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Well, it’s official; the 2014 Ford Fiesta will be the first small American car since the Geo Metro to be powered by a 3-cylinder engine.
The turbocharged 1.0L engine adds three horsepower and 36 lb-ft over the stock 1.6L engine, which many felt delivered lackluster acceleration. Ford expects the EcoBoost Fiesta to be the most fuel efficient non-hybrid car on sale once it debuts. The engine, like other EcoBoost mills, will be an extra-cost option.
77 Comments on “2014 Ford Fiesta Confirmed For 1.0L EcoBoost...”
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Are there any other (current model) 3 cylinder cars out in the USA? I’m pretty sure the Smart is 3 cyl, but outside of taht I can’t think of any.
Smart is the only one currently, but the 1st-gen Insight was also a 3-cylinder.
how much lighter than the 1.6?
My guess is it’ll actually be heavier. The 1.6 Duratec has an alloy block, whilst the 1.0 Ecoboost has a cast iron block.
I wouldn’t assume that out of hand. IIRC the old iron-block Nissan CA18DET was about 50 pounds lighter than the aluminum SR20DET that succeeded it.
Having one less cylinder would go a long way toward offsetting the block material, although the turbo gear would offset that the other way. To hazard a guess, they’re probably about the same weight.
Huh, fair enough. I’m just going by my experiences of manhandling various Ford engines over the years. A few years back (when I was actually fit) I could physically lift Fords all alloy 4 pot engines (namely the 1.25, 1.4 & 1.6 Zetec SE’s (which were the forerunner to the current crop of Sigma engines), whilst I could not lift any of the CVH’s. I guess losing one cylinder off the block will make some difference in weight though.
Geo Metro was an American car?
Built in Canada, sold at Chevy dealers. Close enough.
Still, I had thought the Metro was a rebadged Suzuki.
That’s what I thought too.
It was, but the 1st-gen Swift barely sold in the US and the 2nd-gen not at all.
They were built in the CAMI plant in Ingersoll which was a GM/Suzuki joint deal.
And: I’m pretty the 3-cylinder was specific to the Geo Metro and not available on the Suzuki
I owned and ’89 Geo Metro and cross-shopped. I still to this day regret not buying a Suzuki Swift GTi instead.
We own a ’99 Chevy Metro, it’s my wife’s car.
99% of her driving is in town…plenty of power for that with the 1.0L engine w/ 55HP and 5 speed. It gets 41 City/53 Hwy. uses no oil, easy to service and the ride is actually pretty good for the short wheelbase. No real vibration problems either. We like it.
It’s anemic on hills, but we bought it mostly for a town car.
Bear in mind that the VW Beetle was owned by millions and it had a HP rating of 40-53 depending on year produced. The Super Beetle had 60HP. Just about everyone who has owned one…loved it!
The 3-cyl engine was used in the Chevy Sprint and Pontiac Firefly hatchbacks in Canada.
C/D reported dismal MPG numbers for this 1.0 engine, plus the Smart does not get the numbers that you should for a 3 cyl, so what’s the point of this engine, if not for getting more than 40mpg?
It will score well on the EPA tests, which don’t involve any conditions that require boost. Everyone that buys one will be helping Ford meet their CAFE standard, even if the tradeoff is a more expensive, shorter lived car that gets mediocre real world mileage, shakes like an epileptic puppy, struggles to accelerate as well as more refined and efficient four cylinder competitors, and handles like it has a cast iron boat anchor hanging on its nose.
The 1.0L will help Ford meet its CAFE standards, but you’re forgetting that much of it’s line-up already meets them. Having driven a Fiesta in Europe and US, the little car is a turbo-charged go-cart, a frisky and playful puppy that shoots through gaps in traffic with ease, parks so easily its a no-brainer, and handles very well for its size. One would assume that MPGs and the fun factor would rise with the 6 spd manual over the slushbox.
CAFE is going up. What meets the standards today will be a luxury for the rich tomorrow. Read Car and Driver’s recent test of the Focus 1.0 Ecoboost to understand what I wrote.
http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2012-ford-focus-10l-ecoboost-instrumented-test-review
Real world mileage worse than the 160 hp 2.0 liter naturally aspirated 4 cylinder combined with much slower acceleration and a higher price makes the prospect of 1.0 Ecoboosts a win-win for everyone that stays away from them.
Do 3s really shake that much more than 4s?
My experience with 3s, except for a rental Metro eons ago, has only been with bikes (modern Triumphs), where I find them to be at least as smooth as similarly targeted 4s.
6s are the way to go, though. Pure bliss.
3s do have more vibration, unless you offset the crankshaft like Ford did.
And then they still have more vibration than a 4 cylinder without a balance shaft, let alone one with balance shafts. All you can do with 3 combustion cycles(and three reciprocating masses) spaced over 720 degrees of crank rotation is pick which shakes you want.
Most review data for small turbocharged engines is basically irrelevant b/c the driver has more control of mpg than a naturally aspirated vehicle. I don’t trust the ‘enthusiasts’ at mainstream publication to drive these types of engines properly. Most journos are concerned with evaluating a product, and much less concerned with driving it properly.
If a driver has experience with small turbocharged engines, meeting or exceeding the EPA estimates is not difficult. I suppose the 1.0L Ecoboost could be the exception to the rule. Ford could have built the engine to the EPA test, and then let consumers decide whether or not they wanted to pursue class-action lawsuits for lackluster performance, but I tend to think the journos simply don’t have experience driving small turbocharged engines.
Following the Hyundai debacle, an EPA distortion of only about 2%, I wonder whether or not small-turbocharged engines will be viable from a liability standpoint. It is very easy to kill fuel economy in small turbocharged cars. If drivers lack the necessary skill set to achieve EPA estimates, companies may be forced to abandon small turbo engines for fear of legal reprisal.
TW4,
Where do you get this 2% defense? It’s absurd. These cars didn’t score 50 mpg on adjusted MPG, which would mean that 1 mpg was what they missed their number by. The Soul fell from 34 mpg to 28 mpg highway, which is almost an 18% haircut.
I drove a Focus 1.0L in Germany this past late summer and all I can say is the engine is so smooth and quiet, you can hardly know it’s running. FE and driving performance were remarkable…simply brilliant. Perhaps you should hold comment until you experience it firsthand?
It’s a city car. What will the city mileage be?
Not everyone cruises wide-open back-roads at 90km/h, so the 40mpg thing is kind of played out.
Shhhhh. You’re not supposed to care about the stop-and-go scenarios this car will drive in 90% of the time, only the cornfield interstate unicorn hunt.
“cornfield interestate unicorn hunt” I’m going to have to borrow that one, bumpy ii. Great comment.
C/D tested a powertrain set-up that isn’t going to make it to production. The production intent version will be significantly different.
Saying this will get worse mileage than the 1.6L Sigma is just straight up taking too many pulls of the haterade.
The C/D test seemed kind of half-assed. If you’re going to compare gas mileage between two vehicles for a review, at least perform the tests in a scientific way. There’s no way to tell if they were driven in the same way.
Remember, forced induction is essentially variable displacement. If you drive it hard, you’re going to push the same amount of fuel and air as a much larger normally aspirated engine – so the mileage is the same or worse. If you take it easy, you’ll get numbers closer to what you’d expect from a normally aspirated 1.0.
There are more than one way to “scientifically test” mileage numbers.
The EPA way, which assumes people buy Corvettes to drive exactly the same way they would if they had instead bought a Prius, is just silly. At least a portion of the “total score” really ought to involve driving the car to it’s potential. But that would of course simultaneously hurt the green cred of the ruling class’ favorite Euro toys, and the main meal ticket of the Big 3, so why bother being relevant?
Car and Driver tested a production car. It wasn’t a Fiesta in US trim, but it was a Focus available to the public in Germany. Is Ford saving the good stuff for US market Fiestas? I doubt it.
CJinSD:
Maybe not ‘the good stuff,’ in your opinion, but different content for two different platforms with a different powertrain configuration for good reason. Vague enough?
Makes sense, satisfies the CAFE monster, and the Fiesta is the 21st century Metro equivalent in size and appearance.
Next up, lawn mower grade Ecoboost 2 stroke.
Maybe they could stick a Detroit Diesel 71 variant in the hatch area. Put some Dynamat around it and you won’t even be able to hear it! Then it’d be a RWD diesel hatchback.
I like the way you think.
You’d need a lot more that some Dynamat to make a car with the Two-Stroke Joke quiet.
Only in Lawnboy green and yellow
+1
Made me laugh out loud in a team meeting.
…or a 2-cylinder Ecoboost for cars when the 3-cylinders doesn’t deliver as promised..
————
Wait a minute. Posters here on TTAC bemoan the fact that car makers do not offer here in the US the same type of engine options you see in Europe. Now that Ford is doing just that we see criticism and derision. Since when does a Fiesta have to run like a sports car? Treat it as a daily commuter, much like the Chevy Spark, and enjoy the thing for what it is. A 1.0L engine is a good match for a car like this; why do you need tire shredding acceleration or 100mph+ top end speed?
I don’t bemoan missing out on European engine options. We typically only get the best engines offered over there, and the Europeans would never accept kludged solutions like this one without onerous carbon-taxing and onerous energy taxes. The diesel story is the same. It is hilarious watching people lament that they don’t get the over priced, obscenely heavy, 4,500 rpm red line limited maintenance headaches that Europeans pay through the nose for in order to have something almost as quick in a straight line as a mid range gas engine.
“It is hilarious watching people lament that they don’t get the over priced, obscenely heavy, 4,500 rpm red line limited maintenance headaches that Europeans pay through the nose for in order to have something almost as quick in a straight line as a mid range gas engine.”
Gawd you’re such a cynic. Nearly every European I’ve met and talked to loves their Diesels. I believe you must be stuck in the ’80s for the type of motor (and your thinking) comes from; the Oldsmobile’s diesels, the 5.7 L LF9 and 4.3 L LF7 V8 and the 4.3 L V6.
The last two diesels I drove were a 2012 Jetta TDI wagon with a DSG and an E90 335d that was no more than 3 years old.
It is true a mid range petrol engine would give you similar performance as a typical more expensive diesel.
But it is also true that a V6 petrol in a typical European stop and go driving conditions will consume much much more fuel than a 2 litre TDI.
Good insight. Aside from the mythical six speed turbo diesel sport wagon, I think most would prefer a diesel option such as those found in Europe, not European gas engines (we have those in spades).
I’m not a ‘commuter’ per see so its difficult for me to see the value in something like Fiesta or Spark… in my mind tiny engined tiny car is the automotive equivalent to “Jill” being you girlfriend throughout high school while your beloved crush is out gallivanting with the jocks in their real cars. But heck the current generation of young people (16-21) befuddle me with their priorities, so what do I know.
‘Cause I’m an American damnit! I want something that can keep up with a 911, has the roominess of a 72 Fleetwood, and the forward visibility of a Peterbuilt truck. And it better get at least 35 MPG.
If we didn’t have the added weight due to crash standards, we could all be driving that car!
America, F*** YEAH!
“If we didn’t have the added weight due to crash standards, we could all be driving that car!”
Don’t forget emission standards too. If we could increase compression ratios and get rid of catalytic converters tomorrow, we’d save a ton of fuel right away.
I like my diesel Lincoln for the fact of it’s ridiculousness, not the fact it gets great mileage, has the perfect gear ratio for cruising or that it has phenomenal NVH characteristics (may have to do with the entire herd of sheep that was slaughtered to insulate the beast).
Diesel Lincoln? Do tell.
BMW 2.4L Turbodiesel was an option back in the Mark VII days. IIRC, that’s a rather rare beast and they only moved maybe a thousand of them.
Correct. Found a specimen on craigslist and have been addicted to bad decisions ever since. I think only a little over 2000 M21’s were procured. A bunch went into Mark’s, less went into Continental’s. MY ’83 and ’84 only, I believe.
I love it when I ‘punch it’ (to go no where any faster) and watch the dual plumes of soot spew from the tail pipes. It’s a cruiser. I’m not sure many cruising the Woodward Dream Cruise appreciated the smell, however.
I had never heard about them going into Townies, learn something new every day. Talk about making a Blackwood seem dime-a-dozen….
You, sir, are my hero!
I’ve owned a diesel Rabbit, a Datsun 720 diesel (2.2l), and currently have a still-dead ’96 Passat TDI sitting in the driveway (the low-sulphur diesel killed the IP seals and have I changed 2 so far, with one left to go).
I had a roommate in college who had the Olds 350 in a Lesabre, and with the OD transmission that B-body car would almost hit 30mpg on the flat interstates in the Midwest. But the head gaskets blew one night on his way home and he kept driving it which pretty much finished it off.
Porschspeed, They didn’t put the BMW diesel in Town Cars they put it in the Continental IE the 4dr Mark VII.
Thanks for the clarification. They quit making 4 door “Mark” cars in ’60 and I had forgotten that they started back up with the Mark VI. Gettin’ old…
Weren’t the Conti and Mark 4Ds the same car with different trim on the Mark VI?
I think the 1.0 Ecoboost is a great idea…they offer it in the Focus across the pond and it offers adequate performance in that larger car, with better MPG…so it should be just fine in the Fiesta.
I dont know if it has yet but the Mondeo is getting the I3 beast.
I never had any issue with the 1.6 NA.
I’d prefer the announcement they’re switching to a conventional automatic, giving another gear to the mamual, and giving us the same tire options as Europe.
I had a go in the Focus with the 125hp version of the 1-liter. Excellent little engine. There’s certainly no reason to buy a focus with the normal 1,6 4-pot anymore. It would probably be brilliant in the fiesta.
If this is a city car, wouldnt it make more sense to do a hybrid system over a turbocharger
Then again if you get a small enough turbo, it will spool at idle
For every one of these Ford sells, CAFE will allow an additional V8 Mustang.
People who buy this car should be getting handwritten thank you letters from the TTAC best and brightest.
Winner: post of the day!
+1
A thank you for being among the worst and dimmest.
Only fools buy the stupid 1.6 now
Hmm, a boy-racer buff-book guy has a car that someone else is buying the gas for IN GERMANY, and he manages to get crappy mileage out of it. Hammering along on the Autobahn will do that… A 2.0L Focus probably would have gotten 20mpg.
Seems like a perfect fit for the Fiesta.
Exactly. I don’t quite understand the skepticism regarding turbo-charged engines on this site. They’ve run in Europe and even in the US (VW/Audi in particular, GM too for a while, and more recently BMW) for a while now without too much issue in most cases (there are always exceptions).
It seems more Luddite-type issues and hate of anything potentially fuel efficient than anything else. I often feel like if Ford had come up with a cheesy Japanese-sounding name like TurboForce instead of EcoBoost, there’d be a lot less haterade on this site.
Ford did call it TwinForce for the first month or so.
http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=25149
Yes, I know. That’s what I was getting at. I just picked something that sounded like “SuperHandlingAllWheelDrive”.
@krhodes 1 Info on military members buying gas in Germany. Definitely not free gas. http://www.gettingaround.net/pages/aafes.php or http://www.stripes.com/news/aafes-activating-fuel-cards-on-england-bases-1.81199
I guarantee you no one reviewing a car for C&D was paying for the gas themselves. I spent three weeks last summer driving my OWN car around Europe last summer paying for the gas out of my OWN pocket. I can guarantee that at a minimum of $10/g and a max of nearly $12/g with the epically bad exchange rate, you do think about the effect of your driving style on fuel economy. Not that it slowed me down any on the Autobahn! How often do you get to drive legally at 140mph?
My first VW Type 2 Micro bus had 1200cc & 28hp. Got 32 mpg at 50mph. Rated at 1 ton…..of stone drunk coeds and hanger ons.
Let’s face it. Car engines peaked in 1976. Until bio-petroleum becomes a viable option we will not be seeing a 7.5L or 8.0L for a while.
Good move for Ford – if this truly brings some much needed MPG differentiation between the US Focus and Fiesta.