Someone once said ‘Numbers are like bikinis. What they reveal is interesting but what they hide is more vital.’ Not the most ideal way to start a diesel comparo, but take a look at the 0 to 60 kph times of both these cars and you will know that’s true. Where the Viva completes the run in just 5.14 secs, the Fiesta is lagging a car length behind and takes 6.56 secs. In the dash to 100 kph, the Fiesta claws back the lead but only just, with the Viva still being half a second quicker. The Korean might be a generation old, but generation gap be damned. Stopwatches measure time, not age.
The manner in which these cars rack up numbers is completely contradictory and is exactly why we are here. While the Fiesta is the quiet type, the sort who hangs around in the kitchen at parties, the Viva likes to boogie on the dance floor. The Viva is fun in a straight-line and acceleration, though not neck-snapping, is lively. Or least much livelier than the Fiesta.
And it would be. The Viva comes with a motor that liberalised common rail injection in India. It was a scorcher then, and even after being exposed to a lot of new-generation diesels, it’s a scorcher even now. But the razor’s edge has been softened a bit, or at least it feels so. Detroit Diesel developed the motor for Hyundai, and if you leave alone the fact that it’s a three-pot, the rest of the nomenclature makes for some good reading. The 1493cc motor breathes from 12 valves, makes 84.6 bhp@4000 rpm and an astounding 19.1 kgm@2000 rpm, thanks mostly to the holy common grail er... rail. And if you think I am out of line to use the word ‘astounding’, let me tell you that a Honda Accord makes as much.
The Fiesta gets a 1399cc, 68 bhp motor from the Duratorq family. It has common rail, but loses out to the Viva in power and torque stakes since it’s an 8-valver. The Fiesta’s motor however warms up rather quickly and is the quieter of the two, principally because its common rail unit is a generation better than the Viva’s. Of course, being a proper four-cylinder unit, it is inherently better balanced than Hyundai’s lump, making it the more pleasing to drive of the two.
Firstly, refinement levels are a couple of notches above the Hyundai. Also, the Viva’s powerband is really narrow and rapid progress is always accompanied by a fistful of gearshifts – not a very enjoyable thing to do since the shift quality isn’t the greatest. So while you’re struggling to keep the Accent between 1800 and 3000 rpm, the Fiesta’s power comes in a steady stream from idle right up to the red line. The overall feel in terms of gearshifts and engine noise is better in the Ford, and unless your commute to work involves a drag strip, you would be better off facing the blue badge.
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