If Ford's latest Fiesta is to continue challenging for top spot in the supermini sales charts, then the 1.4-litre petrol-powered variants featured here must sell strongly. Very strongly.

This facelifted Fiesta will have an easier ride here than it will in Europe, where Ford's baby has always struggled to make any real impression on the buoyant Supermini sector. But even on UK shores, the going looks likely to be tough, with rivals as good as Renault's Clio, Toyota's Yaris, VW's Polo, SEAT's Ibiza, Hondas Jazz and others all squaring up to steal what used to be guaranteed Ford sales.

So this car had better be good - and on paper at least it is. Prices for the three and five-door 1.4-litre petrol variants featured range from £9,495 to £12,195 in Style, Style Climate, Zetec Climate and Ghia specs and, as ever with Ford, you can usually get the local dealer to sharpen his pencil. Equipment levels on all models run to twin front airbags, Ford's 'Intelligent Protection System' (IPS), a CD stereo, central locking and 60/40 split-folding rear seats. A Durashift EST sequential manual transmission is also available as an option. As you'd expect, the market and finance side looks good, with low day-to-day running costs and a healthy projected residual value.

With the facelift that dominates the front end of the current Fiesta, Ford haven't gone too overboard. The grille is now of a diamond mesh design, the headlamps are pointier and the side mouldings grow thicker as they progress rearwards. The rear lights have been reshaped as have the bumpers and the overall effect is a slight move away from the Fiesta's inherent chunkiness in a sleeker, more dynamic direction. Dramatic the changes are not. If you liked the look of the sixth generation Fiesta, and the sales charts suggest that plenty of people did, you'll like today's version of it.

Ford worked hard to keep the weight of the car down - it tips the scales at 1,035kg. That's just as well for with 79bhp on tap, this little 1.4-litre 16v engine has to work pretty hard to haul a ton of car along. No good then, expecting especially sparkling performance: sixty from rest takes 12.2s on the way to 104mph. Having said that, of the car's top rivals, only Skoda's 1.4-litre Fabia is significantly faster and some (like the Polo) are a lot slower. Anyway, the Fabia pays for that pace at the pumps, so you could argue that with a 44.1mpg combined fuel return, the Ford strikes a good balance between power and parsimony.

"The steering's great, the grip impressive and the body roll well controlled?."

Most should find the engine to be smooth and unobtrusive, provided its not revved too hard. You may find yourself doing just that however - nor only to make it over steeper hills. As with the old-shape Fiesta, this car is a great handler - and it may well bring out the Colin McRae side to your character, assuming of course that you've got one. The steering's great, the grip impressive and the body roll well controlled. That may sound irrelevant if all you want to do is tootle to the shops and back but should you ever be in an emergency, having a car that changes direction easily, controllably and predictably could just make the difference between having or avoiding an accident.

While we're on dynamic excellence, the ride is also very good, one of the things that makes this a small car you could quite happily use on longer journeys. To that end, the spacious cabin will be a boon. Though its not the largest in its class, you can (just about) seat five adults in reasonable comfort, thanks not only to the surprising width but also thanks to more knee-room at the rear than some cars from the next class up. There's a good luggage capacity too (of 284 litres or 10 cubic feet) arranged in a shape to optimise usable volume for longer items like foldable baby buggies.

Large rear doors and that impressive rear seat roominess mean that installing a child seat in the back won't prove the usual Olympic challenge. Although the backrest of the rear seat is split for increased versatility, unfortunately the seat cushion itself isn't. While we're carping, it would also have been useful if someone at Ford had thought to include an interior boot release catch (though there is one on the key fob).

Drop into the height-adjustable driver's seat and you'll be greeted with a dashboard that adopts many of the quality conventions of the Mondeo range, and that's good news. For those who enjoy tracing the lineage of the design, the Mondeo's interior designer was poached from Volkswagen - and it shows. It's easy to see where cost has been excised from the Fiesta, competing as it does in a class where margins are utterly cut throat. Some of the fascia plastics could be nicer to the touch, there's a lack of cupholders and storage spaces aren't too prevalent.

Nice touches? Well, we liked the clever functionality of the wipers. You've just washed the screen and its nice and clear, then inevitably, a drip slowly rolls down in front of your face. This Fiesta knows it's coming and automatically comes back for another sweep of the wipers two seconds after the wash cycle is complete. Plus, as is becoming usual, the rear wiper sweeps automatically if you select reverse with the front wipers going.

So is Ford's latest Fiesta good enough? In many respects, yes. Excellent dynamics, carried forward from the old car, now complement a spacious and versatile cabin. Indeed, if the standard in this class wasn't as high as it is, we could be talking about class leadership here. As it is, the Fiesta faithful will be delighted to sign on the dotted line, while many others will surprise themselves by enjoying this feisty Ford.

TOP 5 FIESTA DEALS

The results below show the top FIESTA deals on buyacar

	Ford Fiesta 1.4 TDCi Zetec 5dr [Climate] Hatchback
	ETR	Mthly £153	Saving £2,951	Price £9,294
	Ford Fiesta 1.4 Zetec 5dr [Climate] Hatchback
	ETR	Mthly £147	Saving £2,751	Price £8,794
	Ford Fiesta 1.4 TDCi Zetec 3dr [Climate] Hatchback
	ETR	Mthly £144	Saving £2,799	Price £8,846
	Ford Fiesta 1.4 Style 3dr Hatchback
	ETR	Mthly £123	Saving £2,296	Price £7,449
	Ford Fiesta 1.4 TDCi Style 3dr Hatchback
	ETR	Mthly £129	Saving £2,496	Price £7,949

typical 11.83% APR

PCP finance quote over 48 months,  10,000 miles pa,  deposit of £1000