We take Ford’s sporty 2014 1.0L Sport+ EcoBoost Fiesta for a test drive!

Cars, much like gadgets and life, are things filled with compromises. If you want a car that’s fast and accelerates quickly, you’ll suddenly find yourself spending more to keep that gas guzzler fed with fuel. If it’s an affordable car you want, you’ll find yourself being overtaken by faster, speedier vehicles on the road, struggling to catch up. But what if you could get the best of both worlds – great fuel economy that’s right for our perennially clogged roads, and power when you need it most?

That’s the premise of Ford’s 1.0L EcoBoost engine stuffed in their 2014 Ford 1.0L Sport+ EcoBoost Fiesta. While there’s a lot of cars (and some motorcycles) that have higher displacements than this little hatch, don’t ever think that it’s a pushover. It’s capable of keeping up with vehicles that have bigger engines despite the fact that it has a dinky 3-cylinder engine under the hood. The secret is the turbo that lives beside the engine, which can deliver 125 PS and 170 Newton-meters of torque that’s even more powerful than some 1.3 and 1.5 liter engines that are plying the roads right now. That engine is mated to a PowerShift 6-Speed automatic transmission with Select Shift.

The 2014 Ford 1.0L Sport+ EcoBoost Fiesta has basically the same aesthetics up front as the 2014 Ford Fiesta 1.5L Titanium that we reviewed earlier this year. You still have that Aston-Martin looking front grille that makes the car look aggressive and sporty. The back though tells a different story, as the 2014 Ford 1.0L Sport+ EcoBoost Fiesta is a proper hatchback, no longer saddled with a weird looking boot. Nothing against the 2014 Ford Fiesta 1.5L Titanium, but we’re hatchback guys, so seeing that proper looking hatch made the test drive much better.

The cabin of the 2014 Ford 1.0L Sport+ EcoBoost Fiesta is identical to the 2014 Ford Fiesta 1.5L Titanium that we reviewed a few months back, down to the last button. We’re not going to bore you with details (you can actually hit up our previous review to see all the features insde the cabin), suffice to say that the 2014 Ford 1.0L Sport+ EcoBoost Fiesta is a car for the tech-head.

Speaking of the test drive, we took the 2014 Ford 1.0L Sport+ EcoBoost Fiesta on two day trips – one going through Bulacan and Pampanga, the other going through the winding roads of Marcos Highway starting from Marikina and finally ending up in Los Banos before heading back to Manila.

Both daytrips were very different. The first trip allowed us to test the 2014 Ford 1.0L Sport+ EcoBoost Fiesta on the expressway, and we were surprised at just how quickly the car accelerated on the road, considering the engine displacement it’s packing under the hood. Slow vehicles (and left lane hoggers) were quickly overtaken on NLEX, and the car didn’t have any trouble keeping speed.

The second trip was slightly different, as it required us to traverse Marikina and Antipolo’s clogged roads. This is where the 1.0L engine came in handy, as it allowed us to squeeze excellent mileage from the car. There’s just a catch though – you’ll have to keep your engine’s revs under a certain limit so you don’t engage the turbo for maximum efficiency. It was a lesson that we had to learn the hard way, as we were initially baffled why our mileage wasn’t as good as what you’d expect from a car with a 1.0L engine. After we learned that the turbo usually engaged at around 3000 RPM, we managed to squeeze around 10 km/l in moderate to heavy traffic, which is good, especially with the traffic around the metro right now. In the highway, you can probably get more (14-15 km/l is easy) though again you’d have to keep within the RPM limits so you won’t engage the turbo. Easier said than done, especially when you’re facing a wide open highway and the temptation to floor the gas is great.

Like the 2014 Ford Fiesta 1.5L Titanium, the 2014 Ford 1.0L Sport+ EcoBoost Fiesta is a very nimble car. Navigating around the winding roads in Marcos Highway was easy, and the car was very comfortable to drive. Even though our second trip took around 8 hours, we were still pretty relaxed when we arrived home.

If you’re the sort of person that cares about both power and frugality, then the 2014 Ford 1.0L Sport+ EcoBoost Fiesta may be for you. Of course, those two traits don’t come cheap – the 2014 Ford 1.0L Sport+ EcoBoost Fiesta is listed as having a Php 898,000 SRP.