2011 Ford Fiesta Review - Not for short people!!!!

[CTScott]

This past week I was in San Diego on business and chose a 2011 Ford Fiesta from the line-up of cars I could choose from for my rental.

I walked up, opened the hatch to put my luggage in, and was impressed with the cargo space. It drops down, like a trunk, rather than being a slide-in entry, like the Yaris. I think there are pluses and minuses to both ways.

I get in the car, and immediately felt like I was 7 years old (not because of being excited, but rather because I could barely see out the windshield). Granted I am a short dude (5'4"), but I have short legs, so my seated height is about the same as the typical 5'8" to 5'10" person. I almost went into the rental car office to see if they had a couple of phone books that I could borrow to sit on.

I adjusted the mirrors as best I could and headed out of the rental lot, fearing for anyone in my path. Backing up was nearly a braille operation, as with the position and size of the hatch window, visibility was nil.

As I got moving, I decided to turn on the radio. The integrated center console had a button for satellite, so I poked it to see if it was active and sure enough it was. I decided to change the station and quickly found that the buttons on the center console area were completely non-intuitive. There were two arrow buttons pointing to the right, so I figured one had to be up. I poked the first and nothing happened. The second moved to the next station, but 5 seconds later jumped again. It took me a while to figure out what button would stop it from seeking. I give a thumbs-down to anything simple that actually requires reading the manual to figure out. I experimented with the Sync a bit, but found it very frustrating, as 90% of the commands were not properly interpreted (and, I believe that I speak English clearly enough that any speech recognition system should work for me).

As I proceeded up the I-5 North on ramp and attempted to merge into traffic I was completely shocked with the complete lack of power of the 1.6L and wicked 1st to 2nd delay from the AT. After the horn honks and middle finger salutes from the people who narrowly escaped rear ending me I realized that much more merge space would be required for future merges.

During a half hour ride up the freeway, I realized just how uncomfortable this car was. The bottle holder on the lower part of the door projected in so far that it was cutting into the calf of my left leg. I really couldn't find a comfortable place for the left foot, other than right against the side of the brake pedal. The seat position I couldn't quite get right, and it reminded me of why I buy Japanese cars (designed for little Japanese drivers), rather than American ones (designed for big giant Americans).

I had the car for three days, and drove 210 miles total. Filling it up on the way back to the airport took just shy of 10 gallons, and even if it was a gallon lower than where I topped it off to, that calculates to somewhere between 21 and 24 MPG. Not good for how little power this thing had.

So, the bottom line is that I was mighty unimpressed and very glad to get back into my Yaris after flying back home.