Ford Fiesta hatch range

THE "most significant global new Ford since the Model T", as Ford Australia president Marin Burela describes the all-new Fiesta, has a massive job ahead if it is to secure more light-car buyers that ever while lifting the beleaguered US company up from its boot straps.

Luckily, then, the 2009 WS-series Fiesta is more than ready for the task, with a level of competence that elevates the German-built hatchback to the status of world’s best supermini.

Ladies, gentlemen, kids and geeks, in the multimedia vernacular to which the new Fiesta so ably subscribes, this ain’t no model T...

it’s a model for U.

Model release date: January 2009Ford's facelift of its third-generation front-wheel drive Fiesta – in three or five-door hatchback guises – continued to be sourced from Germany.

It featured the same 74kW/146Nm 1.6-litre twin-cam four-cylinder petrol engine, regardless of whether it was mated to a five-speed manual or four-speed automatic gearbox.

Driving pleasure and a strong, solid feel were WQ attributes, but Ford chose to improve the former with the introduction of the XR4 version in mid-2007.

Built and tuned by Ford’s ST technologies department in Europe, it included a 110kW/190Nm 2.0-litre engine from the larger Focus, mated solely to a five-speed manual.

The base model was the LX, followed by the Zetec in three-door (and from December 2006) five-door shapes, as well as the five-door-only Ghia. 

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Ford Fiesta range

TREADING water Ford is most definitely not.

Except for the fuel-sipping Econetic variant, the Blue Oval's popular German-built WS Fiesta gives way to the new Thai-built WT version, adding a raft of incremental driveability, packaging, safety and refinement improvements, as well as more features and better choice, thanks to the inclusion of a bulbous new four-door sedan variant, as well as an expanded diesel line-up in the mid-range LX and best-selling Zetec hatch models.

There are one or two surprising omissions, but otherwise the Fiesta re-establishes itself as one of the best light-car all-rounders money can buy.

And that is quite a feat in this post-VW Polo world.

Model release date: December 2010Ford’s underrated baby finally hit the big time in Oz with the release of the fourth-generation WS Fiesta, a German three and five-door hatch available with the choice of an 88kW/152Nm 1.6-litre VVT petrol engine (with a five-speed manual) or a 71kW/125Nm 1.4 if the (four-speed) auto was chosen.

The former was a winner, flying high in the light-car segment with its smooth and responsive nature … while the latter felt sluggish by comparison.

But buyers didn’t seem to care, for the WS doubled Ford’s share in the segment, garnered a swag of awards and cemented our faith in the company’s engineers.

The top-line Zetec proved the most popular, followed by the mid-range LX and then the base CL.

In November 2009 a 66kW/200Nm high-economy model called the Econetic arrived, a manual-only diesel five-door that instantly established itself as the most economical new car in Australia, giving hybrids like the Toyota Prius a scare in the marketplace. 

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