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"           Grosseto, Italy \u2014 South of the U.S. border and increasingly north of it, Fiesta means &amp;quot;party.&amp;quot; But the Cuervo will have to remain tightly capped for a little while longer, as Ford&amp;#039;s global B-car \u2014 although already on sale in Europe \u2014 won&amp;#039;t reach U.S. showrooms until the spring of 2010. Judging by our drive of the European version, however, a properly Americanized Fiesta could deliver pi\u00F1ata-intensity beatings to its class competitors.   Based on Ford&amp;#039;s global small-car architecture shared with the Mazda2, the Fiesta for North America will share 70\u201380 percent of its parts with its doppelg\u00E4ngers in Cologne, Germany; Valencia, Spain; Nanjing, China; and Cuautitl\u00E1n Izcalli, Mexico. (Incidentally, those are all cities where the Fiesta is or will be manufactured, the last of which will produce our North American version.) With such economies of scale in place, Ford hopes to realize gains in profitability and quality.   Central to this concept is developing a world car from the outset, not modifying an existing car to fit a market. The next Focus fits this business plan, but not the Fiesta, as changes were retroactively engineered into the car to meet U.S. requirements.   It helps that this small Ford is a stylish and solidly built piece. With its wedgy beltline, sexy roofline, pronounced fender flares and high-set faceted taillights delivered largely intact from the Verve concept, the Fiesta shows off Ford&amp;#039;s new kinetic design. The somewhat bulbous front end, with the Blue Oval perched above a broad-based trapezoidal intake, says &amp;quot;international&amp;quot; far better than the quasi-Art Deco three-bar treatment of the Fusion, Edge and Taurus.   Inside, it&amp;#039;s a brave new world of exciting forms and quality materials. The main instruments are set in a metallicized &amp;quot;binoculars&amp;quot; shroud, and the center-stack controls, arrayed on a canted surface, mimic the button layout of a cellphone. Just about anyone could be comfortable up front, with height-adjustable seats that firmly hold your torso, ample head room and a tilt/telescope column that presents a 3-spoke wheel whose beveled and shaped rim is an exercise in tactile reward. In back, the Fiesta&amp;#039;s shortish 98.0-in wheelbase limits rear-seat knee room, making emergency evacuations of 6-footers possible but not comfortable.   Utility can make or break a B-class car, and the Fiesta receives an average score here. Its hatch liftover sill seems high, and with the 60/40-split rear seat folded flat, there&amp;#039;s a 4-in. step between the load floor and the seatbacks.   Europeans get a choice of three gasoline engines (1.25, 1.4 and 1.6 liters) and two turbodiesels (1.4 and 1.6), but Ford hasn&amp;#039;t divulged what will roost in the North American Fiesta&amp;#039;s engine bay, saying only that fuel economy targets are 31/39 mpg city/highway. Vegas bookies are giving excellent odds on the gas 1.6-liter Duratec Ti-VCT, which makes 120 bhp helped by variable cam-timing actuators on both intake and exhaust bumpsticks, paired with either a 5-speed manual or 4-speed automatic. We drove the manual-gearbox 1.6 and can report it&amp;#039;s a smooth and eager revver all the way to its power peak of 6000 rpm. Shift action is light and crisp, but the linkage doesn&amp;#039;t feel as robust as the current Focus&amp;#039;s.   And for a chassis suspended with common MacPherson strut/twist-beam hardware, the Fiesta \u2014 at least in European Sport spec \u2014 has uncommonly good handling. It&amp;#039;s precise, well controlled in roll, resistant to death-plow understeer, unflustered by trail braking and pointed with a quick-ratio steering rack that&amp;#039;s electrically boosted for the first time. Continental ContiSport Contact 2 tires are sized 195/45-16, plenty of adhesion for a 5-door that weighs in at a trim 2160 lb. \u2014 a full 88 lb. lighter than its European predecessor, due partly to the increased use of high-strength steel. Our advice? Don&amp;#039;t tinker with the suspension settings at all for the U.S. version.   It&amp;#039;s too early to talk exact price, but to be competitive with the Honda Fit, Nissan Versa, et al., the base Fiesta 4- or 5-door needs to come in at around $15,500, with amenity-laden versions brushing $20,000. And plans are to offer significant technological content, including a nav system, the Ford/Microsoft Sync voice-actuation package, Bluetooth, iPod interconnectivity, etc. It could B the car that gives the Honda Fit fits. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/first-drives/reviews/a14288/2010-ford-fiesta-1/>