clean, simple lines instead of more sculpted shapes like what was used by the 2000s Peugeot. However, the sixth Fiesta has the merit of being one of the first models to present what today is one of global car design trends. In other words, if in 2008 Fiesta was considered very futuristic, it’ll still up-to-date now and will be it for several more years. That’s why this half-age facelift had nothing but minor style changes, preferring to focus in other areas. Ford didn’t try to adapt Fiesta to anything or to make seem younger because this car actually doesn’t need that. They only gave it a cleaner front design, changing the two air intakes for a bigger-sized one, in order to resemble the latest releases such as the new Kuga and Fusion. As what was first seen in Paris and São Paulo, this phase received improvements such as parental control items and more safety items.

But the North-American version also brings very important news opening the hood. This car will repeat the European success of the 1.0 EcoBoost engine, Ford’s very famous propeller family that generates 125 hp in one of its versions and achieves a 40 mpg fuel consumption – this number gives it the title of less-consuming US car without hybrid or electric propulsion. Besides that, the interior received slight changes to improve the sophistication: the two-colored coating with light tones helps the cabin to seem bigger, while the younger customers will enjoy the items such as the Sync entertainment system: it features multimedia sound connectivity, smartphone interface and Bluetooth, among other functions. This is Ford’s answer in a car category which is receiving increasingly big attention even in the US because of the efficiency appeal, brought both by the reduced size and by the smaller engines. That’s why Chevrolet offers Spark, Fiat debuted with 500 and Hyundai and Nissan sell respectively Accent and Versa, these two also with hatchback and sedan versions, like Fiesta. And if that market is still starting to welcome this size of car, how about the emergent countries, who have always sold millions of them? Brazil, for example, has already confirmed to produce the hatchback Fiesta, adding the three-volumes version later.

Nevertheless, the EcoBoost family shows that its expertise doesn’t restrict itself only to the efficiency area. The bright orange car shown at these pictures deserves the ST badge by the high performance, but deserves an even bigger merit for many others. There are several spoilers and even a rear air diffuser to optimize the aerodynamic drag, but this car impresses also when stopped – there will be lots of other vibrant colors to match those beautiful 17” wheels. The cabin pleases every hot hatch fan with two-colored Recaro seats with excellent body support, while the dark colors used at the rest of the room give the typical sports car sensation. There will be the best trim level available for Fiesta, and the handling was improved with a more rigid suspension, which was also lowered in half an inch. All of that comes to suit what moves this car: the EcoBoost 1.6 comes in the 200-hp version, even more powerful than the European one. Since this engine brings the best of the downsizing technologies, the turbine is only one of the responsibles for all that power, which is controlled by a front-wheel traction and manual six-speed transmission. Not to mention that it also gives to Fiesta the title of most powerful car in its category.