General impressions of the current Ford Fiesta can be found by looking through our Ford reviews section or typing Fiesta into the search box. The car tested here differs from all the others we've previously tested in two ways.To start with, it looks different. In a recent facelift, Ford has revised the bonnet, added what it calls "laser-cut" headlights and applied a front grille which has been inspiring references to Aston Martin ever since it was first revealed at the time of the Paris Show last September.You may like the changes, you may not. My feeling is that the grille in particular makes the Fiesta look taller and dumpier than before. Not really my idea of a step forward, to be honest.This is also the first Fiesta we've driven with the one-litre three-cylinder EcoBoost petrol turbo engine, here in 123bhp form (a 99bhp version is also available for £600 less). This output might give you pause for thought if you remember two previous Fiesta hot hatches, the RS1800 and RS Turbo, which were considered quick for their day yet had very little more power than the EcoBoost does.You can certainly feel the effect. Although it's by no means a sporty car, this Fiesta zips along pretty smartly, and in particular performs very well - not quite as well as a diesel, but not terribly far off - at under 2000rpm.Yet according to the official figures it uses fuel at the rate of 65.7mpg on the EU test (subtract at least 10mpg from that to get an idea of what you can expect in real life) and has CO2 emissions of 99g/km, just below the threshold for Vehicle Excise Duty and the London congestion charge, while also being capable of accelerating from 0-62mph in under ten seconds.An even better feature of the engine is that it's so quiet. The very distinctive three-cylinder sound, which some people love and others aren't impressed with at all, barely registers unless you're accelerating hard, which, given the low-speed characteristics mentioned above, you very rarely have to. I haven't actually tested this (where's that decibel meter when you need it?) but I suspect that this particular Fiesta has just about the lowest interior noise levels of any supermini on the market.There's been a third change too. At the same time as revising the styling and adding the EcoBoost engine to the range, Ford altered the suspension to improve ride quality and refinement, neither of which I previously thought was a problem as long as the car wasn't running on large wheels and low-profile tyres.It wouldn't be fair to attempt a direct comparison here, because there was never a three-cylinder Fiesta with the previous suspension set-up. I can only hope that it has worked well on the four-cylinder models, but the EcoBoost is rather disappointing in this respect.The front end seems underdamped, making the ride more wallowy and the handling more cumbersome than ought to be the case. It's as if the chassis, in being developed to be more suitable on German roads, has become less capable of dealing with UK ones. And that's another backward step for a car I wish I liked better than I do. Engine 999cc, 3 cylinders Power 123bhp Transmission 5-speed manual Fuel/CO2 65.7mpg / 99g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 9.4 seconds Top speed 122mph Price £16,045 Details correct at publication date
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