Find Reviews by Make:
60 Comments on “Chart Of The Day: 2011 Fiesta Versus 2011 Mazda2...”
Read all comments
Latest Car Reviews view all
Latest Product Reviews view all
Recent Comments
- Lou_BC: @Carlson Fan – My ’68 has 2.75:1 rear end. It buries the speedo needle. It came stock with the...
- theflyersfan: Inside the Chicago Loop and up Lakeshore Drive rivals any great city in the world. The beauty of the...
- A Scientist: When I was a teenager in the mid 90’s you could have one of these rolling s-boxes for a case of...
- Mike Beranek: You should expand your knowledge base, clearly it’s insufficient. The race isn’t in...
- Mike Beranek: ^^THIS^^ Chicago is FOX’s whipping boy because it makes Illinois a progressive bastion in the...
Car Reviews By Make view all
New Car Research
Who We Are
- Tim Healey
Managing Editor - Matt Posky
News and Social Media Contributor - Timothy Cain
Sales Analyst - Murilee Martin
Junkyard Finds Author - Matthew Guy
Contributor - Chris Tonn
Contributor
- Adam Tonge
- Bozi Tatarevic
- Corey Lewis
- Jo Borras
- Mark Baruth
- Ronnie Schreiber
I will bet the Mazda gets better real-world city mileage, for one.
It’s about the same weight as the Yaris, which seems to be the current non-hybrid urban-cycle champ, largely because it’s 200lbs less than anything else in the class.
Automatic variants will probably be less fussy in their transmission behaviours, too: I’ve found four-speeds spend less time switching gears. Lots of gears seem to be a recipe for transmission indecision.
Overall, I think the Mazda is probably going to do better,or at the least, make more money, and that both are going to get crushed by the Versa. In North America, technical sophistry doesn’t help this class much.
Nissan sells a lot of Versas, but rental fleet sales make up a big chunk of that model’s sales.
I remember you saying that you thought the small amount of cargo space in the Fiesta would hurt it, but the Mazda hatch is 4.6 inches shorter than the Fiesta hatch, so the Mazda is going to be extremely tight when it comes to cargo space.
Ford is going to make it or break it with the technology in the Fiesta. Sync is still a major selling point, it’s just that much better than anyone else’s infotainment/phone integration system, and is getting better consistently. Available keyless entry and push button start and the 6 speed automated manual are also cool to a lot of younger buyers, although I think the Fiesta would have benefited from paddle shifters, they would have been a major selling point to the demographic. Plus, while the Mazda does weigh less, the exra sound deadening and features like active nibble control make the Fiesta drive and feel like a more substantial and expensive car, while it still outhandles the previous segment champ, the Fit.
Mazda is a bit player in the US market. No Mazda comes close to outselling Ford’s offering in the same segment in the US.
I read somewhere that Mazda’s only aiming for 20,000 sales of the 2 in the US, and even if the Fiesta is notably worse than the 2 (which it’s not) it will outsell the Mazda based on Ford’s much larger dealer network, production capacity, and marketing efforts.
Based purely on specs, the Fiesta is the better car.
I like the Fiesta’s looks more than the Mazda.
How so? The Fiesta is 272 pds heavier. Even with 20 more hp and 14 ft pds more torque, I bet that extra porkiness makes them closer when it comes to a real world test. After that it’s subjective (looks, feel, speed, reliability, feel, etc.)
Richeffect,
Check out the specs. They are comparing the Fiesta sedan with the 5-door Mazda. We could probably expect the size and weight to be similar if they compared the mazda with the hatch version of the Fiesta for an apples-to-apples comparison.
No, the hatchback Fiesta is only 40 lbs lighter at 2,537.
isn’t Mazda going to offer a 3-door? I know that Ford isn’t. I rather have the Mazda2, I don’t like the Ford’s “cellphone inspired” interior.
No, they aren’t unfortunately, and the 2 is on its fourth model year, so we won’t likely see it in the US until the next model cycle. Even then I wouldn’t hold your breath. They don’t even sell the 3-door in Japan; it’s for Europe/Australia only.
The miracle of technology (I guess). The Ford Fiesta weighs more, has a slightly larger displacement engine that produces more hp and torque, and yet get’s slightly better EPA mileage numbers.
It’s hard for me to judge the price, as that does not take into account the quality of the interior, the transmission, and the features that come standard on a base model, all of which is likely different for the cars. I do like the Fiesta styling slightly better. I wish they had brought the Mazda2 over in the 2-door hatch variant I saw pictured a couple of years ago. Much better looking IMO for such a small car.
It gets better highway miles. Anyone get get a big highway number with some aero tweaks and judicious gearing. No technology required.
Good city mileage (real-world or CR’s test suite, not EPA) is much, much harder to do.
Stick vs. stick the lower weight and lower displacement of the 2 might give it the edge in city driving. However, since the vast majority of both sold will be automatics, and Ford has a dual dry clutch automated manual vs a traditional slushbox in the Mazda, the lesser parasitic loss might tip the hat in Ford’s favor there.
“Anyone get get a big highway number with some aero tweaks and judicious gearing.”
The thing I don’t get is why more of them don’t. I’ve heard it said that they use a shorter top gear so that you can get decent power while cruising on the highway without having to downshift. I would think that fuel economy would be a much bigger factor than that.
I thought my thorough Fiesta vs. Mazda2 price analysis was reprinted by TTAC. Anyway, here it is:
http://www.truedelta.com/blog/?p=595
Michael, it was, but we have a short collective memory ;-)
All we see are some measurements and a price, but it doesn’t tell us features for the money. I know the 5 door Fiesta is supposed to be more expensive than the 4 door, and think I recall that it will have more standard equipment as well (like the Versa sedan vs. hatch). Will the Mazda offer more standard kit than either Ford model? I’d love to see both side by side, in a real world comparo, and not just a bunch of numbers.
There is a Fiesta three door. Just google it. Always was in the line-up.
The Ford is lower, wider, longer, heavier, with a bigger engine to perform similarly to the Mazda. The Ford is even more inexpensive.
Then there are dealer networks, financing options and owner support Mazda can’t compete against.
Wow. I love the Mazda 3. I can’t wait to see the Fiesta!
will the 3-door be available in the U.S.A?
No 3 door in North America for either the Ford or Mazda.
I saw a TV ad for the Fiesta yesterday, but there still aren’t any dealers around here who have any stock.
No one has them yet as far as I know. One of the quirks about Ford’s dealer webpage inventory is that it shows vehicles that are in transit to the dealership as already being in stock. According to the internal inventory tracker though, no one in the country has any in stock.
That being said, I’ve heard that dealers may actually have cars on the lots as early as tomorrow, and by next week you should start to see cars peppering out across the country. They supposedly have a ton of them waiting to be shipped in Mexico, so inventory should fill out pretty fast. Ford wanted to take a little extra time for QC to make sure this is a flawless launch.
They were OK To Buy as of Monday.
Well, they have started to show up in local dealer inventory according to the fordvehicles.com Web site, but the one dealer that I called on wasn’t expecting to see them until mid-July, so they may be a while in transit yet.
Curiously, a little more than half of the (expected) inventory of the dealers around here have the 5-speed. This struck me as a little odd; aren’t Americans supposed to like automatics? Not that I’m complaining; if I were to buy one, it would have to have the stick…
I didn’t see it stated, but it looks like this is a manual trans to manual trans comparison.
Why not show a more-realistic-in-the-U.S. auto to auto comparison? Fiesta may lose ground in price due to it’s higher-cost trans . . . but then it whups the M2 with 29/40 city/hwy, versus 27/33 for the Mazda.
Yeah, the Mazda will be a dog with 100 hp and their four-speed auto. The Fiesta, on the other hand, I wouldn’t mind having as a rental car.
Why does the chart show the pricing for the Fiesta sedan?
Since the Fiesta hatch is $1800 more than the sedan, TTAC is making this chart look more favourable to the Ford.
What’s up with that, Edward?
In Edward’s defense, the Mazda doesn’t have a cheaper sedan version, so maybe it’s just a matter of going for the bare bones model.
I was wondering about this myself.
I had recently seen the comparison done on autoblog, and it showed the Ford starting at over 15K for the hatch.
I guess I will stroll over to TruDelta to see this at a more exact conparison.
Two items are missing from the chart which make a material difference.
What kind of transmission in each car?
What kind of acceleration in each car? 0-60, and 20-50 mph?
Psar: Re. judicious gearing: No secret there, but if all other things were equal, the M2 should have had better milage than the Fiesta.
Robert, the Mazda’s 4 speed auto maybe to blame for the mileage.
Right, doesn’t Fiesta have some kind of 6-speed dual clutch automatic?
The numbers look like a manual-to-manual comparo. FE for the autos is 27/33 for Mazda (conventional 4spd AT) and 29/40 for the Ford (dual-clutch 6sp)
The Mazda2 is cute but its 4 speed auto, smaller interior room and slightly less mileage would sway me in favor of the Fiesta.
Without having driven either, I’m leaning towards the Mazda. City (manual trans) mileage is close enough, and the Mazda being over 200lbs lighter is a big factor. If it came across as tinny as the Yaris I wouldn’t be interested, but early reports of the Mazda indicate that it is relatively quiet and smooth.
It looks like the Mazda wins the ‘light and lively’ category in this comparison without giving up much. I don’t need leather, sunroof or sync.
The weakness of the Mazda is the drivetrain. The engine they’re using is a very old design, which is why it isn’t competitive in horsepower and is so-so on fuel economy. In addition, the autobox for it is only a 4-speed, which I could care less about, but slush fans probably will. The base Fiesta has less equipment than the base Mazda, but the next trim level up on the Fiesta has basically comparable equipment and is the same price. Much like when the Fit was first brought to NA, the Mazda is on its second to last year before a redesign, so hopefully we’ll get a new engine in a couple years.
I’ve been following the US Fiesta for a long time and I’ve pretty much set my heart on either that or the 2012 Focus (if I can stretch to that) for my next car. That being said, the 2 has some advantages over the Ford, namely the huge weight advantage. The EU-spec Fiesta is heavier than the EU-spec Mazda2 as well, but I don’t believe the margin is as large (more like 100lbs)
However, the Fiesta’s interior looks vastly more pleasant than the 2’s, and going by the hoopla Ford’s been making about the Fiesta’s quietness (confirmed by most of the reviews) and Mazda’s reputation for road noise (I’d know, I have a 2005 Mazda3) I imagine the Fiesta will make a somewhat more relaxed highway/commuting companion without sacrificing much in the way of agility (okay, physics dictates the 2 will be lighter on its feet, but I bet the difference isn’t big and I like a more tied-down feel in a daily driver anyway).
I’m also much more intrigued by the Ford’s 6-speed powershift than I am by the Mazda’s antiquated four-speed slushie, but the Ford’s fancier tech means there may be more bugs to iron out.
Looks are a draw for me. I prefer the Euro-spec Fiesta to either but, comparing US-spec cars, the Fiesta loses its advantage over the 2 in styling somewhat by insisting on those chintzy chrome driving light surrounds on the SES/SEL trims.
Overall I prefer the Fiesta. But if Ford didn’t offer it here, the 2 would be my first choice in this class; it’s an excellent car too.
We’re getting ours on Monday. Dealer said none have been delivered in the Detroit area. Ours was loaded on the local truck for delivery late Thursday, so they are definitely expecting it Monday.
About 3 weeks ago, my 78 year old mom and my 2 sisters went to the local S.E. Michigan Ford dealer to check out the Fiesta as a replacement for her coming off-lease PT Cruiser.
Their experience:
– Dealer had one on the floor, a 4-dr hatchback, none for test drives.
– Salesman did not know the product.
– Trying to adjust the height of the driver’s seat, the salesman broke off the adjustment handle.
– The strings suspending the rear package shelf kept detatching from the attachment points on the hatch door and the shelf fell down.
– No rear headroom for my 5’9″ sisters.
Conclusion: She went in kinda-geeked wanting to buy a fuel-efficient, safe, modern car from the last of the non-gov’t owned carmakers … was a little troubled by the Built in Mexico connection (but after learning her last 3 PT Cruisers had been so built this was less of an issue) … but she came away unimpressed due to TGW’s of crampedness, flimsyness, breakingness at that price point … this performance made the PT Cruiser look good to her again.
Robert –
While I can’t comment on the rear headroom (although it seems there should have been plenty of headroom for someone 5’9″) the other issues were due to that not being a production ready car.
If they saw it three weeks ago what they saw was a preproduction training vehicle, although the sales guy should have known something about it. Give it a second chance when actual production units arrive and see if they aren’t screwed together better.
Sorry, I can’t accept that explanation. After being 1/4-century in this industry, on too many commodities and capacities to mention, and having been involved in more than 15 new vehicle program launches starting with VN58 and ending with EuCD (just counting my time with Ford) … such a dismal performance is really not up to par at this day in age, esp. with a design that is, in these elements (i.e. this has nothing to do with the redesign of the front-end crash structure), essentially carry-over (and if not, changes should have been made to improve function and robustness.)
Regarding the headroom, I kind of averaged the two sisters … the 5’10” sister had her head touching the headliner, the 5’8″ had her hair rubbing it … none of them could imagine taking any kind of an extended trip in the car with more than 2 people…
Robert –
The seat adjusters are different for US spec cars. The explanation I was given is that Europeans prefer knobs while Americans prefer levers. Either way, it likely isn’t the design that is faulty, it’s that the car your sisters saw was a training mule that has already spent many months being driven dealership to dealership around the country where salespeople and curious customers have pawed at it and fiddled with it constantly. Add to that that it is preproduction from an assembly line that is making this car for the first time, and it is no wonder there might be a couple issues. If seat handles and rear shelf strings start breaking on production cars I will cede your point, but until then it’s unfair to judge final build quality based on a prototype that has already had a hard life.
Regarding back seat space – yes, it’s tiny. This isn’t a car for whole family trips if your kids are above age ten or so. However, for the tons of people who don’t use their back seats frequently (I think I had people in the back seat of my last car a total of three times In the six years I owned it) back seat space won’t be an issue.
I agree about the back seat frequency of utilization thing …
But back to the excuses about the broken lever etc. These are red herrings.
If a vehicle can reach the public with these kinds of TGW’s, then what is the worth of GPDS, FPDS, FMEA, SDS, CDS, ES, Design Craftsmanship, NOVA-audits, and the like?
These systems are at minimum intended to prevent TGW and at best intended to achieve TGR and Surprise & Delight. (Some have said, at minimum, achieve TGW’s, and, at best, ensure S&D).
R.W.
At which dealer did you see this vehicle?
Brighton Ford at Grand River & I-96. The vehicle in question was a green 5-door hatchback. Also got new metrics on my sisters … “short” sis is 5’8″, and “tall” is 5’11” …
That timing would agree with when my dealer got their training car.
Which is what I have been trying to say, you can’t judge a production vehicle based on a preproduction example used to give dealers and some customers a sneak peak of what is coming. The issues that arise from those early vehicles are used to help tighten up production of actual for sale units. Generally speaking cars like the one your sisters sat in aren’t available for test drives due to liability – the car just hasn’t been finished the way that the real ones will be. These training cars will be crushed at the end of their trips – they may be 95% done, but those last few percentage points can mean a lot when it comes to final fit, finish, and durability.
There are a lot of systems put into place that make sure cars that actually reach customers don’t have the types of issues that your sisters found in the one they sat in. Those systems work, but they weren’t necessarily in place when the car that they saw was built.
We are talking about 3-weeks … if a vehicle is not good enough to sell, it shouldn’t be on the floor of a dealer …
And IIRC, FEU-level units (which is what these should be) are sellable units.
Overall, would be interesting to look in WERS to see if any post CP changes were made to these TGW’s, or if there are any related AIMS entries.
Mark Fields proves me right…
Assuming Nullo works in Dearborn, then there seems to be a weakness in Ford culture (assuming his response is representative – although dKulmaz seemed to go in the direction of working the problem) rather than defending against my casual statements and then again against my professional, experienced, statements, there was no simple “Sorry for her TGW; I’ve reported it to the launch team.”… to be great, people have to look for and solve the problems ahead of time, or at a mimimum, not deny them when they are delivered unto you…
(btw, MkF should hire my 78 year-old mom … she has been finding and commenting on different D3 issues (in detail, product, quality, advertising, styling) for the past 10 years, and it is always funny how 6-months, or a year later, these issues suddenly bubble up into the press…)
“In our normal approach, which is to make sure that we have really robust processes and normal quality operating procedure at the plant, we did find a part quality issue,” Fields told reporters. “We’ve addressed it.”
Fields declined to name the part at issue, but two people with direct knowledge of the stop-shipment order said that it was a seat lever.”
Read more: http://www.autonews.com/article/20100825/OEM01/308259953/1254#ixzz0xkTCsfuT
I don’t think 4-speed autos are the crutch they are made out to be. Back to back, the 4-speed is simpler (i.e. better) in the way it goes about its business, and in most cases, it’s a more proven design, and therefore, more reliable. That being said, I can make a case for a 6-speed in a small displacement engine, that’s low on torque, long before I can a large engine with much greater torque (I’m talking cars, not Peterbuilts and Freightliners pulling 80000 pounds).
As far as highway mileage, you can only gear a car so tall. You have to have the torque available at cruise RPM. That’s why cars with larger engines (or forced induction) can oftentimes obtain competitive highway MPG when compared to smaller engines. Manufacturers can gear the larger engines so that they are revving near idle at reasonable highway speeds, whereas the small engined cars are turning at much higher RPM’s.
In the case of the Fiesta vs the 2, it doesn’t surprise me that the Fiesta is pulling higher freeway mileage. The bigger engine, with the corresponding larger torque number, allows for this.
To choose between the two of them, however, would be tough without time behind the wheel. My guess, is that the 2 is very much in spirit like the old 323. And that was one sweet car. In the days of the Escort and the 323, the “World Car” Escort could never hold a candle to the GLC/323 Mazdas.
I suspect history may repeat itself. Especially once the second and third year Fiestande-contenting and mass fleet sales begin to take effect.
If you’re comparing manual to manual then your Fiesta fuel economy is incorrect. The EPA website has Fiesta stats up:
29/38 for auto-6
28/37 for man-5
29/40 for auto-6 “SFE”
It is kind of funny how enthusiasts like the moan and groan about the weight of a vehicle. The Ford weighs about 10% more than the Mazda, so from one way to looking at it … you get 10% more vehicle for your money.
The question is, what makes up that extra 10% of poundage? A stronger structure, more sound deadening, two extra gears in the transmission, more comfortable seats, better crash protection ????? Not all weight is badness.
Not all extra weight is goodness, either.
While I lean toward the “lighter is better” camp in general, I will concede that some of the features of the Fiesta vis a vis the Mazda2 may be worth the added weight. But I’ll reserve judgment until I’ve had a chance to drive them both.
This argument remithe famous quote, last seen in Ronnie Schreiber’s write-up of the Colin Chapmann book:
Chapmann: “I want a car as light as possible.”
Andretti: “I want to live as long as possible, we need to talk.”
Mazda has focused on making a light car.
When it came in 2007, they said that it was 100 kg lighter than the old Mazda 2.
The 4-speed automatic is definitely the culprit. Unlike other 4-speed ATs, which focus on cruising rpms to the detriment of performance, the Mazda2’s 4-speed is geared to make the absolute most of its power. Meaning you can still get over 100 mph out of 100 hp, but you’ll have the car literally screaming at those speeds.
In daily use, it’s not really any different in terms of real world consumption compared to a Honda Fit… which also gets a low EPA highway rating, but actually gets good economy when you drive it at modest revs on the highway.
And, as I’ve noted before… the Mazda2 may not have much horsepower, but it never feels like it suffers for lack of it. Rorty, rorty, revvy and racy. It’s about as quick as a 117 hp Honda Fit that weighs a hundred pounds more… it should match up well to a 120 hp Fiesta that weighs nearly three hundred pounds more…
Not in this case. These are FE numbers for manual trans on both cars. When you compare the conventional 4spd AT in the Mazda with the dual-clutch 6spd in the Ford, you’ll see a big difference in favor of the Ford (see above).
Base Mazda2 is better equipped with power windows (Fiesta has CRANK windows), remote keyless entry, you have to go up to the next trim level (SE), to get these on the Fiesta.
Mazda for sure…if a gun was to my head and I had to make a choice. Neither is at all desirable…but the Fiesta is just less desirable than the Mazda.
The biggest gripe with the Fiesta is how Ford cheapened it up for the US market. Glow sticks and tin foil replace the proper fog lights, the projector beam headlights have gone AWOL, the interior is a disaster…who ever signed off on that 1980’s ATM machine screen should be fired, Ford sacrificed function for form…the Fit is the clear winner here, and the Fiesta is severely overpriced. There is no reason to get one over a Focused sized car. Hell, the Cruze will get the same mileage, has a nice, quality interior, and will not cost much more at all.
Having recently had the new Fiesta as a rental car in Europe, it would not be on my shopping list (the Fit and Mini would, depending on how much I was going to spend). My rental had 1900 miles on it, and the clutch pedal kept getting caught on the flooring – not the floor mat, the flooring. Not a good sign. In 5th gear, the engine was turning at over 3000 RPM going 85 kph (about 55 mph), raising concerns about how the car would work with the 5 speed at US expressway speeds. Subjectively, it felt a lot more labored and buzzy than the Mini but I haven’t had a Fit to freeway speeds so I can’t compare. Additionally, the gate for 4th gear was very sticky, and occasionally required some finesse to actually get the lever into position; he transmission wasn’t nearly as nice as the one in the Fit or the Mini.