Published:
30 October 2023What matters more in the class in which the Ford Fiesta sat - perception or reality? Would you prefer a dull interior crafted from the highest quality materials or would you like a car that wows you and your friends every time you open the door. And will continue to do so as long as you don’t look too closely at how it’s put together?
For most the answer would be somewhere between the two and, at this price, a compromise is inevitable; but Ford has undoubtedly staked its tent in the latter camp.
Even now the interior design of the Fiesta still looks fresh and, impressively, you can say as much about the poverty spec models as the poshed-up versions. There’s barely a straight line or vertical surface to be seen – it’s all interesting curves and swoops.
That word ‘seem’ is used with reason: what you don’t want to do is spend too much time prodding around the inside of the Fiesta because you’ll find that while some materials are as good as they look, and the dash top is a good example, others are not. Those silvery metal finishes are in fact anything but while the moment you look below the driver’s natural eye line, the plastics are chiefly hard, coarse and cheap.
The cabin causes some ergonomic issues too. Though the centre stack looks stylishly and thoughtfully arranged, it’s harder than it should be to correlate its functions to those displayed on the small LCD display above.
