Ford Fiesta Earns 40/29 MPG Rating

by Edward Niedermeyer

May 17th, 2010 12:50 PM

Ford’s Fiesta subcompact has earned a top EPA rating of 40 mpg on the highway, and 29 mpg in the city, reports Automotive News [sub]. Those numbers are for Fiestas equipped with an optional six-speed autobox; manual transmission models get a 37/28 mpg rating. By comparison, auto-equipped versions of competitors like the Honda Fit (35/28) and Toyota Yaris (35/29) come up short on highway mileage in particular. But this isn’t the first time Ford has claimed 40+ mpg for one of its cars: the Fusion hybrid carries an EPA city rating of 41 mpg, despite coming up short of its government-endorsed rating in several real-world tests (although not as shockingly as Chevy’s Equinox, for example). But t he EPA testing regime is hardly perfect anyway, so let’s just wait and see what the test drives yield before we start stringing up the piñata.

#Fiesta #Ford #FuelEconomy #Marketing #NewCars

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7 of 64 comments

Carlson Fan on May 17, 2010

Trust me it won't cost anywhere near 40K! But that said it will still be considerably more expensive and in a different market than the Ford. But then considering what your getting, it should!

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- JeremyR on May 17, 2010
  
  I suspect the Fiesta will probably take the "fun to drive" category hands down. Thanks, but no thanks.
  
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- Faygo on May 17, 2010
  
  you'll pay $40k, then get $7.5k back from the gov't. so perhaps not "close" to $40k, but way more than a likely $16k Fiesta transaction price. Volt is neat, but just like any hybrid, there are not purely economic reasons to buy one.
  
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Buffs Fan on May 17, 2010

Michael Karesh -- I've seen TTAC writers state that the Fusion Hybrid doesn't get anywhere near it's EPA mileage, and is much closer in real world driving to the Camry (34 MPG). I looked it up on TrueDelta, and saw that it averages 39.1. Is that correct, or did I do something wrong on your site? Thanks for your help!

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- Quentin on May 17, 2010
  
  I believe the issue is more that when compared apples to apples on a non-EPA test, like the one consumer reports ran w/ the Altima hybrid and the Camry hybrid, the difference between the hybrid fusion and the others is less than 3mpg or so. I have no doubts that people can get 39mpg out of them. Driving 55mph highways, my GTI returns in the upper 30s and it is rated at 29mpg on the new system. On Michael's site, the Camry Hybrid averages anywhere from 35mpg to 39mpg (depending on model year). So, it isn't so much that the Ford doesn't get the numbers. It is more that the Ford doesn't beat the other full hybrids by the margin implied by the EPA testing.
  
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Werther on May 17, 2010

Why shouldn't the Fiesta get 40 mpg? The other week I drove a 2006 Corolla with 4-speed auto and overdrive on a 500-mile Interstate trip. 41.3 mpg, and I was not hyper-miling it at 55 and coasting down hills, instead I was moving along at 70 mph. So, yeah, it's not just possible, it's probable.

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Greg Locock on May 18, 2010

FWIW I've driven 3 different manual Fiestas over the past two years and the average fuel consumption is 36 mpUSgallon for all 3. That's at an average speed of 36 mph, split between 1/3 of the time at 60-65 mph, half on tarmac, half on gravel roads, the rest at mixed city and suburban driving. On long trips the average improves markedly. My neighbour claims to beat this by 10% or so. Probably not a lead foot, and probably not driving on gravel which tends to increase fuel consumption by 10-20%.

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