Ford Fiesta ST hatchback - Reliability & safety
The Ford Fiesta ST is just as safe as the standard car, though owner satisfaction could be better
The Ford Fiesta has often been one of the biggest-selling cars in the UK, so you might expect that owners love their cars. That’s not always the case, because in the 2022 Driver Power survey the Fiesta landed in an undistinguished 67th place in our list of the top 75 cars to buy.
Its impressive safety credentials have been verified, however, with a five-star rating from Euro NCAP.
Ford Fiesta ST reliability
As mentioned above, some owners are glad they picked the Fiesta and some wish they’d chosen a different car. We’d expect that the vast majority of ST buyers enjoy their cars, although a bit more practicality and lower running costs would be welcomed.
The Fiesta (including the ST) hasn’t performed particularly strongly in our recent Driver Power surveys. Its 2022 result is just one place up on 2021, and even in 2020 it only got to 71st place. It's a string of slightly worrying results for Ford, suggesting the quality issues of previous years have not yet been fully resolved.
Ford finished in 25th place from 29 car makers in our 2021 brand survey, which is no real change from the year before. Scores were lacklustre across the board, with fuel-efficiency and running costs being the worst culprit. Surprisingly, ride and handling were also scored poorly; at least the latter shouldn't be a problem for most ST owners, along with acceleration.
The previous generation ST sold well and did not suffer from any particularly serious ailments; hopefully the latest car will continue in the same vein.
Safety
The Ford Fiesta ST benefits from the standard Fiesta’s five-star Euro NCAP rating. This was broken down into adult and child occupant protection ratings of 87% and 84% respectively, while a rating of 64% was given for pedestrian protection. The Fiesta’s 60% driver assistance rating is only average, but there are a number of systems that come as standard on certain ST models that don’t feature further down the Fiesta range, including lane-keep assist, traffic sign recognition and driver alert. Optional LED headlights and a blind-spot monitoring system are options worth adding to make your Fiesta ST as safe as possible.
