Driving impressions of the Ford Fiesta dual-clutch automatic

Ford launched the 2011 Fiesta in July this year, but sales have not exactly been stellar for the Fiesta. The Fiesta that was launched in four petrol and four diesel variants, priced between Rs. 8.23 lakh and Rs. 10.42 lakh, ex-showroom Delhi, has been selling an average of about 610 cars a month.

The Fiesta has always been a very driver-oriented car with sporty handling and good road manners. Now, Ford has gone and made it even better with the addition of an automatic transmission. The automatic transmission Ford is using in the Fiesta is a dual-clutch “Powershift” six-speed automatic, which gives the driver the pleasure of quick shifts just like a manual transmission, without the need to shift gears and also does not sap power or fuel economy from the car.

The automatic transmission is being offered only on the petrol variant of the Fiesta at the moment. The Ford Fiesta petrol has a 1.5 litre engine that puts out 108 bhp of power and 140 Nm of torque.

So how good is the Fiesta automatic? CarToq recently drove the Ford Fiesta automatic through the scenic countryside in Goa to get a feel of the car on some nice twisty roads as well as crowded city traffic.

Performance and handling

The Fiesta petrol automatic is identical to its manual sibling in the way the car drives, well almost. The dual-clutch automatic actually gives this car a unique sporty characteristic, while the addition of the sixth gear makes the engine relax at higher speeds, which should be good for fuel economy.

Photo: The dual clutch AT in the Ford Fiesta is a driver's delight

The dual-clutch setup is essentially an automatic gearbox with two clutches, driving odd and even gears on separate shafts in the gearbox. Gears 1, 3 and 5 are set up on one shaft, while gears 2,4,6 and reverse are on the other shaft. By constantly monitoring the driving conditions, the ECU (engine control unit) pre-selects the next gear allowing the car to quickly shift to the next gear with minimal time lag. Also read: Understanding the Ford Fiesta’s six speed twin clutch gearbox

The two clutches are electronically controlled by the ECU. When the car is at standstill and in D mode, tiny motors disconnect the clutches from the engine, giving you the feeling of being in neutral and taking pressure off the transmission. When you release the brake pedal, the car begins to creep forward, just like other automatics do. But the gearbox is actually behaving like a manual transmission and lightly slipping the clutch to give you forward motion. Once you step on the accelerator, it quickly upshifts or downshifts depending on the speed at which you press the pedal – the ECU judges whether you’re accelerating gradually or looking for a burst of speed and selects the gear automatically, within a few milliseconds.

The benefit of such a gearbox is that there is no need for complex fluid cooling systems and hoses like in conventional automatics. Also it has a more direct feel, just like a manual transmission and there’s not much lag like conventional automatics.

To the driver, there is absolutely nothing he needs to do. The gear selector has only 5 standard modes – P (park), R (reverse), N (neutral), D (drive) and L (low mode). Ford has not equipped the Fiesta with a manual override (like paddle shifts or a tiptronic shift), such as the Honda City or Volkswagen Vento offer.

When the transmission is in D mode the car upshifts at optimum points to give you maximum power and good mileage. But if you are looking for some sporty driving, like trying to drive up a hill really fast, the L-mode on the gear selector can please enthusiasts.

What L mode does is to give you the lowest possible gear for any speed, and it will hold it till the maximum rpm in each gear (just over 6,000 rpm) and then shift to the next. It will also downshift at about 4,500 rpm, keeping the rpm high, giving you maximum power. We tried this on our drive in Goa and found that it completely alters the driving characteristic of the car. Of course, there are two downsides to this mode – it saps fuel economy and it makes the car really noisy due to the high rpms (should that be Loud mode?). But if you want to do a fast hill climb, it’s really fun in this mode.

If you were driving the Fiesta automatic, we’d advise you to keep it in D mode as you get the benefits of both good power and decent fuel economy. For the most part, the gearbox can easily sense your driving needs and shift gears within fractions of a second without losing momentum.

To make things better for the driver, Ford has thrown in some more driving aids in the automatic Fiesta, which improves the overall driving experience.

Features

One of the new feature additions to the car is the Hill-Start Assist function. This feature is also found on the Skoda Yeti and Mahindra XUV500. If you stop the car on a steep slope, and you want to move away without rolling back, you just need to press the brake pedal, release and step on the accelerator. It will keep the brakes engaged for about 2 seconds, allowing you enough time to shift your foot from the brake to the accelerator, without rolling back.

The other feature that’s been added is the Hill-Descent Control function. Hill descent control is activated by means of a tiny switch on the side of the gear selector. A warning lamp on the instrument panel lights up when it is engaged. When hill descent control is in use, the car can safely come down steep inclines using engine braking, as the Fiesta stays in appropriate gear allowing for controlled speeds downhill.

The manual variant of the Fiesta is also equipped with cruise control on the top-end variants. But cruise control actually works better with an automatic. We selected a steady speed of about 60 kmph using cruise control and found that the car actually upshifts or downshifts to hold this speed even when climbing a hill or accelerating from as low as 30 kmph. That’s something the manual transmission cannot handle, and this makes relaxed driving on country roads even more pleasurable.

Another feature that’s new on the Fiesta automatic is the addition of leather upholstery.  All other features and gizmos in the car remain the same, including voice activated controls, power-fold mirrors, front and rear fog lamps, two airbags, ABS, cruise control, automatic climate control and Bluetooth-enabled infotainment system.

Mileage

Ford has not yet revealed the actual figures for the Fiesta automatic, as it is still undergoing mileage tests. During our 140 km drive in Goa, we managed to get about 9.9 kmpl from the Fiesta automatic, because of our varied driving styles to try out all the modes and characteristics of the Fiesta. Claimed mileage is 17 kmpl for the petrol manual variant, so expect the automatic to about the same under standard test conditions, as it has six-speeds compared to the five-speed offered in the manual variant.

Looks and comfort

As far as looks go, there’s virtually nothing on the outside to distinguish the manual variant from the automatic. Our test car was a Titanium spec automatic, but did not have any external badging, as it is a pre-production version. As far as ride comfort goes, the car is identical to the manual variant we drove earlier. Also read: First Drive: The 2011 Global Ford Fiesta – petrol and diesel

Conclusion

Ford will not be launching the Fiesta automatic before January 2012, as it still needs to get the production models ready. Ford has ruled out offering a diesel automatic for the moment, because it is constrained by production issues – because India is probably one of the few countries where there is demand for such a model. However, since the Ford Fiesta is based on a global platform, Ford says it can’t justify offering a diesel automatic for one market alone.

The petrol Fiesta automatic will likely come in two variants – a top-end Titanium plus spec automatic model and a mid-variant automatic without some of the bells and whistles is also likely. This will allow the car to be more accessible to people who want an automatic, but don’t really want too many other features in the car. It will also allow Ford to price the automatic much more aggressively and compete with cars like the Honda City automatic, Hyundai Verna automatic, Maruti SX4 automatic and Volkswagen Vento automatic.

Stay tuned for more on the Fiesta automatic in January.

Ford Fiesta AT Technical specifications