One to meet mum, the other for a one night gig

The Westen Cape got unusally wet for summer in Nov 2013,
just as I tried putting foot in Fiesta ST.

(As aired on Radio Overberg and published in The Witness )
A COUPLE of weeks ago, I was in a hurry to get from Cape Town’s airport to Bredasdorp, South Africa’s southernmost town, for a one-night gig at Radio Overberg. (That was a rocking playlist guys!)

I was in the right car to be in a hurry in: Ford’s sprightly Fiesta ST, but I was also in all kinds of the wrong weather.

The history books will show that the skies over the Western Cape on that Saturday did not so much rain as “turn into an upright sea with little holes innit”, to quote Sir Terry Pratchett. Going down Sir Lowry’s Pass, the fog was so thick even the cat’s-eyes were using little white sticks.

So apart from one 0-100 km/h acceleration test, for the best part of 700 km I did not get to do what all the other motoring scribes said they did, which is to “put the Fiesta ST through its paces”. Instead, I got to drive the car like an owner, fiddling around to find where the button for the fog lights is, smiling smugly at the consumption achieved and feeling grateful for the adjustable headlights, while crawling past various collisions. (Cape Towners really seem to struggle with the concept of things get slippery when wet.)

Back home, another hot hatch awaited, Peugeot’s 208 GTI. To level the playing fields, Pietermaritzburg was also living up to its reputation for spectacular summer storms, with thick mist rolling down the escarpment. To continue the ownership theme, I did the school run in the Pug and even got to change a tyre on the highway.

The bucket seat in the Peugeot welcomed my broad butt,
and I could pair my four-year-old Nokia on the
idiot-friendly touchscreen in the time it took a traffic
light to change from orange to green.

PHOTO: autoexpress.co.uk

Transmission

If steering inputs are watches, the Fiesta ST is a digital and the 208 an analog. Both handle intuitively, but the Ford has a slicker gear change than the 208 GTI, for the French car uses a dual mass flywheel, which makes for a more durable clutch, but also adds to the milliseconds it takes to snick the gear lever into place at speed.

Suspension

Both hot hatches have the same bits and pieces that hold the wheels to the chassis and onto the road. Much has been written about the Peugeot’s ride tyres being a bit softer than that of the Fiesta. Not having pressed either of them hard into slippery-when-wet corners, I can only say that on the straight and narrow rural roads of the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, both are about as comfortable as go-carts, with the Pug riding on 205/45 17-inch wheels and the Ford on 205/40 17-inch wheels.

Consumption

The Fiesta’s narrow bucket seat is designed for young butts,
while the Bluetooth system requires a smartphone 

and an even younger selfie generator to connect it
with the Ford. PHOTO: forcegt.com

The manufacturers claim a range of 711 km for the Fiesta ST and 848 for the 208 GTI. That’s on paper. In real life of slow to hard driving, I managed just over 600 km from the Fiesta’s 45-litre tank, and then watched in alarm as the 50-litre tank in the Peugeot drained with seemingly every passing metre of fun in the city. With less than 400 km travelled in combined city traffic and highway driving, including two 0-100 km/h accelerations, the tank was on the first of the three red lines.

Living with both

On the minus side, the Fiesta’s narrow bucket seat is designed for the young of beam and the voice-activated interface requires a smartphone and a user from the even younger selfie generation to connect it with the Ford. Forget about even trying to “interface” with the Fiesta if you’re old enough to know what a Betamax video tape was.

By comparison, the bucket seat in Peugeot welcomed my broad butt, and I could pair my four-year-old Nokia on the idiot-friendly touch screen in the time it took a traffic light to change from orange to green.

This means if cars were girls (and I still of an age to buy hot hatches), the Peugeot’s ease of use and the ever-so-slightly softer ride would make the Pug the car I’d take home to meet the parents.

But the Fiesta’s growlier voice and approach to corners makes it the one I’d like to rent again, next time I have a one-night gig in some dorpie somewhere.

Competitors in power and price

R330 000 Audi A1 1,4T 

S-line (136 kW/250 Nm)

R343 200 Opel Corsa Nürburgring Edition (154 kW/280 Nm)

R260 000 Fiesta ST 

(134 kW/290 Nm)

R360 412 Mini John Cooper Works (155 kW/280 Nm)

R360 000 BMW 125i three-door (160 kW/310 Nm)

R361 000 Citroën DS4 THP 200 Sport (147 kW/275 Nm)

R262 500 Peugeot 208 GTI (147 kW/275 Nm)