► Five-door Fiesta ST unveiled
► Offered in ST-2 and ST-3 versions
► Yours for £19,495; on sale in October
Three-door hatchbacks might look the part, but if you’re regularly having to use the back seats then you’ll likely find yourself wishing for more doors.
Which, conveniently, is why Ford has just announced that the five-door version of its fabled Fiesta ST will go on sale in the UK in October.
This isn’t an all-new version, mind; the five-door Fiesta ST has been available in the US since the model went on sale – but now Ford’s looking to widen the car’s customer base in the UK.
‘Ford has now sold more than 38,000 Fiesta STs in Europe since we introduced the acclaimed hot hatchback in 2013, and growing numbers of customers have been asking us for a five-door version,’ said Roelant de Waard, Ford Europes’s vice president marketing, sales and service.
‘The Fiesta ST with five doors makes an affordable Ford Performance driving experience accessible to an even greater number of customers.’
How much will it cost?
Ford says the new five-door ST, which is only offered in ST-2 and ST-3 trims, will cost upwards of £19,495. That’s a price hike of £600 over a regular ST-2, which isn’t bad considering the improved practicality on offer.
In the UK, the current sales split between five-door and three-door Fiestas is 65:35. However, Ford only expects around a quarter of Fiesta STs to be ordered in five-door form.
Is it just as quick?
The new (to the UK, at least) five-door version is just as rapid as the current three-door model. It packs the same 180bhp 1.6-litre petrol and dispatches the 0-62mph sprint in an identical 6.9sec.
Fuel economy and emissions take a slight hit, however, presumably due to a fractionally heavier kerb weight that doesn’t otherwise blunt the benchmark performance figures. The regular three-door version returns 47.9mpg and emits 138g/km of CO2, while the five-door version achieves 46.3mpg and emits 141g/km of CO2.
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