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The new Ford Fiesta (petrol) comes all geared up to pose a challenge to the Honda City. Will the City fight back or give in easily? We try to find out

Driving down the Pune-Mumbai expressway for the umpteenth time, I couldn’t help wondering if an invisible line separated a highway car from a city car. A car which is sturdy and steady at high speed and a car which carries the passengers through the city's hustle and bustle as if in a palanquin. But then, there are certain pre-requisites that a car must fulfil on both the highway and within the city – good looks, good fuel economy, ride quality and driveability. The question is whether car-makers keep one of these qualities as their object and develop their cars around it, making a compromise on the rest of the points, or whether they actually give equal importance to all these attributes and work towards a complete package. The answer is simple. Those who adopt the former approach limit their target audience and those who believe in the latter address their target audience in entirety.

After about four years of unchallenged supremacy in the mid-size petrol sedan segment, the Honda City has been challenged by another player, the new Ford Fiesta, which boasts of a 'funkier' styling, better interior and much improved drive quality. The challenge has been accepted and the result would be decided on the skills and performance shown by both the players.

Exterior And Interior
The new Ford Fiesta certainly looks like nothing the Indian market has seen before. The styling is very futuristic and would appeal to the young looking for a change from the usual swaying lines and long frames. Those petal-like stretched headlamps, body-coloured bumpers, a matte black front grille wearing the Ford emblem in the middle and trapezoid lower grille set within fog-lamps on both the sides – all these announce the arrival of the new Fiesta sedan straight from the international market. The design is the same as that of the Ford Fiesta super-mini globally, but with a small boot at the rear. Compared to the bejewelled front, the rear of the car looks rather simple, consisting of tail-lamps shaped like raised doe-eyes and a sharply curved arch to lift the boot. Fifteen-inch wheels fit the wheel-arches well and give the car a proportionate look.

The Honda City, on the other hand, comes with the tried and tested formula of a perfect mix of lines and edges that lend the car its sophisticated yet macho look. The basic theory that works in the longevity of a car’s design is 'minimalism'. The more simple and old-school, the better it is.