After a long survey I finally bought Ford Fiesta 1.4EXI. I had bought the car in Sept., 06. Its been over five months and around 3000Km, so I thought its the right time to write a review. Before deciding on the car, Mouth Shut had been the primary source of review and I had been greatly helped by this site to take a correct decision. So the review is on Mouth Shut.
The cars that I was initially considering was Ford Fieasta 1.4EXI, Honda City ZX - EXI, Chervolet Aveo, Maruti Baleno, Hyundai Accent and Hyundai Verna. Maruti Baleno and Hyuncai Accent was being phased out so I stopped considering it. Verna was to be launched. I did not want to take a risk of purchasing a vehicle without user feedbacks. So I test drove the first three. I started with Chervolet Aveo. I had read a lot about the problem with the gearbox, so that was playing on my mind. The drive was OK, nothing great about it. Next was Honda City.
This is an excellant car with very smooth steering wheel. Power was somewhat less and one needed to shift to lower gears to regain the pickup after braking. I test drove the Ford Fiesta next. The driving experience was excellant. I really understood why this is called the drivers car. The front panel is the best compared to all the cars I have stated. The price is the lowest. The steering is harder as compared to Honda City but that does not matter much. The engine is better responsive at higher speeds but better that the other two at lower speed. Also paying a Lakh of rupees more to get a Honda City for its better average and less power did not seem to be a good idea. All these prompted me to go for Ford fiesta 1.4 EXI.
My wife regularly drives the vehicle and finds it easier to drive than the our Maruti 800. After two services I am getting an average of 13.5 in mostly city driving. Till date I have not been able to find fault with the vehicle except for the fact that one has to be very careful at high speed breakers else the bottom gets a hit. I think Ford should look into this matter and improve the ground clearance.
In all I highly reccomend this vehicle and it is indeed value for money. I got all the accessories (music system, fog lights, auto cop, etc) fitted in the showroom and bargained a very good deal from the dealer. Check the Ford website for the base price before bargaining from the dealer. Also check the date when the car was received at the showroom.