By Ray Hutton

October 2002

• Rating:

What's the difference between three and five? In Fiesta terms, it's about 10 years. That's the likely gap in age between the buyer of a five-door version of Ford's best-selling supermini and those who are likely to choose the company's new three-door.

It seems youthful customers don't need the convenience or expense of extra access to the rear seats. So to appeal to this more fashion-conscious driver, Ford has given the new three-door model sportier looks - and a cheaper price into the bargain.

This isn't a new idea, of course, as the firm has taken a cue from the class above, where less doors means more style. Although far removed from a coupί¿½, the latest Fiesta bodystyle has 25cm longer doors, a different roofline which slopes to the rear, and a more sharply angled tailgate. External dimensions are the same and there is not much difference in interior space, either. In fact, although headroom is slightly down, the lack of doors in-creases shoulder room in the rear. Lug- gage volume is less, though, with 268 litres compared with the five-door's 284.

In the front the cabin is identical, and in most mechanical respects there is no change, either, except the old model Fiesta's 1.25-litre Zetec engine has been reintroduced across the new range. Creating a more sporty image for the three-door has not extended to providing more powerful engines or tauter suspension settings - at least yet. Ford's development engineers prefer the three-door because it has a slightly stiffer bodyshell that allows the suspension to work exactly as intended, but most of us would not detect any difference in driving the two models. Of more interest to most buyers will be the launch of the Durashift EST (Electronic Shift Technology) transmission, a robotized five-speed gearbox which provides automatic op- eration as well as a sequential manual gearchange. Al-ready seen on the Mondeo and Transit, Ford is offering Durashift in the Fiesta instead of a conventional automatic or CVT. Both of these would be more expensive than the ΂£500 EST is likely to cost.

As an extra bonus, fuel economy is as good or even better than with the regular manual gearbox. Indeed, Ford is so confident of EST's capabilities that no other kind of automatic transmission is planned for the Fiesta.

Although these semi-auto systems started life in Ferraris and the BMW M3, they are already available for some of the Fiesta's rivals including the Vaux-hall Corsa Easytronic, Renault Clio Quickshift and Citroen C3 Sensodrive.

Where the C3 has paddles behind the steering wheel for Ferrari-style changes, the Fiesta has a normal looking gearlever, with three positions: N for Neutral, R for Reverse and D for Drive. From the D position the lever is nudged left to select automatic mode and backwards or forwards to change up and down manually. Interestingly, Ford has adopted the same pattern as BMW, where the lever is moved forwards to change down, rather than the opposite way used by everyone else.

These systems vary with the manufacturer and the sophistication of the electronics. Ford's is the best we have tried yet in a small car but the up-shifts can be jerky, and in automatic mode the gearchanges are deliberately slow for smooth progress. Durashift will be available initially with the 1.4-litre 16-valve petrol engine, followed next year by the 1.4 litre TDCi.

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