Rising petrol prices and interest rates are making small cars more attractive. BILL McKINNON and the Drive team compare 10 fuel misers.
What’s big in small cars :-
These are the new darlings of the Australian car market: they’re small and beautiful, but when you add on the $40 or $50 cost of filling the tank they become drop-dead gorgeous, which might explain why sales are up 23 per cent on last year.
Small cars are the most cost-conscious sector of the market, so the players are always tweaking prices and equipment lists to maintain a competitive edge. We dissected the class last October, but much has changed since then. Some models now have up to $2000 of extra value compared with last year; others are less attractive propositions.
One car we drove but didn’t rate is the Holden Barina, which is a rebadged Daewoo Kalos that Holden imports from Korea. Since our previous comparison, the Barina sedan - a left-hand-drive model sold in Europe as the Chevrolet Aveo - scored two stars out of five in Euro NCAP crash tests. One star carried a strike-through, which indicates a significant risk of life-threatening injury. The Barina hatch was subsequently crash tested by the Australian NCAP organisation and scored only two stars out of five.
The Barina is the only new car in Australia with such a poor NCAP rating. Despite strong sales (thanks to an attractive $13,490 starting price) we won’t recommend it at any price. Most of these cars we’re more confident about.
Ford Fiesta :
The Ford Fiesta LX three-door hatch starts at $15,990. Air-conditioning, formerly a $2000 option, is now standard. Anti-lock brakes are a $700 option, or are packaged with the four-speed auto for $2200, $800 less than previously.
The car, which is German engineered and built, has a solid, robust quality, excellent dynamics and supportive seats with plenty of front-seat travel to accommodate tall drivers. It has another less-appealing European attribute: 95 octane premium unleaded is recommended for its 74kW 1.6-litre engine. We have no complaints about its performance, though. There are faster cars tested here, but the 1.6-litre pulls strongly across a wide range of revs and it would be fine paired with the automatic transmission.
Other negative aspects of European cars are their more frequent service intervals and more expensive maintenance. Generally speaking, the bigger services come sooner in European cars than Japanese cars.
At highway speeds, some tyre noise and exhaust boom are evident, but the engine is quite refined. The dash, however, is dated and fussy. The back-seat has tolerable room for adults and the boot is relatively large.
The Fiesta recorded average scores on the NRMA Insurance collision repair cost and theft scales, but it’s at the high end of the running costs comparison. It achieved four stars out of five in Euro NCAP crash tests.
