WT Petrol Road Test

[In Focus]

Today the wife tells me her WT petrol auto is idling a bit rough, it needs a service. Possible, I agree, but suggest maybe it needs a good hit-out, since all she does is drive it to the shops and back - fuel consumption was sitting on 9.0L/100km and average speed 32kph. I suspect the motor rarely gets warm (hard to really tell, since there's no temperature gauge).

"What should I do?" she asks.

"Leave it to me," I reply.

Off I go, chasing a winding, uphill bit of road I like to take the Focus on. There's a bit of highway work along the way, a couple of stops here and there, lots of accelerating at more than "normal" speed (though nothing illegal). The car drops gears nicely on the uphill twisty section, which is something the Focus doesn't need to do (a bit more torque, only four gears perhaps).

I also found the Fiesta a lot more willing to rev than the Focus, perhaps because it's got the extra gears to play with, even when compared to using the Focus's tiptronic shift. I have to "work" the Focus to get the best out of it. I should point out here that the Fiesta has a Pipercross filter, so I think that probably helps a little or maybe even a lot (it's about half as thick as the OEM version).

The Fiesta accelerated better than I thought it could. I've driven it before, but that is usually with wife and child onboard, and a less "liberal" attitude to acceleration/fuel usage.

After about 60km at an average 52kph, I had used 6.0L/100km fuel, which sounds high, but considering the "stick" I was giving the car (I saw over 30L/100km on the instant consumption readout at one point) I think it's rather good. It seemed to be idling Ok, dropping to as low as 0.6L/100km when doing so, though generally around 0.7.

I was quite impressed overall. I've got a funny feeling the Fiesta might be faster accelerating than the Focus, at least anywhere other than in an uphill/more-than-one-person-onboard situation where the better power and/or torque would start making a difference (a diesel Fiesta might be a different story). The Fiesta certainly takes bends better even with the handling improvements I've put on the Focus... In fact, I'm a bit scared to line the cars up, even in a straight line.

I would agree with those who say the Fiesta's powershift gearbox can be slightly jerky in city traffic, almost as if overdoes the looking for the "perfect" gear all of the time, but I think it's a matter of the driver adapting; it's not a torque converter, so it won't feel like you normally expect an automatic to feel. On the free/highway the gearbox works brilliantly. I can only imagine it would be better still in the new Focus with more power/torque on tap.

Still, a great drive overall. I kept imagining an extra 20 or 30kw in a car of that weight/size. Bring on the Fiesta ST.