Ford Fiesta ST-Line Vignale review: 1-litre hybrid is good-looking, fun & cheap to run

APART from my mum and dad, the longest relationship I’ve ever had is with the Ford Fiesta.

Sadly, the signs are obvious — it will soon be over.

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Look at the facts.

Ford has no plans to make Fiesta fully electric.

Bosses teased three EVs last month: Puma, a medium-sized crossover and a sports crossover.

But nothing Fiesta-shaped.

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And any current car that doesn’t run on batteries by 2030 is dead. So, the king is dead . . . well, almost.

The facelifted Fiesta you are looking at here could well be the last Fiesta of all time.

Ford has time to develop a new one but the smart money says it probably won’t.

Would you bother spending millions re-engineering a new small car without a plug when it is going to be killed off in 2029? Probably not.

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Especially when its half-brother, the Puma crossover, is doing big numbers.

Fiesta is Britain’s all-time best-selling car, with 4.8million sales in 46 years.

Everyone has a Fiesta story.

I got my first Fiesta when I was 17. I even got to test how flat the seats went, if you know what I mean.

I was lucky enough to contest Rally GB in a Fiesta R5 and helped deliver the first of the current-gen Fiestas at Dover in 2017.

All landmark moments in my life.

The things that made Fiesta such a great car back in the Eighties are still true today.

It’s good-looking, fun, practical, cheap to run and handles far better than anything else for the money.

I might sound like a worn-out record here but, pound for pound, Fiesta is the best car on the planet.

So, what’s new for 2022? Not a lot, really.

New LED lights all round, Ford badge repositioned from the bonnet edge to the front grille, a bit more tech — including a digital cluster on mid-spec models upwards — plus trendy colours like this “Beautiful Berry”.

There are no mechanical changes because it didn’t need them.

The 1-litre mild hybrid is an absolute peach, reducing running costs as well as adding a dollop of torque assistance during acceleration.

My testing averaged 48mpg, which is pleasing because I wasn’t even trying to be sensible.

Smiles per gallon is much higher.

Also, this ST-Line Vignale is the exact model I would have.

Sporty looks, sports suspension, slick seven-speed auto and loaded with all the little luxuries we deserve, like heated seats, heated steering wheel and adaptive cruise control.

Small cars are by far the hardest to get right.

Give people everything they want but not overprice it.

Ford nails it every single time.

Other things we love about Fiesta?

Heated front windscreen, proper handy in winter. Easy refuelling (no filler cap). And pop-out door protectors. They don’t need explaining.

Here’s a car that’s been engineered by people who lead an actual life.

To back up what I said earlier, Fiesta has dropped out of the Top Ten sales chart for 2022. But that is no reflection on the car.

Ford is prioritising chip supply on Puma, the Kuga plug-in hybrid and pure-electric Mustang Mach-E.

In other words, cars that lower its CO2 fleet average and make more money.

So Fiesta is a victim of that as much as people wanting crossovers.

A friend at Ford also told me electrification of Fiesta doesn’t go further than the current mild hybrid. Which got me thinking.

The old girl next door has a Fiesta she rarely uses.

When she is ready to part with it, I’ll buy it for my 15-year-old son and teach him to drive in it.

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Then my 13-year-old can have it after that.

That’ll keep Fiesta in my life for a good few years yet.

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