Ford New Zealand has confirmed a raft of details for its upcoming pint-sized hot hatch; the Fiesta ST.
Perhaps most key of all is pricing. The Fiesta is set to land in New Zealand with an RRP of $35,490, which will include Ford's five year/unlimited kilometre warranty. That sits the Fiesta in middle between its prime rivals; the $28,500 Suzuki Swift Sport and the $38,490 Volkswagen Polo GTI.
That's a slight price jump over the last Fiesta ST, which was previously offered on our shores for $34,990. But, there are a few differences between old and new that somewhat explain this.
Chief among which is that the new Fiesta ST will be exclusively offered here in 5-door guise — an upgrade over the 3-door format of the last model (unless you were into that kind of thing).
It's also a bit more advanced, with more power produced by its new turbocharged three-cylinder engine — 147kW and 290Nm driven through the front wheels via a limited-slip differential. It also comes with Michelin Pilot Super Sport tyres and launch control. Nifty.
Read more: New Ford Focus ST revealed, and it's coming to New Zealand
Another reason why the Fiesta's price bump isn't particularly shocking is that this time around there aren't any other Fiesta models in the line-up to counteract the deal. A shrinking small-car market has seen Ford scale back the Fiesta line-up to solely being the fizzy ST. The Focus line-up appears to have had more love, with the Active and ST-Line joining the premium-adjacent Titanium.
“The previous Fiesta ST was highly regarded, and we’ve had considerable interest from enthusiasts on the details of the new model’s arrival,” said Simon Rutherford, Managing Director, Ford New Zealand. “We’re pleased to confirm the most comprehensively equipped, capable and technology-laden Fiesta ST as the latest model to join our local Ford Performance portfolio – and the first five-door for New Zealand.”
“We brought one in early from the UK and debuted it at Fieldays last June. It great seeing the reaction of the enthusiasts – you could easily pick them out of the crowd as they made a beeline for the Fiesta, and then quickly followed their perusal of the vehicle with questions about when and where they could place an order. It’s a highly anticipated vehicle.”
The new Fiesta ST is expected to land in New Zealand in the first quarter of 2020. In the meantime, be on the lookout for a full-road test at Driven.
Click here to view Ford Fiestas for sale on Driven