Sounds good, marketing hype though right now. I remember just a few months ago the new TDI Jetta from VW was supposed to beat the Prius. Then it gets official EPA numbers and ends up with a 30 MPG city and 41 MPG highway.

And lets not forget that Prius IS NOT a Sub Compact, but is a mid size family sedan.

Yeah...but it cost more to fill-up in Diesel (at least in Van, BC)
Also Fiesta is a small car....its like compare Orange with Apple.
wait and see Toyota come-out with Yaris size Prius or Honda's Hybrid Fit

It's not really anything to even raise an eyebrow over. It's a sub-compact that can get decent mileage. Give something that size an HSD, and let's see what kinda mileage that can achieve.

Also consider that this is Driven_M60's first and perhaps only post, so it's possibly troll smoke.

For now I'm giving the benefit of the doubt, but I was thinking the same thing and I'd be surprised if it isn't troll smoke. LOL

How clean is the Ford Fiesta Diesel? Can it be sold in California?

More like comparing a strawberry (that smells like rotten egss and belches smoke, and uses fuel that costs 20% more than gas) to a big ol' watermellon

Let's see when the official combined mileage is released for the 09 Fiesta TD. Especially the combined EU rating, and oh wait will it comply with T2B5 US requirements?? If not what is the point of the writer even talking about it.

What some of these writers conveniently forget is that in the EU testing cycle the Prius gets 56.3 City(Urban), 67.3 Highway (extra Urban) and 65.7 MPG combined. Obviously UK gallons. Not bad for a midsize interior platform using a auto type transmission (what actually gets used in heavy commute traffic here).

I have also noticed a number of my Euro friends that have moved to the US quickly trade stick cars in for autos, when they actually get to drive in US traffic. Stick quickly looses it's appeal when you spend 50% of the time in slow moving traffic with lots of gear changes to go nowhere fast.

All this trolling and ill informed writers are getting boring.

We should tell them we will actually take notice when a car is released that can actually beat the Prius for fuel economy in the normal commute. I'm sure they will come in 2010, when the new (and hopefully more powerful and economical Prius comes out, maybe even PHEV soon afterwards). Then they did great to catch up to a 6+ year old design

Warning: Vent Coming....

I hate, despise, and can not stand all the media crap about a new car only available in Europe or Japan. Especially when the company is so freaking proud to be "American" in their commericials.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Fiesta V Prius
Luggage capacity . . . 284 v 456 litres (I wonder if Toyota include the space under the floor? Don't think so.)
Leg room . F . . . . . . . 1058 v 1065mm
Leg room . R . . . . . . . . 885 v 980mm
Head room F . . . . . . . . 999 v 994mm
Head room R . . . . . . . . 959 v 942mm
Shoulder room F . . . . . 1355 v 1405mm
Shoulder room R . . . . . 1355 v 1345mm

Yep, Fiesta smokes the Prius except it's a diesel you speak of, not available here and hasn't been for the last 4 years like the Gen II Prius has been, and it is a poky little car inside with 100mm less rear leg room and hardly any luggage space. I wouldn't take that on a holiday with my wife and son.

Seriously the Prius has more of everything and you can buy it now. Toyota Prius was 4 years ahead of the lesser cars and even now they can't keep up.

It is also worth noting, Diesel is 20% more expensive in Australia than Petrol. What is the depreciation of Ford's small cars like? It is pretty shocking here.

not available until 2010 if we're lucky! Only 89 hp, Ford needs to kick it into gear....

I agree with you! I see photos in Euro car magazines all the time of U.S. brand cars that look just as good (styling) as Euro-styled cars, yet here in the U.S. the cars look no where near as good and they are losing massive market share. I just don't understand! They literally have the product already developed and in production, but they don't sell it. It's counter-logical. Conspiracy?

Good news on the Ford Fiesta ... Ford announced in June that it is bringing the Fiesta to America. But it won't be here until late 2009 or 2010. Actually, a lot of automakers have said that they plan to bring many of their [small] Euro models to the U.S. due to gas prices and market demand for the smaller cars. The very interesting thing here is that Toyota foresaw this when gasoline hit $3.00/gallon and China and India were becoming industrialized. The Yaris had to be designed and developed several years ago. Toyota foresaw the future. GM and Ford were redesigning the body styles on the Suburban and Expedition.

So when will we get the 101mpg Fiesta-Diesel-Hybrid ?

TDI is 13 sec? OMFG

Bring it over to the USA, we need more 50+ mpg cars. Given gas (and diesel) price trends - it's baffling why GM doesn't bring over (to the USA) some of it's cooler compact diesels that also get 50+mpg. For example, why not sell the compact Opel Tigra (gas or diesel) in the USA since car dealers are now able to sell EVERY small car that they get in now. You would think that instead of idling factories in the USA, GM would be retooling to build more small cars that America both needs and now wants.


Opel Tigra

Wow -- looks to be only a little bit bigger than the Smart car. Good point about the price of diesel. The Prius has so much room and the convenience of a hatchback that I can't compare it with anything else unless they can match those features.

Have you driven a Ford lately? If so, my condolences.

Honestly bringing over small cars like that can't hurt, but lets be careful before we start comparing it to a Prius. Most people still in the US think the prius is some kind of small mini car like this car is. But the fact is(and the reason I am on the prius waiting list) that you can comfortably fit a family of 4 in a Prius. The prius is more of a sedan than it is a compact car. Lets start comparing these little cars to the old Honda insight, or the smart car!

Can you imagine one of those soccer moms switching from an auto-shift humongous SUV to a tiny stick shift noisy Fiesta? I can't. They just wouldn't feel safe. LOL.