Long Term Test: 2014 Ford Focus Electric post #1

So the time has come to reveal the newest addition to our long-term fleet. This car is taking the place of the TSX in my personal garage and is to be the primary car for me and my wife over the next few years. While the TSX served us well during our cross-country trip, the lease on it was coming up and the cost of having to register it in California was going to be fairly high, which put us in the odd spot of deciding what would be the most cost effective thing to do: replace the car or just pay for the registration for a few brief months. In the end, we examined a fairly broad variety of cars and developed a set of criteria that had to be met. Fuel economy/environmental friendliness was made the top criteria followed by practicality, technology, and value. A set of four finalists was lined up and we ranked each car. The outcome shocked me, to say the least...

Test Drive: 2012 Ford Fiesta SES

Update: See how the Fiesta performed against the competition in our Subcompact Showdown.

MSRP: $17,500
As Tested Price: $19,390

As mentioned in my review of the Ford Focus ST and the Ford Focus SE, I was not exactly the biggest fan of Ford's products. After testing the Focus ST and spending a few days with the Focus SE, my image of Ford had changed quite dramatically. Ford has made leaps and bounds in the quality of their vehicles, and I no longer feel like I am sitting in a tin can that could fall apart at any time. Naturally, as my fiancee and I went in to test the Ford Fiesta SES, I had fairly high hopes that this car would be able to match the two Focus variants in quality. Does the Fiesta live up to the new expectation that I have of Ford's vehicles?