Gadgetory

this is the 2012 Ford Fiesta it's a subcompact car that slots in under the Focus and Ford's lineup as such it's Ford's cheapest and smallest car that they've got Ford offers this car is a sedan or a hatchback we've got the hatchback and I think it looks better and it's more practical than the sedan we've got room for five passengers in here although the rear seats a little bit of a squeeze of course we can throw these seats down here and expand the room a lot inside the Fiesta we have monochrome display here much bigger than a standard radio display but it does not have navigation navigation in this car only comes through the sync TDI which is called traffic directions and information and that will give you turn by turn direction but sync does permit us to connect phones via bluetooth and mp3 players via this USB port here so right now I've got an iPhone hooked up to that USB so I can use Singh's voice command call up any artist from my music library USB please say a command play artists geographer playing artist geographer you can also use the buttons on the dashboard to find your way through a music library you know this is just not really a convenient way or a good way while you're driving down the road sync also offers app integration with your smart phone we have a separate video and you can get a detailed look at that just search for Ford Sync mobile apps on CNET TV music coming out of the stereo will play through a very simple audio system but it's an above average sounding system because it has these tweeters in the doors and they shoot straight across the cabin here and that adds a nice crisp detailed element to the sound under the hood we have this 1.6 liter engine it's sitting sideways so it can turn those front wheels it's a small engine but it produces 120 horsepower which is not bad for this little car and that small size also means decent fuel economy the EPA ratings are 29 miles per gallon city 39 miles per gallon highway let's go take a drive and see how this thing handles the Ford Fiesta comes bass with a 5-speed manual transmission now we have this six-speed dual-clutch transmission so I put it in Drive there's not a lot of creep it starts to move a little bit but you really have to give a gas to get going as opposed to a standard torque converter automatic it has a low range you can put it in that and this low range is really aggressive lets the RPMs rise really high and you really hear that too I think it comes from the European design that the sound in it it's a little harsher it seems a little louder a little harder ride than you'd expect from an American car and a lot of Americans might drive this and think how it feels is kind of cheap it kind of feels you know harsh but it's also designed to be a little more maneuverable that suspension that makes a little tougher is also more rigid so I feel a lot of the road coming through it and the steering which is also electrically power booster steering feels a little more responsive overall I like the feeling of this car the way it handles it can feel a little twitchy but it definitely feels very connected with the road it feels like you're driving the base model of the 2012 Ford Fiesta goes for about sixteen thousand dollars we had the SES trim which goes for 17 500 that comes standard with sync so there's not a lot you need to option up in this car the dual clutch automated manual transmission I showed you who goes for 1095 that will bump the price up to over eighteen five there's a lot of competition in the subcompact space cars with softer rides maybe a little more comfortable than the Ford Fiesta but I really like Sync and I think that gives the Fiesta a bit edge