If you only ever smoked the conventional wisdom pipe, you might never think that a small four-door sedan could ever be remotely fun or interesting. Most car companies think this, and Ford has been especially guilty over the years.
In fact, I can't think of any small four-door Ford since the MKI Escort that I've considered fun or interesting. Even the Fiesta-based Ikons we got were about as appealing as a five-day conference on the logistics of producing and transporting paperclips and envelopes.
Now hope has arrived in the form of a four-door version of the latest Fiesta hatchback, the latter being every bit as good to look at as it is fun to drive.
Granted, this booted Fiesta has not translated into the sexiest of four-door sedans, but that sporty Fiesta front end somehow seems to gel quite nicely with the mature three-box profile, but I'm still not a fan of that bulky rear end.
This car's real beauty is in the way it drives. I don't know how to describe it other than saying that everything about it just feels so right.
It's in the way that all the driving controls are so well positioned, it's in the slick yet weighty feel of the gearshift and pedals and the way that the steering makes your hands feel connected to the wheels. Push it into a bend and the car feels direct, agile and surefooted, and this hasn't come at the cost of a comfortable ride over imperfect stretches of asphalt.
The commonrail turbodiesel engine fitted to the 1.6 TDCi Ambiente did admittedly leave me wishing for more ponies beneath the bonnet (its outputs of 66kW and 212Nm far from earth-shattering) yet I can't think of any other sedan below R200 000 that will offer a better combination of performance and economy.
It marches off the line with little in the way of lag or hesitation from the turbo and low-down torque is impressive. It's also impressively efficient, with an NEDC combined fuel consumption rating of 4.5 litres per 100km, its CO2 figure of 117g/km matching the Honda CR-Z hybrid that the Green Peace crowd likes to rave about.
Its four-door packaging keeps the sensible arguments raging and like its hatchback cousin, interior space is up there with the best in the class and the boot capacity of 430 litres (the hatch swallows just 281) should meet most needs - unless you really have a lot of stuff, in which case the Honda Ballade's 506-litre trunk might be more appealing.
Naturally, the Fiesta sedan shares the rest of its interior with the hatch, including a cell-phone inspired dashboard, which is still easy enough on the eye but time is not being kind to it. Ford's interior stylists must have thought it looked like cutting edge stuff when they sketched it about five or six years ago, but back then I also thought the same of my 'latest' Nokia - which even my bottom draw doesn't want to be associated with anymore.
The diesel Fiesta is only available in baseline Ambiente trim, at R191 640 - including a four-year/60 000km service plan.
The bottom-spec situation is not too tragic considering that it covers all the basics like air conditioning, remote central locking, a CD/MP3 player with auxiliary connection, power mirrors, front electric windows, dual front airbags and ABS. There are some glaring omissions though, like that they didn't bother to fit basic amenities like an alarm system or a USB input.
The enormous appeal that you find throughout the Fiesta range unfortunately comes with a set of price tags steep enough to make you wonder if you're actually getting your money's worth.
In that context, the 1.6 TDCi is among the better buys and it's lucky enough to be the only diesel-powered car in its class, besides the smaller-engined Ikon from within its own stable.
Given the choice, I'd happily sacrifice a bit of spec and take this over the petrol-engined Honda Ballade or Mazda2 rivals.