THE FIESTA IS one of Ford's great success stories, having prospered in the small car sector for more than a quarter of a century. Having developed the immensely popular Ka from the Fiesta platform, Ford has now launched another derivative with which it hopes to create yet another new niche market: the urban activity vehicle (UAV). Looking something like a cross between a people-mover and a sports utility vehicle set within the footprint of a small car, the Fusion represents the marque's bold attempt to develop an urban vehicle to rival the populist appeal of the Ka.
Whether the term 'UAV' will be bandied about southern China in five years' time is anyone's guess but the Fusion could best be described as a bigger small car aimed at city families.
Unveiled yesterday at Hollywood Plaza, Diamond Hill, it is marginally taller and longer than its rivals the Honda Jazz, Mazda 2 and Toyota Echo Verso, and larger than the new Fiesta with a perceptibly higher driving position, ride height and ground clearance, as well as increased headroom and boot space.
Picking up the 1.4-litre 16-valve Duratec-engined test car in Central I notice the Fusion is indeed a hybrid vehicle - from the outside at least. The odd thing is that the Fusion looks pretty much like every other car - in fact, it looks like a lot of different cars rolled into one. It's easy to recognise a range of styling details cribbed from our contemporary roads with boxy headlamps and high-set rear tail lights that could be straight off a Fiat city car. The raised roofline looks much like a Renault Scenic and the rear quarters could be taken straight from the drawing board of the designers at VW-Audi, bearing no small resemblance to recent Golfs. So, the styling is generic rather than groundbreaking but the car's road presence is convincing.
The proportions do give the Fusion a mini-4x4 feel from the outside (although it only has front-wheel drive) and once installed you immediately notice the raised driving position and improved visibility of off-roaders. Adjustable seats, steering wheel, dual airbags and CD player also come fitted as standard.
The Fusion's interior is all Ford, with spartan grey plastic surrounding the velour seats and nylon carpets. It's no gin palace in there (a token leather-clad wheel is the only concession to luxury) but perhaps the base price of $129,800 (at Ford Hong Kong, tel: 2503 1032) reflects this. After all, the Fusion is intended to be more of a utilitarian urban car rather than something frivolous. And it has to be said the Fusion has other attractive features for a car in this price range, not least in terms of interior space. At about 4 metres long, the Fusion is still quite compact but internal space is optimised well with the rear seats splitting and folding forward as you'd expect in a car sold on its practicality. The front passenger seat folds and locks flat to allow for long loads or to create a firm table for picnics or pit stops. With the rear seats down there's about 1,175 cubic litres of space for your luggage and there's a very useful low-lipped rear door that eases the pain of loading and unloading. Headroom is generous and more akin to the larger Scenic rather than peers such as the Honda Jazz.