The Ford Fiesta petrol will soon be available with an all new dual-clutch automatic gearbox, a first for this segment. We have just driven this interesting new variant in sunny Goa and here are our first impressions.
The driving experience is still what separates the Fiesta from rivals, and it’s no different for this automatic gearbox-equipped car. You still get excellent feel from the steering, brilliant body control and great agility on twisty roads, and the new automatic gearbox takes away very little from that experience. The six-speed, dual-clutch unit holds onto a gear quite willingly when your foot is placed flat on the throttle, it is quick to shift up to a higher gear towards the top of the power band and the shifts are seamless and smooth. The gearbox responds extremely well to changes in throttle inputs.
However, the Ford ’box does tend to stay at a higher gear for better fuel efficiency so you have to wait for it shift down a gear or two, which does causes a bit of a delay when you need instant power. Thereafter, power comes in a step which. Also lacking on this car are important features like tiptronic manual intervention and paddle shifts behind the steering wheel, available on competitors like the Honda City and Vento (only tiptronic).
Ford introduced its PowerShift gearbox (code DBS6) internationally only recently and, as with other dual-clutch transmissions, it has one clutch working the odd and the other the even gears. The gearbox also has advanced tech features like hill start, which keeps the brakes engaged for 2.5 seconds after you lift off the brake pedal. Another – neutral coast down – will disengage the clutches when the brakes are applied for greater efficiency and precise clutch slip, providing torsional damping of engine vibrations at low rpm (enabling lower lugging limits for improved fuel economy).
The Fiesta automatic is quite desirable, especially with the increasing traffic we all have to endure, but it won't come cheap. Ford has not announced prices yet but we expect at least a Rs 1 lakh premium over manual variants. However, the fuel economy advantage the double-clutch box gives this car could offset the higher price. We’ll just have to wait and see.